David gets in trouble the way many other men get in trouble. Some women do also but often in a less adulterous way. Women get "twitterpated" by beauty but often think of themselves as the one who should become beautiful. I think of the movie, The Devil Wears Prada, which is the story of fascination with fashion — the women are all hooked deeply on how they look, so deeply that they think a size six is too fat. David's issue is different but also connected: He takes the problem of his lust for Bathsheba into a conniving and deceitful way. He arranges to have the husband of his lover killed. Whether passive or active, taken upon the self or taken upon others, becoming lustful over the matter of beauty appears to be a universal matter.

What we know about David later as a man and as a king an…