Uriah the Hittite

Uriah the Hittite was a soldier in King David’s army and the husband of Bathsheba. David arranges Uriah’s death during the siege of Rabbah after Bathsheba becomes pregnant, making him central to a biblical account of royal abuse and moral accountability.

Geraldine Brooks’s The Secret Chord places Uriah the Hittite within a narrative shaped by political ambition and government, crime, espionage and covert power, and court politics and dynastic power.