She is mentioned in a prayer written by her son, David:

“Turn to me and have mercy on me; show your strength in behalf of your servant; save me, because I serve you just as my mother did.”

Psalm 86:16 (NIV, 2011)

We know from the Old Testament accounts that King David’s father was Jesse, and his great-grandparents were Ruth and Boaz. However, David’s mother is unnamed. She stands in the background with hundreds of women mentioned in the Bible whose names are lost to history.

We can only learn about these women in parts and pieces, some biblical and most by legend. One legend about David’s mother in the Jewish Midrashim (commentary works by Jewish rabbis) names her Nitzevet. Another possibility proposed in Women in Scripture is that her name is Nahash, the named parent for David’s sister, Zeruiah.[1]

We cannot determine her name with certainty, but we can observe something about her through David. In Psalm 86:16, David credits his mother’s model as his standard for serving God. We know that David fervently pursued God with great faith. Therefore, we can credit David’s mother for some of the confidence David displays before Goliath (see I Samuel 17) and in his role as God’s chosen ruler over Israel.

As we near Mother’s Day this weekend, I propose David’s mother as the representative of all the unnamed mothers of our faith in God. These are the women who research and teach in seminaries, pulpits, and Sunday school rooms. These are the professionals who tend to our financial, educational, medical, legal, and emotional needs. These are the leaders who exhort us to love God and our neighbors. These are our guardians who exemplify faith in the community and tend to our wounded souls. They sit with us, sing for us, pray for us, feed us, and fight for us. History often loses their names, but we are eternally blessed by their model of faith in God, the One who remembers.

This weekend, as you celebrate the name of the mother who raised you, may I invite you to take a moment to praise God for the unnamed mothers who helped form your faith in Him?

© 2023 Lori Myers Berry

[1] Carol Meyers, ed., Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001), 130.