Uriah the Hittite

Uriah the Hittite (Hebrew: אוּרִיָּה הַחִתִּי‎ ʾŪrīyyā haḤīttī) is a minor figure in the Hebrew Bible, mentioned in the Books of Samuel, an elite soldier in the army of David, king of Israel and Judah, and the husband of Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam.

So David murdered him by proxy by ordering all of Uriah's comrades to abandon him in the midst of battle, so that he ended up getting killed by an opposing army.

In addition, his status as an officer in the army and as one of David's "mighty men" would indicate acceptance within the ethnic community.

According to Second Samuel, King David was tempted upon seeing Bathsheba bathe in her courtyard from the roof of his palace.

After Uriah repeatedly refused to see his wife Bathsheba, David sent him to his commanding officer Joab with a letter that ordered Joab to put Uriah on the front lines of the battle and have the other soldiers move away from him so that he would be killed by enemy soldiers.

Joab is, Magonet notes, a kingmaker who dispatches ruthlessly his own military rivals, Abner and Amasa.

He is sufficiently powerful that David, on his deathbed, advises Solomon to arrange his death (1 Kings 2:5–6).

This statement prompts Magonet to speculate that David saw some deeper political threat from Joab through his entanglement with Uriah's wife.

Hearing this story, David grew angry and replied: "As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die!

NIV - Bible Gateway passage: 2 Samuel 12:5-10 - New International Version Nathan then informs David that his child with Bathsheba must die.

Because, as the Jewish Encyclopedia notes, the Rabbis "could not admit the existence of any flaw in David's character," their writings tend to paint Uriah as the one at fault: They contended that when he defied David's order to go home, he disregarded a royal bidding (Shab.