Sacred Waters
How did David meet Bath-Sheva?
The following article is intended as background to an article based on information sent to us by Eochaidh Og Coinn.
See:
Irish Wells & Mikvaoth
Biblical Ritual Waters still used till recently in Ireland?
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/bible/wells.html
It suggests that in Ancient Ireland ritual bathing was conducted at special water-places. This would be parallel to the Biblical Practice. The Druids of Britain and Ireland had many practices that were Biblical in origin.
Adapted from our work, "David and Bath Sheba." by Yair Davidiy , 2016:
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/bible/david/bathsheva.html
2-Samuel 11 (NASB):
2 NOW WHEN EVENING CAME DAVID AROSE FROM HIS BED [LYING DOWN] AND WALKED AROUND ON THE ROOF OF THE KINGS HOUSE, AND FROM THE ROOF HE SAW A WOMAN BATHING; AND THE WOMAN WAS VERY BEAUTIFUL IN APPEARANCE.
It says David rose from his "lying down" (2-Samuel 11:2). In Hebrew the word translated as lying down is also used as an euphemism for sexual intercourse. An opinion of the Sages (Talmud, Sanhedrin 107;a) says that David rose after he had just had sexual intercourse with his other wives. There may be something to this. The opinion is that David intuitively understood that at that particular time sequence he was vulnerable to be misled by his sexual drives and therefore he attempted to satiate himself with what he already had on hand. If he did have sex he would have wished to afterwards purify himself by ritual immersion in a special pool or mikvah.
It is often supposed that David was on the roof and he saw the woman bathing in a neighboring place. We will show below that it is more likely that he saw her bathing in the same spot i.e. on the roof itself.
The Household of the King and Ritual Purity.
In Biblical Times there existed the concept of ritual purity (Leviticus chapter 15). Someone who touched a dead person was unclean at the highest level. This level of impurity required a complicated process of purification with animal sacrifice and ritual sprinkling (Numbers 19:11-13). A woman in menstruation was also impure and at the end of her period had to purify herself by entering a water -place. There are numerous other instances where the more mild forms of impurity required merely ritual immersion in springs or special pools (mikvaoth) built specially for the purpose. A man who had a nocturnal emission had to immerse himself and remain unclean until the evening:
Leviticus 15:16 AND IF THE FLOW OF SEED GO OUT FROM A MAN, THEN HE SHALL BATHE ALL HIS FLESH IN WATER, AND BE UNCLEAN UNTIL THE EVENING.
According to its simple meaning this injunction applied to someone who had an emission without intercourse but it could also be related to all ejaculations including those occasioned by sex.
The Laws of Purity were even stricter regarding the Cohens (Priests). This especially applied to the Cohens who served in the Temple though the purity laws also concerned Cohens in general. The Cohens partook of part of the sacrifices and received portions of the animal meat, flour offerings, wine and oil that were offered up. For most types of offerings they were allowed to give these also to members of their own families as long as those concerned remained ritually pure. The same applied to the offerings from grain in general, and the first fruits, etc. Altogether there were 24 different types of offering the Cohens received and they all required maintaining a level of purity. Later in Second Temple Times there were groups of pious Jews known as Pharisees who were not Cohens but who often observed similar laws of abnegation and purification as the Cohens did. This was considered conducive to spiritual elevation. Indications are that NOT ONLY in Second Temple times was this the practice but well before that. It was the custom of Israelite Royalty and others such as David and his followers.
Before David became king he was a leading warrior in the service of King Saul from the Tribe of Benjamin.
We learn that King Saul held a royal feast for two days to celebrate the New Moon or first day of the month. This sometimes lasted for more than one day as according to the Hebrew Calendar is still the case. David feared to attend the celebration since Saul was liable to kill him. On the first day when David was absent Saul assumed that he was ritually unclean and therefore did not come to the meal. This shows that the repast was eaten in Ritual Purity. If such were the case David would have needed to immerse himself and wait till the evening. When David did not appear on the second day Saul already knew that there was another explanation.
1-Samuel 20:
26 NEVERTHELESS SAUL DID NOT SPEAK ANYTHING THAT DAY, FOR HE THOUGHT, IT IS AN ACCIDENT, HE IS NOT CLEAN, SURELY HE IS NOT CLEAN. 27 IT CAME ABOUT THE NEXT DAY, THE SECOND DAY OF THE NEW MOON, THAT DAVID'S PLACE WAS EMPTY; SO SAUL SAID TO JONATHAN HIS SON, WHY HAS THE SON OF JESSE NOT COME TO THE MEAL, EITHER YESTERDAY OR TODAY?
Consequently David fled from Saul. He came to Noph the city of Cohens and entered the Sanctuary which at that time was located there. Since David and his men were grievously famished they allowed themselves to partake of the ritual showbread. This ordinarily was reserved for the Cohens who performed the Divine Service. Even though it was a case of life or death David still did what he could to allay the scruples of the Priests on hand. He assured them that he and his men also kept the laws of Ritual Purity both concerning sexual contact and the laws concerning vessels.
1-Samuel 21:
5 DAVID ANSWERED THE PRIEST AND SAID TO HIM, SURELY WOMEN HAVE BEEN KEPT FROM US AS PREVIOUSLY WHEN I SET OUT AND THE VESSELS OF THE YOUNG MEN WERE HOLY, THOUGH IT WAS AN ORDINARY JOURNEY; HOW MUCH MORE THEN TODAY WILL THEIR VESSELS BE HOLY? 6 SO THE PRIEST GAVE HIM CONSECRATED BREAD; FOR THERE WAS NO BREAD THERE BUT THE BREAD OF THE PRESENCE WHICH WAS REMOVED FROM BEFORE THE LORD, IN ORDER TO PUT HOT BREAD IN ITS PLACE WHEN IT WAS TAKEN AWAY.
If David kept these laws while he was on the run for his life then we may expect him to have also done so when he was safely ensconced on the throne of Israel. Later, after he became king, David would have continued to keep these laws. If, as we are told, David had rose towards evening after having been with his women he would then have wished to ritually immerse himself in a mikvah.
Was Bat Sheva on the Same Roof or Next door to it?
A present-day Biblical Researcher, Yaacov Madan (p.27 n.25) understands that David must have seen Bat Sheva while he (David) was on the roof but she was not. The Commentaries of Radak, Metsudat, Abarbanel, and Malbim also all understand that such was the case. This however is based on logical deduction rather than the simple meaning of the verse itself. How else, asks Madan, could David have seen Bat Sheva? How could she have gotten to the same roof David was on? Rabbi Yoseph Kara (c. 1065 CE c. 1135 CE) however understands the verse as we do:
SHE WAS SANCTIFYING HERSELF WHEN DAVID SAW HER CLEANSING HERSELF ON THE ROOF (2-Samuel 11:3).
The woman David saw was bathing. The word used for bathing is also applied to ritual immersion (Leviticus 22:6, 2-Kings 5:12). She was seen "ON THE ROOF" (2-Samuel 11:2). The Hebrew says "mal ha-gag" which may also be translated as “from off the roof". This has led others to understand that he saw her from off the roof and that she was next door or close by. It does not however say that "he saw from off the roof" but rather he saw "a woman bathing from off the roof" i.e. she was on the roof of the Place of David. That is how he saw her.
Later David has the woman brought to him and he lies with her. She then sends him a message that she is in the family way. After telling us in the past tense that Bat Sheva had gotten pregnant from the encounter Scripture changes to the present tense and informs us that "NOW SHE HAD BEEN PURIFYING HERSELF FROM HER IMPURITY" (11:4). This expression is given in the present tense ["mitkedeshet" i.e. purifying herself]. All the rest of the passage is past tense. It is suddenly given in the present tense here because it is harking back to the time the woman had been Bathing herself. She was purifying herself at that time. By bathing is here meant ritual immersion in water. In Biblical times a woman who menstruated was impure, "unclean" (Leviticus 15:19-30, 18:19, 20:18). After the days of menstruation a woman would ritually immerse herself in a mikvah. This is a pool of ritually qualified water, "mikvah" in the singular, and in the plural "mikvaoth." [These days the time of immersion is seven days after the cease of menstrual flow. In Biblical times it was usually (but not always) after it had ended as long as at least seven days had elapsed since it began.] A woman needed to be ritually pure in order to be with her husband and also in order to handle ritually pure foodstuffs and not to pollute implements and other items. One explanation given as to why this is mentioned concerning Bat Sheva is to tell us that the woman had just finished her menstrual cycle when David first saw her. The pregnancy would therefore definitely be ascribable to David. This could be the case. ... She was not supposed to be on the roof. No-body was. That was why she went there. She had access tot he roof since several members of her family served in the Royal Palace. She did not expect David to be there either.
The woman had not come simply to rinse herself off but rather to ritually cleanse herself. She had come to use the mikveh that was on the roof of the palace. Using a mikvah was customary practice in those times though not necessarily that on the roof of the House of the King.
Mikvaoth are ritual bathing pools using water that is naturally gathered. That means you could not take water from a local stream or well and pour it into a tub in a private room of the house. It had to be a natural spring or a pool from rain water that had fallen directly into the pool or into channels built into the roof and leading straight to the pool and not detached from it. Mivaoth were used for the ritual cleansing of men and women and of utensils. Every household needed one. The present author has seen excavations of the Ancient Jewish settlement of Sussia in the southern Wilderness of Judah that show beside every household the existence of a mikvah carved out of the rock. It was also quite common to install mikvaoth on rooftops. We later find such bathing places on the roofs of edifices built into the outer walls of the Temple precincts, cf. On the roof of the Water Gate was a mikvah. It was used by the High Priest on Yom Kippur and on the seven days leading up to Yom Kippur. So too, the Hall of Parvah which was built into the southern wall of the Temple had a mikvah on its roof and this too was used by the High Priest on Yom Kippur. The regular priests had their own mikvah which was in the Moked Building on the north side. This was in a subterranean chamber under the ground with steps leading down to it. In the ruins of the fortress of Masada from Second Temple times were also find mikvaoth on the rooftop.
Quote: "Masada"
# Two mikveh were found in the northern and the southern corners of Masada. First three adjacent pools were found, with a water conduit bringing rainwater into them, at the southern end of Masada. This structure seemed very likely to be a mikve, filled with a natural water, as prescribed by the Halakhic rules. When the news about the find was announced, the Orthodox Talmudic scholars became especially interested - no mikve had so far been discovered belonging to the very period when these Halakhic rules were written. Two Rabbis, both very respected specialists, arrived at Masada and climbed the hard winding path under the broiling sun - especially to visit the find. They went into the pools and started to check their measures. The archaeologists were holding their breath - and at the end of a thorough study the Rabbis announced that it was indeed the mikve excellently meeting all the standards. #
Source: Yigael Yadin, "Masada."
Since the above literally hundreds of such mikvaoth have been found all over Israel. Ritual Purity holds an important place in the Bible. David especially was a religious man and so was all his household. The Laws of Purity were kept. These laws were not necessarily exactly as they are today but in essentials neither would they have been much different.
The House of the King would in fact probably have been a Palace. The flat rooftop would have been enclosed by a wall (Deuteronomy 22:8). It was in effect an elevated courtyard. In those days people spent quite a bit of time on the rooftops. They used rooftops to dry out flax to make linen cloth with (Joshua 2:6). They eat on the roof. In summer time they sometimes would have slept on it. They entertained friends there and cooked there and cured preserved foodstuffs there. Idolators sacrificed to their idols on the rooftops (Jeremiah 32:29). Roofs were places to escape the heat of summer (Judges 3:20). Roofs were also locations that afforded privacy. The corner of a rooftop was a place of refuge from a nagging wife (Proverbs 25:24). The palace roof may have been one of the few places where David could get a little fresh air and be alone with himself for a change. The King of Ammon would cool himself in a special chamber on the rooftop (Judges 3:20). The King of Babylon, Nebuchadnessar, is also recorded as strolling about his rooftop (Daniel 4:29). The roof tops under consideration may have been more like the tops of several buildings linked together surrounding a large courtyard. Such a rooftop was suitable for strolling around in and analogous to walking the deck of a ship.
Roofs were also used to collect rain water including that in the mikvaot. The mikvah would not have been entirely in the open but rather enclosed at the sides by some kind of partition. David himself would have wanted to use the mikvah when he bumped into Bat-Sheva.