Bathsheba's husband, whom King David arranged to have killed, was Uriah the Hittite. Uriah was an elite soldier in David's army and is described in the Hebrew Bible as Bathsheba's husband before she later became David's wife.
According to 2 Samuel 11, David saw Bathsheba bathing and summoned her while Uriah was away fighting. Bathsheba became pregnant, and David tried to conceal the affair by bringing Uriah home from the campaign so that he might spend time with his wife.
Uriah refused to go home while fellow soldiers remained in the field. David then sent instructions to Joab, the army commander, ordering that Uriah be placed in the most dangerous part of the battle and abandoned. Uriah was killed, after which David married Bathsheba.
The story is central to the biblical account of David's moral failure and its consequences. Bathsheba later gave birth to Solomon, who succeeded David as king. Uriah is called “the Hittite,” although the narrative presents him as a loyal member of David's Israelite army.