Uriah the Hittite Hittites and so is known as a Hittite despite his being born Jewish. (Kiddushin 76b) Either way, he was not actually part of the Hittite nation since he would have been forbidden to marry Bathsheba had he been a Gentile. David's mighty men were a group of his best thirty-seven fighters (later expanded to around eighty). Although the lists of his mighty men (2 Samuel 23:8–39 & 1 Chronicles 11:10–47) are given after David has become king, many of them may have been the loyal followers who stayed with him when he was fleeing King Saul. At the very least,
Far from the Madding Crowd neighbour William Boldwood, the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, and the thriftless soldier Sergeant Troy. On publication, critical notices were plentiful and mostly positive. Hardy revised the text extensively for the 1895 edition and made further changes for the 1901 edition. The novel was listed at number 48 on the BBC's survey The Big Read in 2003. The book finished 10th on "The Guardian"s list of greatest love stories of all time in 2007. The novel has been dramatised several times, notably in the Oscar-nominated 1967 film directed by John Schlesinger. Gabriel Oak is a young shepherd. With the savings of