Except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite

King David handing the Letter to Uriah the Hittite by Pieter Lastman

"David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." - 1 Kings 15:5

The issue of David raping Bathsheba (see previous post: Bathsheba's #MeToo Moment) has resurfaced again with an excellent perspective provided by Mr. Matthew Cochran: “David Raped” is a Camel’s Nose with an eye specifically at the issue of feminism:

But once you eisegete faulty feminist assumptions into the text, the only conclusion is that for 2000 years, the Church couldn’t be bothered to notice something as heinous as rape. All those “church fathers” were so divorced from the plight of women that even rape was beneath their concern. This (totally invented) problem requires an obvious solution: we need more women to pose as theologians and leaders to address the unique concerns of our sisters in Christ! And so, from a seemingly minor alteration of an Old Testament story, the cancer of feminism has an opportunity to spread to yet more members.

A comment leads us to the fantastic article Did David Rape Bathsheba? by Larry Taunton, from the perspective of the ongoing struggles in the SBC, and making the connections to feminism, critical theory, Marxism... but I repeat myself. Buried in the footnotes is what I believe is the correct interpretation of the event

"[T]he writer of 2 Samuel tells the story not as one of rape, but of theft. When David “took” Bathsheba, he stole from Uriah. In confronting David, Nathan frames the story exactly this way. He tells David a parable about a rich man who “took” a lamb that belonged to a poor man. David wasn’t a rapist, he was a thief. This is consistent with the Lord’s words in 2 Samuel 12:10: “… you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.” Moreover, Bathsheba “came to” (v. 4) David and gave him that which 1 Corinthians 7:4-6 says was not hers to give, namely, her body. The sin was against Uriah from beginning to end, not Bathsheba."