One of the men involved in the conspiracy against David was Ahithophel, a counselor of great wisdom. We don’t know his full story, but his willingness to betray David was quite possibly related to his relationship to Bathsheba. Ahithophel was the father of Eliam, one of David’s “Thirty” (2 Sam. 23:34). And Bathsheba was in turn the daughter of Eliam (2 Sam. 11:3), the granddaughter of Ahithophel. Whether or not what had happened to Ahithophel’s grandson-in-law was the cause of the bad blood, the raw material was certainly there.
