"Wait here." "Lord Commander." " Well?" " The king is not in his tent." " Not in his tent?" " No, sir." "Well, he must be somewhere." "Have you searched the camp?" "Yes, sir." "I have brought the aide you assigned to him." "I think the man knows something." "That is the man, sir." "You were assigned to attend the king?" " Yes, sir." " Where did he go?" "Sir, I..." "I cannot tell you." "As your commander I order you to tell me." "The king pledged me to silence." "Where is he?" "He went with the scouting party." "Scouting party?" "What scouting party?" "Every night, sir, we send out small patrols to test the walls of the city." "And tonight?" "Tonight, the waterway under the north wall." "A patrol of 20 men under Captain Uriah." " You let him go?" " I could not stop him, sir." "We had finished the dispatches." "The king stood in the mouth of the tent as the patrol went by." "He looked after them and suddenly he took up a sword and followed them." "Take 100 of your best men and go after them." "Sir." " To arms, men." " King." "Ira's hundred." "To arms." "King of all Israel out there in the darkness exposing himself to the enemy crawling on his belly like a common soldier." "Attack." "Sire, I am the commander of the army." " My orders..." " Yes, I know." "We'll speak of it later." "Come in, Uriah." "I apologize for delaying your supper." "Sit down, Uriah." "Pour us some wine." "Sit down." "Sire." " Hmm?" " You are wounded." " Let me call the physician." " No, no, let it alone." "It's a long time since I've shed any blood." "It's good to have proof that it still runs in my veins." "Sit down, Joab." "We must decide on our strategy, for Rabbah is well defended." "Unfortunately, there are no Joshuas among us to command the walls to fall down." "What would you do, Uriah?" "I can speak for them, sire." "Every man in the army would be glad to die for David." "A thousand dead, perhaps two." "A thousand vineyards and flocks left untended." "A thousand women wailing on my doorstep." "You have a wife, Uriah?" " Yes, sire." " She will come to my door in tears." "If I am unlucky." "No, it is a certainty." "In wartime, the best are always the first to die." "Then her tears will be tears of pride." "You are young to know much of women and too brave, whereas I'm a coward." "A coward, sire?" "My men go into battle singing an old song." ""Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands."" "That was years ago." "When I was captain of a hundred, like yourself." "I was not the king." "You will serve me better if you live, Uriah." "Come, Joab." "Remain seated." "Continue with your meal." "I will return to Jerusalem in the morning." "Oh, King of Judah and Israel, live forever." "The pharaoh of Egypt sends greetings to his beloved cousin." "The pharaoh bids me prostrate myself before the great king and to present this humble token of Egypt's regard." "The king of Israel warms himself in the sun of the pharaoh's regard." "My beloved cousin, the pharaoh probably hopes that I'll cut my throat with this." "Nathan, the prophet of God." "May God walk with David." "It is his custom to walk with Nathan." "God looks with favor on you to bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem." "Excellent." "But as to your intention of building a temple to receive the Ark he has commanded me to say this to you." "Thus speaks the Lord:" ""Should my servant David build me a house to dwell in." "For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt, even to this day, but I have lived in a tent." "Have I ever, in all these years demanded that a temple be built for me?" "Now therefore I say to" "'I took you from the pasture from guarding your sheep to make you shepherd over my people, even over all Israel.'"" "Yes, yes." "I understand." "God sees no need of a temple, is that it?" "That is his word." "Very well." "I leave such decisions to you." "To God, sire." "Whatever you like." "You may take full charge of the arrangements to bring the Ark here from Baal, Judah." "My father will you hear my petition?" "Amnon, my son, you need not beg for an audience." "You promised me, as the heir to Israel all the vineyards north of the Mount of Olives as far as the borders of Ephraim yet you have given the large vineyard on the Gibeon road to Absalom." "Did I?" "Only last month you said it was mine, yet Amnon claims it." "I demand only justice." "And what does Absalom demand?" "Justice too." "Then, no matter how I decide, I am unjust." "The vineyard belongs to Amnon." "Thank you, my father." "Come with me." "You must try to understand my problem." "Amnon is the heir." "He's been anointed." "If it became known that I favored you it would weaken him in the eyes of the people." "We both know he needs all the strength we can give him." "We both know he is not fit to be heir." "That I cannot help." "You could anoint me in his place." "Even if I wanted to, I am bound by the law." "With our people, the law is everything." "It is in their bones." "It's only one vineyard, Absalom." "I'll give you your choice of my own holdings." "I want only what is mine." "Here." "Take this." "It is worth 20 vineyards." "Michal." "I did not expect to see you here." "Does my presence displease the king?" "Of course not." "You are always welcome." "If the sight of me is so welcome why haven't you come to my chamber since your return?" "I have much on my mind." "Yet you found time to greet your other wives." "I was the first and now I am the last." "If you had been with the others I would have greeted you too." "You remain aloof by your own choice." "There was a time when you thought well of my aloofness." "I make no objection to it now." "Do as you please." "How graciously you give your royal approval." "And your sarcasm is wasted." "We both know that royalty is a fraud." "It was no fraud when my father was king." "I have never denied that Saul was every inch a king." "And his successor every inch a fraud." "I will not argue with that either." "Do you think that hanging his spear on your wall will make you royal?" " Michal, please." "I have messages to read." "Oh." "I understand." "I am dismissed." "The shepherd's son is dismissing the daughter of Saul." "I am to go and sit with the concubines." "They are my wives and you are my wife." "Is that not enough?" "Why did you marry me, David?" "Why?" "Because I loved you." "You lie." "You have never loved anyone but yourself." ""David," meaning "beloved."" " David, the beloved-of-David." " Whatever you say..." "My love was wasted." "You had no need of it." "Is your memory so short?" "I had great need of it once." "I begged you on my knees, but you deserted me." "You refused to follow me into exile." "You even dishonored your vows and let your father marry you to another." " Against my will." " You can say so." "But I cannot help thinking that real love would have fathered a stronger will." "Then why did you take me back?" "You might have guessed." "Without Saul's daughter at my side the northern tribes would not have acknowledged me as king." "By taking you back I made Israel one." "Michal we're past the days of our passion Iove or hatred or anguish, even cruelty." "Why should we torture ourselves?" "We have to go on living, Michal." "Abishai." "There is a house over there under that big terebinth tree." " You know it?" " Yes, sire." " The house of Uriah the Hittite." " Uriah the Hittite." " He's a captain with the army." " Yes, I know him." "Does he, by any chance, have a sister?" "No, sire." "He has a wife." "A Hebrew woman of Benjamin called Bathsheba." "Bathsheba." "During my visit to the army this Uriah's gallantry was called to my attention." "It's been in my mind to reward him." "Perhaps, in his absence, his wife could accept the reward." " I'll send for the woman in the morning." " No." "Send for her now." "She shall dine with me tonight." "Yes, sire." "You're not eating." "I dined earlier, sire." "It is my custom when I am alone." "As a soldier's wife, you have good reason to hate the king who keeps your husband from your side." "The king does what he must." "His needs are the kingdom's." "Not all of them." "This wine is Phoenician." "I find it mellower than ours." "It has the blandness of the sea air." "Have you ever visited the coast?" "No, sire." "I lived for several years among the Philistines." "A cold people like their sea." "We Hebrews are of the desert." "We breathe its wind and our blood runs hot with it." "Our emotions are fierce, like the desert wind." "We worship our God fiercely we love fiercely, we feel sorrow fiercely even the lesser sorrows, like the absence of a loved one." "Has Uriah been away for long?" "We have been married seven months." "Of this time, we have been together six days." "A poor return on the hopes your betrothal." "You are generous indeed not to hate me." "I had no hopes, sire." "I first saw Uriah on our wedding day when my father brought me to his house." "Then six days is the sum total of your love?" "Of our marriage, yes, sire." "One of the vanities of kings is that they think virtue can be rewarded with a bauble." "How God must laugh at the spectacle of unvirtuous kings hanging bits of rock and metal on virtuous men." "That is for virtue." "Now you understand why I sent for you." "My understanding is not necessary, sire." "Why not?" "You are the king." "Is that all?" "Well, leave the king out of it." "Think if any man would be content with such an answer." "What other answer can I give, sire?" "You have sent for me and made known to me your will." "What else is there for me to say?" "In Egypt that would be enough." "There, the pharaoh has certain rights he can command but I..." "Even if I had the right I've never used my power to take anything by force." "All that I have ever had has been given to me." "Freely, without restraint." "Even Israel." "I refused the throne until every elder of every tribe would come to me and beg me to take it." "It's been a kind of pride." "My pride." "Never to force myself on anyone." "So I said nothing to you." "Until you told me that there is no love in your marriage." "Yes, you told me that." "And so did Uriah." "His dream of glory is his wife in tears." "You better go." "Oh, no, keep that." "It's only a stone but you lend it beauty." "Uriah's a fool." "When I looked on you from my terrace tonight I knew that every future moment spent away from you would be a moment lost." "Yet he's found only six days for you in seven months." "The perfume of his beloved is the stink of war." "Does he think a man was made only for the agony of battle?" "Does he call that manhood?" "Has he no blood, no heart?" "Now go." "And be thankful that I am not the pharaoh." "At least I can console myself with the thought that your modesty matches your beauty." "Perhaps you would prefer truth to modesty, sire." "Before you went away, I used to watch you every evening as you walked on your terrace always at the same hour, always alone." " Today, I heard you had returned." " Then you knew that I..." "That you would be on your terrace tonight." "Yes." "I had heard that never had the king found a woman to please him." "I dared to hope that I might be that woman." "Why are you telling me this now?" "Why not before?" "Because first I had to know what was in your heart." "If the law of Moses is to be broken, David let us break it in full understanding of what we want from each other." "No, please." "I'm not finished." "There are women you could send for and send away again." "I am not one of them." "What do you want?" "To please you." "Have I not made it plain enough that you please me?" "I'll never send you away, if that is what you want." "Never as long as I live." "No, David." "That is not all I want." "Think not of this one night but of all the days and all the nights to come." "Think if I can give you what you need for as long as you live as your wife." "But you're not free." "If I were free?" "A king is not supposed to need anything." "Only a fool would suppose that." "Well, then friendship." "I had a friend once, but I destroyed him." "The others, who call themselves friends, I..." "I never see their eyes only the tops of their heads as they bow to me." "Their hands are extended to me but palms upwards, for favors." "Even my own sons." "Will I see your eyes, Bathsheba?" "You will see them." "And my hand will be in yours." "That much is easy, David." "I am only a man, Bathsheba." "I need someone to understand that." "I need the kind of understanding that only one human being can give to another." "I need someone to share my heart." "The man I watched from my window is not the king but a man whose heart is well worth the sharing." "Oh, David." "No, David." "The boy, he'll see us." "No matter." "Shepherd boys learn early about life." "Did you, David?" "Did I what?" "Learn about life early." "Before I was 12 I knew almost everything there was to know about life and death." "At 12, I had killed wolves." "At 13, a man." "Tell me." "Not about the killing." "Tell me about the boy you were." "It couldn't be of any interest to you." "A woman is interested in everything about her man." "Particularly in what he was before she knew him." "Well, there's not much to tell." "I was a shepherd like thousands of others in Judah." "You slept out under the stars." "Mmm." "Did you dream, David?" "What did you dream about?" "Surely a man is entitled to the privacy of his dreams." " Then they were of women." " Naturally." "A whole procession of them." "And every one of them ravishingly beautiful." "I'm jealous of every one of them." "Ah..." "Uh, it's been a dry year." "The shepherds are driven early to the wells." "Once, when I was a boy, we had a year when even the wells went dry." "By midsummer we were slaughtering sheep, saving only the ewe lambs." "That was the year that I fought the wolves." "Tell me." "Well, they'd been made desperate by hunger." "I fought them for eight hours with my slingshot." "In the morning, six of them lay dead." "And you were only a boy." "Well, I was quite a hand with the sling." "Here I'll show you." "May I try your sling?" "That tree." "Watch." "Very well, if you think you can do better." "Yes." "Well, I, uh..." "I lack practice." "David, did you really kill Goliath?" "After seeing me with that sling, how could you doubt me?" "Was he truly as big as they say?" "Well, I will admit that he grows a little bit bigger every year." "A new life." "Oh, that's his mother." "She's caught in the brambles." " I'll give you some help." " Thank you, sir." "Let's clear those hind feet." "No, use both hands." "Oh." "I'm an old soldier, sir." "Fought for the king." " David?" " Not him." "But the king." "King Saul." "It was in his last battle." "There." "At the Mount of Gilboa." "It's peaceful now." "Good grazing for the flocks, though we lack rain this year." "But that day it rained blood." " Yes." " I saw the king die." "Saw him fall on his sword when he knew the battle was lost." "Tell me, did you also see the king's son die?" " Jonathan." " Yes, sir." "I did." "You see that rock that juts out from the face of the mountain?" "The big one, with the sun on it." "Prince Jonathan stood there with a loyal friend on each side of him." "He fought there the livelong day." "His friends went down but still he fought against tens then against hundreds until they overwhelmed him." "Those Philistines and their brass and heathenish helmets." "Ah, it was a black day for Israel." "The king gone, Jonathan gone none worthy to take their place." "Yet Israel found a king in David." "Saul was king." "Jonathan should be king today." "Here." "Thank you, sir." "Thank you kindly." "David." "Come." "It's getting late." "Jonathan." "Jonathan!" "Oh, how the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle." "Oh, Jonathan." "Thou was slain in thine high places." "I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan." "Very pleasant has thou been unto me." "Thy love to me was wonderful." "Passing the love of women." "How have the mighty fallen." "And the weapons of war perished." "Hyah!" "Hyah." "Slow it up." "Greetings, Abishai." "I received your message." "Am I in time?" "Yes, sire." "Even now the caravan approaches Jerusalem." "Look, Bathsheba." "The Ark of the Covenant." "A shrine that has traveled with our people through all their wanderings." "I am bringing it here to its proper home." "Get in, Abishai." "I'll go down to meet Nathan." "You'll take Bathsheba to her house." "I beg you." "No." "No." "Mercy." "I beg you." "Mercy." "Mercy, I beg you." "It's for you to cast the first stone." "Mercy!" "Mercy." "An adulteress, sire." "She betrayed her husband in the arms of another." "Judged and condemned under the law." "Go." "Take her home." " Sire." " Nathan." "God's design is a strange one, Nathan." "Consider how this box of wood has outlived the flesh that made it and preserved it and venerated it." "A pity that it is mute and blind and cannot tell us of our ancient dead." "Of Moses on the mountain top." "Of Miriam and Aaron." "Of Joshua at the walls of Jericho." "No, sire!" "Do not tempt the thunderbolts of the Lord." "His dwelling is not to be profaned by unconsecrated hands." "To touch it is to die." "As you say, Nathan." "The Ark!" "The Ark of the Covenant has fallen!" "He is dead." "Let all take heed and bear witness to what they have seen that the people may know the will of God." "The time is not right for the entrance into the city." "Unhitch the oxen." "Let a tabernacle be erected on this spot." "Let the Ark remain here outside the walls until God has signified the appeasement of his wrath." "David." "Bathsheba." "You shouldn't have come here." "I had no choice." "My news would not wait." "David I bring you trouble." "Our secret is no longer a secret." " Who has learned it?" " No one yet." "But soon all will know who have eyes to see." "I'm sure now of what I have feared this past week." "I am with child." "Beloved." "No need for tears." "You bring me only joy." "What man would not be happy to learn that his wife will give him a child?" " I am not your wife." " You are my only wife." "Please, beloved, do not be afraid." "I am not afraid." "Soon enough we must all go down to Sheol." "My tears are for our child who will never see the light." "Bathsheba, listen to me." "You will not die." " The law says that I must." " They would not dare." "I am the king." "The Israelites have had kings for less than 50 years." "They have had the law of Moses for hundreds." "I will give them their kingdom." "You and I will flee into Egypt." "No, David." "Your life is marked out on a certain course." "Even you cannot change it if it's God's design." "There is another answer." "Uriah." "Uriah is a soldier." "Soldiers die every day in battle and not always by enemy hands." "No, David." "Even our love could not bear the burden of such a crime." "The crime lies in the chance that I was born a Hebrew." "In any other nation on earth, Uriah's life would be forfeit." "It would be no less a crime." "If I sent for him, told him everything..." "We both know what he would say." "Yes." "Honor is everything, charity nothing." "For the sake of honor, blood must flow lives must be ruined, humanity denied." "I can see Uriah now, hurrying to the gate eager to be the first to cast a stone." "Sire." "What is it, Abishai?" "The orders for Joab, sire." "Yes." "Do not send it now." "I may want to add to the message." "Yes, sire." "There is another way." "Perhaps it will solve nothing but at least it will gain us time." "If Uriah can be made to believe that the child is his." "But he has been away almost a year." "I will send for him to report on the campaign." "He will be here in Jerusalem one night perhaps two." " You called me your wife." " The law calls you his." "That is not worthy of you, David." "It tears my heart to suggest such a thing." "But it is your life, beloved." "Your life." "It is shameful what you ask." "There is no shame too great no act so vile that I would not commit it if it would save my love." "It is late and our guest must be weary from the road." "Come, Uriah." "Absalom, it is many days since we have seen you at the palace." "I have been in Judah, sire, tending to my vines." "And do you expect a good yield from your vines?" "I have no reason to be dissatisfied, sire." "In such a bad year." "You're to be congratulated." " I should like a word with you in private." " I am at my king's service." "I will not keep you long." "You must be eager to go home to your wife." " You said the attack is planned." " Yes, sire." "Joab's confident it'll meet with success." "He promises you Rabbah within a week, sire." "With your permission, I plan to return to camp early tomorrow so that I may lead my hundred into the battle." "As you wish." "Abishai will have dispatches for you to carry." "But if you desire to remain in Jerusalem longer..." "My only desire is to serve my king." "Well, I might believe that, but you have a wife." "My wife is nothing, sire, beside my duty." "Sit down, Uriah." "They say she is very beautiful." "As women go." "A woman does not always share her husband's devotion to duty." "Have you ever tried to think of things from her point of view?" "No, sire." "But supposing her wishes and yours come into conflict?" "A woman's wishes cannot conflict with her husband's, sire." " That is the law." " The law." "The law can only control what we do not what we think." "What does your wife think, Uriah?" "I do not know, sire." "Is it possible that you believe that she does not think or feel?" "A woman is flesh and blood, Uriah, like us." "Perhaps more so because we give her so little to think of but matters of the flesh." "In all our history, only a handful of women have been permitted to write their names beside the men." "Miriam, Deborah, Jael, perhaps one or two more." "A woman's occupation is her husband and her life is her love." "But if her husband rejects her love, if he puts another love before it if he denies her the only meaning that her life can have is it not understandable if she seeks a meaning for it elsewhere?" "With another man?" " Yes." " Lf she does, she breaks the law." "But if her husband feels pity for her under the law, he is the one who must condemn her." "Then it is doubly his duty to be sure that the law is obeyed." "Would you condemn your own wife, Uriah?" "Bathsheba?" "That is not possible." "But if it were possible?" "I would not hesitate to do my duty, sire." "You would force her to suffer the most horrible of deaths?" "Let the mob drive her like a dog through the streets to the city gates?" "Watch the cruel stones strike her flesh, let...?" "Yes, sire if she had broken the law." "I've kept you too long from your bed." "You may go." "Sire will you grant me a boon?" "What is your wish?" "When Abishai prepares the dispatches let him say this to Joab in your name:" ""Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle that he may serve his king to the utmost of his ability."" "I will consider it, Uriah." "My thanks, sire." "You are up late, David." "So are you." "I thought I might be of comfort to my husband." "It's a terrible thing to know that your beloved is in the arms of another." "Do not trouble to lie." "You see, I know your secret." "Yours and the lady Bathsheba's." " You know nothing." " The lady has servants." "Servants tell things to other servants and they tell them to their mistresses." "So the daughter of Saul concocts a fantasy from servants' gossip." "Bathsheba's condition is no fantasy." "And the child she carries is yours." "Oh, my husband, I guessed at once why you had sent for Uriah." "Only David would have thought of it." "A clever trick." " Worthy of the son of goatherds." " Get out." "You cannot save Bathsheba now." "Your scheme has failed." "Uriah has not been to his house all night." "Even now, he sleeps here in the palace with the officers of your guard." "Sire, forgive me." " I have slept late." " I told you to go home." "I ask your pardon, sire." "I could not go to my wife." "Why not?" "It's a matter of my own worthiness." "Perhaps you will consider this foolish but when Joab told me I was to come to Jerusalem I swore an oath on my sword." "I swore that while the army still slept in tents while Rabbah still stood in defiance of God's will I would deny myself the comforts and the pleasures of my own house." "I would keep myself clean for battle as if for entering the tabernacle of the Ark." "I am sorry if I have offended my king." "If the dispatches are ready, I will go." "You fool." "You stupid, blind fool." "Sire." "Dispatches for Joab, sire." "Dispatches." "Shall I give them to Uriah?" "No." "No." "There is an additional order." "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle." "It is his own wish, Abishai." "Even his own words." "Is that all?" "No." "I will not add hypocrisy to my other sins." "Even if Joab should understand what I intend I cannot ask him to share the burden of my guilt." "Here is the order:" "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire from him that he may be smitten and die." " Yes." " When it is finished seal it and give it to Uriah." "Yes, sire." "Sire, we bring great news." "The walls of Rabbah have been breached." "When we left, there was fighting in the streets of the city." "Joab bids me urge you to come to Rabbah with all speed to receive the surrender of your enemies." "And our dead?" "Our losses have been heavy, sire." "Of the captains of a thousand:" "Abimelech the son of Jurabiel, and Heled the son of lkkesh." "Of the captains of a hundred:" "Hezro the Carmelite Igal the son of Zelek Ittai the son of Ribai Abiel the Arbathite Eliam the son of Reuben Shammah the Harodite Uriah the Hittite Bani the Gadite Azmaveth the son of Eli and many more are wounded." "How did Uriah the Hittite die?" "There was a mistake in the orders, sire." "Uriah advanced too far into the breach and was cut off from his command." "When you've eaten and rested, prepare to return to Rabbah, I'll ride with you." "Sire." "Sire, the lady Bathsheba's servant is waiting for your answer." "Go to Bathsheba." "Tell her that Uriah is dead." "Tell her to prepare for our marriage at the end of her month of mourning." "Will you not go to her yourself?" "No." "The hand of God is heavy on his people." "Thus speaks the Lord:" ""I will withhold the rains and cause the fields and vineyards to dry up the flocks to grow thin." "I will waste the land with drought, the people with famine." "Yea, I will smite Israel for its sin against me." "Woe unto Israel." "Woe unto my people who have sinned."" "What sin, Nathan?" "The Lord has not vouchsafed to me its nature but evidently the sin is great thus to incur his wrath." "Does it take so much to make him angry?" "That soldier who laid hands on the Ark, he was only trying to be helpful." "It is not for us to question the ways of the Lord." "I question nothing." "Yet the sun was hot that day." "The man had been drinking wine." "All were excited when the Ark began to fall." "Is it not possible that the man might have died naturally from other causes?" "All causes are of God." "We've had droughts before, Nathan." "I am buying grain in Egypt and Philistia." "There will be enough until the rains come, if I have to empty my treasuries." "Now, what more can I do?" " Is there anything else?" " Yes, sire." "I have sat in the gate and listened to the people talk of the king." "What do they say?" "They say that David is no longer David." "They say that he neglects his duty, that he is often away from the city." "When he is here, he has turned his face from his people." "Petitioners are sent away from his door without a hearing." "In hard times, it's natural that some will complain." "Complain, yes, sire." "But not talk openly of overthrowing the king." "Explain yourself." "The hearts of the Israelites are turning after your son." "Well, it's difficult to imagine poor Amnon winning anyone's heart." "Not Amnon." "Your second son, Absalom." " The boy?" " Every day, he is at the gate seeking those you have turned away." "To these he says:" ""Oh, that I were made a judge in the land that all may come to me and receive justice."" "Confine yourself to the affairs of God." " Leave the affairs of the kingdom to me." " Sire." "Oh, Abishai." "I have orders for Joab." "The king forgets that he, too, is a servant of the Lord." "The priests are waiting." "I have been waiting these days and weeks." "Waiting for a word from the one who called himself my lover." "For a sign that all of his promises were not lies." " Beloved, I..." " Do not call me that, the word is a lie." "If you still loved me, you would not have avoided me." "You would not have left me in darkness, alone with my fears." " You know that I was called to Rabbah..." " It is a week since your return." "They are waiting." "Let them wait." "There will be no wedding." "I will not try to justify my behavior." "But even if I have earned your hatred you know why the wedding must take place." "I could more easily find courage to face the stones of the mob." "If our marriage is no more than an act of charity on your part, then say so." "If I have lost your love, tell me, and I will trouble you no longer." "I am not a beggar, David." "Beloved it is I who am the beggar." "I beg your patience." "If you love me, say no more." "Take my love on faith." "It is yours and will always be yours." "Come, my wife." "My lady." "The king should be called if he would again see his son alive." "Call him." "Sire." "The lady Bathsheba asks your presence." "The child is better?" "No, sire." "The physicians can do no more." "They say he will die." "I know." "I have known it these seven days." "I have lain in sackcloth on the earth." "I have fasted." "I have tried to pray." "My prayers were only words going out into emptiness." "They fell on no ears but my own." "Sire." "You told me to inform you, the ambassador from Egypt has arrived." "Shall I send him away?" "No, I will go down." "The time for grieving has past." "Will it bring my son back if I mourn for him?" "No, I shall go to him." "But he will not return to me." "The heart of the pharaoh bleeds for his cousin and for the people of Israel." "But alas, the pharaoh's storehouses are empty." "There is barely enough grain to feed Egypt." "The heart of a pharaoh cannot bleed for it is bloodless." "The storehouses of Egypt are full." "By sacred Osiris, I swear to you, I speak truth." "Dog of Egypt, you lie, and your master lies." "It is only what I expected." "Charity is not to be found among those who make gods of vultures and hyenas." " Now go." " Nathan, the prophet of God." "I come on a matter of justice, sire." "Hear and render judgment." "You may speak." "There were two men, one rich and one poor." "The rich man owned great flocks and herds." "But the poor man had naught but one ewe lamb." "He reared it and it grew up with him and his children." "It ate of his food and drank of his cup." "It was like a daughter to him." "Now there came a wayfarer to the rich man asking meat." "But the rich man did not take of his own flocks to feed his guest." "Instead, he took the poor man's one ewe lamb and slew it and prepared it for the wayfarer." "What is your verdict upon this man?" "He shall restore the lamb seven-fold." "The lamb is dead, it cannot be restored." "Then the man deserves to die because he had no pity." "You are the man." "You have made me pronounce sentence upon myself." "Very well." "It is done." "Then there is no appeal." "It is the will of God, and I accept it." "Gladly." "It is not his will that you should die, David." "Worthy or unworthy, you are his anointed." "Through Samuel, he chose you to lead his people." "Your labors in his behalf are still unfinished." "But you cannot escape the punishment of the Lord." "I have not escaped it." "My son is dead." "His justice is still unsatisfied." "You've paid for your adultery, but you have also killed." "You've taken up the sword and slain your fellow creature for your desire." "Now, therefore the sword shall never depart from your house." "You shall know the hatred and ingratitude of your own flesh." "Brother shall turn against brother and son against father." "The history of David's house shall be a history written in blood." "You tell me nothing new." " I am content." " Even so the tally of the Lord is not paid." "The woman is being denounced." "She also must expiate her sin." "She has lost her child." " Is that not enough?" " Bathsheba has sinned and she must render payment according to the law of Moses." "Uriah's death was my act and mine alone." "She was a faithless wife." "Faithless only because I made her so." "Could she deny the king?" "When I called her, could she refuse to obey my commands?" "No." "She would never lie for herself and I will not lie for her." "But even if she sinned she has done no evil." "She came to me with love and tenderness." "She lifted up my heart." "She has brought no evil with her." "She has brought adultery and murder." "She has brought the drought and the famine." "She has brought the wrath of God upon Israel." "They know the law and so does David." "Yes, I know the law." "Where are the accusers?" "Under the law, they must cast the first stone." "Where are those who will say that I knew Bathsheba before our marriage?" "Who will dare to say it to my face?" "So there are no accusers." "You have none." "Michal." "I cannot find it in my heart to blame you for what you do." "But you, Absalom my son." "Have I given you cause to hate me so?" "Go, David, and bring Bathsheba here to face her judges." "You have made her a queen." "It is not fitting that she should be dragged to judgment by the people." "My lady." "Abishai, go to the stable and get horses." "Bring them to the gate in the garden wall." " Yes, sire." " Not that way." "They'll be watching." "Go by way of the terrace." "We'll be out before they know we've gone." "Sire." "The palace is surrounded." "Call the guards." "Surely my own bodyguard can be trusted." "Go." "Go." "No, David." "We cannot fight against the will of God." "A God who punishes the guiltless?" "I am not without guilt, David." "Now I know how Uriah died." "I think I really knew before our marriage." "Knew and put it from my mind, I lacked the courage to face the truth." "My guilt is as great as yours." "Greater." "Because I let you bear the burden of it alone." " I killed him." " I wished him dead." "God sees into our hearts, David." "I am ready." "But I cannot let them take you." "I cannot let you die." "David." "Yes, love." "In all our time together, you have never played for me." "Something from your boyhood when you were a shepherd." "The Lord is my shepherd." "I shall not want." "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." "He leadeth me beside the still waters." "He restoreth my soul." "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." "Yea." "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me." "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." "Thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over." "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." "Goodness and mercy." "When I wrote those words I believed in such a God." "I was only an ignorant shepherd boy." "There was no one to teach me about God." "So I taught myself." "I saw him in the hills in the trees in the miracle of the birth of lambs." "I felt his mercy when the wolves had fled and my flock was safe." "When spring broke the grip of snow and ice." "When the cool wind blew after the heat of the day I saw his splendor in the flowers blazing on the hillsides and the stars burning in the sky." "And knew his hand in everything." "Then I wandered from him." "And when I tried to find him again I had lost him." "Somewhere in Saul's court or when I roamed the desert in exile or in the camp of the Philistines." "His image paled in the lights of the cities and his voice was drowned in the quarreling and scheming of the ambitious and the mighty." "And now Nathan has found him for me." "Not the God of my boyhood days but a God without mercy." "A God who thinks only of his justice." "So you must die." "As the soldier died when he tried to save the Ark from falling." "He put his hands on the Ark like this:" "You shall not die." "You shall not die." "These are all who are willing, sire." "They will be enough." "Take your stand at this door." "If anyone tries to enter, cut him down." "You two at the right of the door." "Two at the left." "Two at the wall." "You two at the stairs." "And you two at the gate here." " Where is the woman?" " She is not coming." "Silence!" "He is the king." " You have heard the word of God." " I have heard the word of Nathan." "You have told me that God demands justice." "That I will believe." "I will not believe he would condemn a helpless woman for another's crime." " Where are you going?" " To the tabernacle." "If God is what you say he is, if this is truly his justice then let him speak for himself." "Will you go to him in anger?" "He has shown me nothing but anger." "He has turned his face from me." "It was David who first turned his face from God." "Once there was a David who knew how to pray who sought nothing for himself at the hands of God who found his strength in faith alone." "If that David still lives, his God will not deny him mercy." "O God." "Thou God of my early youth hear my prayer." "Let thine eyes which alone see clearly fall upon thy worthless servant." "In all things have I failed thee." "My life is a waste." "My crimes are many and terrible." "To my sons, I have bequeathed the evil that is in my blood." "I have led my people into misery and want." "I have used thee with ingratitude and betrayed thy trust." "I have been a faithless shepherd." "I am dust in the sight of thine eyes." "I am less than the meanest creature crawling on the earth." "And, yet, O God I am also thy creation." "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." "Thy spirit which abode with me in the wilderness." "I ask nothing for myself, O God." "By my sins I have put myself beyond the compass of thy forgiveness." "But lift thine hand from thy people who suffer for my crimes." "Forgive them the sin that is not theirs but mine." "Let the land thou gavest their fathers flow once more with thine abundance." "And let Bathsheba live to praise thy name and testify to thy mercy." "Show her the loving kindness of thy heart." "Cleanse her from sin and let thy punishment fall on thy servant who has earned it." "Look not on the sinner who comes before thee but on the boy he was who loved thee and who would have died for thee." "Make my heart as his." "Let the boy live again in his innocence." "Grant him thy mercy and take this David's life." "David?" "David?" "David?" "David?" "Your father bids you come to his house." "I am to stay with the sheep." "The prophet is there, the prophet Samuel himself." "It is said that he comes to choose a king over Israel." "Eliab." "Abinadab." "Shammah." "The Lord has not chosen one of these." "Any father would be proud of such sons." "You do well to feel pride, Jesse." "But the Lord does not see as man sees ...for man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart." "Who is this?" "My youngest son, David, who tends the sheep." "But he's only a boy, a dreamer, a singer of songs." "Come hither, David." "The Lord has chosen." "Honor him, David." "Walk in his light and you shall serve him as few are permitted to serve." "Where is your champion, Hebrews?" "Who will stand forth and face me?" "It is the giant of Gath, sire challenging us to send a champion against him and so decide the battle." "Sire, the men have heard his challenge these 40 dawns." "They cower like whipped dogs at his voice." "Unless, he is met, and soon, our cause is lost." "And is there no one in the ranks of Israel who dares to meet this man?" "Sire, if Goliath were only a man, any one of us would go." "But he's like no man born of woman." "His height is six cubits and a span, and his spear is like a weaver's beam." "They are dogs, indeed, to run before one Philistine." "Is there no courage in Israel?" "Sire, courage alone is not enough." "No arrow can pierce the giant's armor." "No spear can thrust beneath the reach of his arms." "He casts his spear a hundred long paces." "We call ourselves "the chosen of the Lord."" "Are we to let the enemies of God take Israel because we lack a champion?" "Sire, I will meet Goliath." "Who is it that speaks?" "Come forward." " David, my armor bearer." " I will meet him, sire." "Sire." "Samuel calls this boy the Lord's anointed." "If you let him to face the giant Samuel's prophecy can be proved or disproved." "David, you may meet Goliath." "No, David." "Father, he is my friend." "Silence, Jonathan." " Go, David." " With God, David." "Is Goliath a dog that you send a boy to meet him?" "Come closer, little one." "Come closer." "Come closer, little one." "My father, let me go down in David's place." "No, Jonathan." "Let the Philistine prove the folly of Samuel's prophecy." "David, David, get up." "No man can ever hope to know the real nature of God." "But he has given us a glimpse of his face."