On this episode we discuss the first half of 2nd Samuel, which chronicles David’s rise to power, his famous sin with Bathsheba, and the beginnings of the violence and strife within his family which will characterize the rest of his life. We spend most of the episode talking about David, Bathsheba, and her husband Uriah, whom David murders in order to try and hide his assignation with her. His assignation? Dalliance? Infidelity? Rape? Trying to understand the nature of the event, and the nature of David’s resulting guilt takes up a good bit of our energy here. As with our previous discussion of 1st Samuel, we try and consider things in their spiritual, moral, political, and personal dimensions, while avoiding any undo anachronism as we read about this ancient culture; one very far from us in some ways, and in other ways quite near. Closer to the end we discuss chapter 13, which begins the story of the fallout from David’s downfall with the shocking rape of Tamar by her half-brother. Is this event a direct parallel with David and Bathsheba?