Bible Questions and Answer

David saw Bathsheba from the roof of his palace in Jerusalem. Second Samuel 11 says that in the spring, when kings went to war, David sent his army to fight the Ammonites but stayed in Jerusalem himself. "One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful." Houses in Jerusalem had flat roofs used for relaxing, sleeping in hot weather and other activities, and the palace, higher up the hill, would have overlooked houses below. Bathsheba may have been bathing in a courtyard, perhaps for ritual purification after her period, as the text notes. David found out she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his soldiers, but sent for her anyway. Archaeologist Eilat Mazar excavated a large stone building in the City of David, which she believed was David's palace, though that claim is debated.