Wife of Uriah the Hittite and then of David, whose taking of her is the great crime of 2 Samuel 11; mother of Solomon. In 1 Kings 1 she appears for the first time as an agent rather than an object — briefed by Nathan, she goes to the dying king, improves on the script she was given (adding the oath 'by Jehovah your God' and the threat that she and her son will be counted offenders), and secures the throne for Solomon. She becomes the queen mother, and Matthew's genealogy names her, unusually, as 'the wife of Uriah' (Matthew 1:6).