1By night on my bed,
I sought him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but I didn’t find him.
2I will get up now, and go about the city;
in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but I didn’t find him.
3The watchmen who go about the city found me;
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
4I had scarcely passed from them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go,
until I had brought him into my mother’s house,
into the room of her who conceived me.
5I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
by the roes, or by the hinds of the field,
that you not stir up nor awaken love,
until it so desires.
6Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all spices of the merchant?
7Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage!
Sixty mighty men are around it,
of the mighty men of Israel.
8They all handle the sword, and are expert in war.
Every man has his sword on his thigh,
because of fear in the night.
9King Solomon made himself a carriage
of the wood of Lebanon.
10He made its pillars of silver,
its bottom of gold, its seat of purple,
the middle of it being paved with love,
from the daughters of Jerusalem.
11Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon,
with the crown with which his mother has crowned him,
in the day of his weddings,
in the day of the gladness of his heart.
Bathsheba was originally the wife of Uriah and later became the wife of David and the mother of Solomon. While Uriah was away on military duty, David seduced Bathsheba. To cover up the ensuing pregnancy, David summoned Uriah from the battlefield, pretending to seek an update on the army's progress, and tried to persuade him to go home and sleep with Bathsheba. However, Uriah, adhering to ritual abstinence, refused. In desperation, David arranged for Uriah to be placed on the front lines, where he was killed. After Uriah's death, David married Bathsheba.
The prophet Nathan denounced this marriage and foretold the death of Bathsheba's child, which came to pass. Their second child, Solomon, was favored by God and eventually succeeded David as king instead of his older half-brother Adonijah. When Adonijah sought to marry Abishag the Shunammite, he asked Bathsheba to mediate the request to Solomon. Bathsheba conveyed the request, but Solomon denied it and executed Adonijah for his audacity. References: 2 Sam 11:2-12:25; 1 Kings 1:11-31; 2:13-25; 1 Chronicles 3:5; Ps 51.
Bathsheba does appear in the genealogy of Jesus but is not mentioned by name: "Matt 1:6 Jesse became the father of King David. David the king became the father of Solomon by her who had been Uriah’s wife." See the discussion in Women in the Genealogy of Jesus (1:3-6),