And then, the most famous of David's wives, the one he had a man killed for:  Bathsheba.

She was taking a bath on the roof of her house.  I've always wondered why she did that.  There were better places to take a bath that were private.  She lived in a house with a roof that was lower than David's palace.  Did she know he went out at night on his balcony and could look down on her?

 I am certainly not excusing David, but I don't think she should have been outside, naked, bathing where she could be observed.  Whatever the case, David saw her bathing, wanted her, sent someone to find out who she was, and found out she was married to one of his Captains in his army--Uriah.

David's army was out fighting the Ammonites.  If David had been where he should have been--with his men, instead of lazing around at home--this incident would never have taken place.

He was king.  He could have whatever he wanted.  So he sent for her, had sex with her and then sent her home.  Adultery by force.  It might even be called rape because she had no rights.  He had plenty of wives he could have called for.  He made the choice to do wrong with a woman that wasn't his.

She got pregnant.  So David sent for Uriah and told him to go home--so that he would bed Bathsheba and the pregnancy would look like it was Uriah's baby, not David's.  But Uriah was loyal to David and stayed at the palace gate with the other servants.

"What's wrong with you!" David asked?  "Why didn't you go home to the comforts of your wife for the night?  You've been in the field for a long time."  Uriah told him that he wouldn't feel it was proper to go home when his army, generals and officers were still in the field in suffering hardships.  He refused to go home.  He went back to the front.

Desperate that he would be found out, David sent a message to his top general and told him to put Uriah in the forefront of the hottest part of the battle.  And Uriah was killed.  And David was a murderer as well as an adulterer.  But God knew.  And as I have written before, there will be a payday, someday.