Bathsheba A Novel By: Jill Eileen Smith

At the urging of my pastor, Rev. Rob Ray, our church was encouraged to read through the Bible as a congregation. Even though I’ve studied the Bible for years I had never read the text cover to cover. It really makes me feel good knowing I’m part of a group of believers, corporately reading the greatest book ever written.

I’ve particularly enjoyed reading about the kings of Israel and how some were good, but sadly, most were not. It struck me that King David is mentioned over and over as the one king who followed after God and was the pinnacle of comparison for all kings who came after him.

Around the same time that I was reading King David’s story I started reading Bathsheba, a novel by Jill Eileen smith. Bathsheba is actually the third book in Mrs. Smith’s Wives of King David series and I haven’t had the pleasure of reading her first two bestsellers, Michal and Abigail.

I started the book thinking, everyone knows the story of David and Bathsheba. How is this author going to add anything to the story I don’t already know? Boy was I wrong.

Mrs. Smith really did her research on how people, particularly women, lived during Biblical times. I felt drawn into the world and lives of the characters. I learned what they might have eaten and drank; how they lived and interacted with others.

It’s my opinion that an added plus to any work of fiction is snippets of historical fact woven into the literature. Mrs. Smith does an amazing job working so much history into this novel, I actually feel smarter having read it. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading the first two offerings in the series.