The Seven Demons

I was studying up on the Hebrew King David when I came to the notorious scene of Bathsheba.  This story is found only in II Samuel.  I Chronicles also tells the story of David, but it tries to make David look better and often leaves out negative information.  The writer(s) of the Samuel books like to lay it all out - good or bad.

For those not familiar, King David sees Bathsheba, has a one night stand with her, and is done with it.  Or so he thought.  She gets pregnant.  Her husband is off fighting a war for David.  David tries to get him to go home and sleep with his wife so everyone will think the baby is his and not David's.  However, this doesn't work and David has him killed and marries Bathsheba to make an honest woman out of her.  Now, David pays for this later and it serves as a black spot on his history.  The author of Chronicles leaves this story out, but they cannot leave out Bathsheba because she is the mother of Solomon.  When he does mention her, he changes the spelling of her name.  I looked it up and it is all because of Babylonian mythology.

The "sheba" part of Bathsheba's name may be related to the sibatti, or The Seven Demons.  These guys are bad news.  One site I looked up had this to say about them:

Raging storms, evil gods are they, ruthless demons, who in heaven's vault were created, are they, workers of evil are they, they lift up the head to evil, every day to evil destruction to work.

Of these seven

The first is the South wind...

The second is a dragon, whose mouth is opened... That none can measure.

The third is a grim leopard, which carries off the young ...

The fourth is a terrible Shibbu ...

The fifth is a furious Wolf, who knoweth not to flee,

The sixth is a rampant ... which marches against god and king.

The seventh is a storm, an evil wind, which takes vengeance

A shibbu, I believe, is a weapon of some sort.

You can see these raging demons if you so desire.  Just go outside (if you live in the northern hemisphere) and find Orion.  He's usually pretty easy to spot with his three star belt.  To the right of Orion you will see a patch of sky with no stars but in the middle a fuzzy patch of 6 to 7 stars visible, all clumped together.  That is known to us as the Pleiades.   To the Babylonians, however, it is The Seven Demons.  See if you can see all seven.

The above information came from http://www.piney.com/BabSevenEvil.html and http://www.womeninthebible.net/1.11.Bathsheba.htm.  Check them out for more information.