2 Samuel12

¹Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said, “There were two men in a city, the one wealthy and the other poor.

²The wealthy man had a great many flocks and herds.

³But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb Which he bought and nurtured; And it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat scraps from him and drink from his cup and lie in his lap, And was like a daughter to him.

⁴Now a visitor came to the wealthy man, And he could not bring himself to take any animal from his own flock or his own herd, To prepare for the traveler who had come to him; So he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

⁵Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this certainly deserves to die!

⁶So he must make restitution for the lamb four times over, since he did this thing and had no compassion.”

⁷Nathan then said to David, “You yourself are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘It is I who anointed you as king over Israel, and it is I who rescued you from the hand of Saul.

⁸I also gave you your master’s house and put your master’s wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these!

⁹Why have you despised the word of the Lord, by doing evil in His sight? You have struck and killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, you have taken his wife as your wife, and you have slaughtered him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

¹⁰Now then, the sword shall never leave your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’

¹¹This is what the Lord says: ‘Behold, I am going to raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight.

¹²Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and in open daylight.’”

¹³Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has allowed your sin to pass; you shall not die.

¹⁴However, since by this deed you have shown utter disrespect for the Lord, the child himself who is born to you shall certainly die.”

¹⁵Then Nathan went to his house. Later the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s widow bore to David, so that he was very sick.

¹⁶David therefore pleaded with God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.

¹⁷The elders of his household stood beside him in order to help him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them.

¹⁸Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to us. How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm?”

¹⁹But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; so David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”

²⁰So David got up from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and when he asked, they served him food, and he ate.

²¹Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you got up and ate food.”

²²And he said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me, and the child may live.’

²³But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I am going to him, but he will not return to me.”

²⁴Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and slept with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he named him Solomon. Now the Lord loved him,

²⁵and sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah for the Lord’s sake.

²⁶Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and captured the royal city.

²⁷Then Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah, I have even captured the city of waters.

²⁸Now then, gather the rest of the people and camp opposite the city and capture it, or I will capture the city myself and it will be named after me.”

²⁹So David gathered all the people and went to Rabbah, and he fought against it and captured it.

³⁰Then he took the crown of their king from his head; and its weight was a talent of gold, and it had a precious stone; and it was placed on David’s head. And he brought out the plunder of the city in great amounts.

³¹He also brought out the people who were in it, and put some to work at saws, iron picks, and iron axes, and made others serve at the brick works. And he did the same to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.