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,
Uriah the Hittite status as one of David's mighty men, British rabbi Jonathan Magonet observes that Uriah refers to Joab, not David, as 'my lord (or commander)' (2 Samuel 11:11). Joab is, Magonet notes, a kingmaker who dispatches ruthlessly his own military rivals, Abner and Amasa. He is sufficiently powerful that David, on his deathbed, advises Solomon to arrange his death (1 Kings 2:5–6). This prompts Magonet to speculate that David saw some deeper political threat from Joab through his entanglement with Uriah's wife. The prophet Nathan soon after confronted David about this murder, by first telling him a story of a rich