2 Samuel 12

The LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said, “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought and raised. She grew up with him and his children. She ate from his bread, drank from his cup and slept in his arms. She was like a daughter to him. A traveler came to the rich man, but he was unwilling to take from his own sheep or cattle to prepare food for the guest who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared her for the man who had come to him.” David’s anger burned fiercely against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must repay the ewe lamb fourfold, because he did this and had no compassion.” Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from Saul’s hand. I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. If that had been too little, I would have given you much more. Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in my eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ This is what the LORD says: ‘I am raising up disaster against you from your own house. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. You did it in secret, but I will do this before all Israel and before the sun.’” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan said to David, “The LORD has also taken away your sin. You will not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have given the LORD’s enemies great occasion to blaspheme, the son born to you will surely die.” Then Nathan went home. The LORD struck the child whom Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became gravely ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted, went in and spent the night lying on the ground. The elders of his house stood beside him to raise him from the ground, but he refused and would not eat bread with them. On the seventh day the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child had died, for they said, “While the child was alive, we spoke to him, but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do harm.” When David saw his servants whispering, he understood that the child had died. David asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” They answered, “He is dead.” David got up from the ground, washed, anointed himself and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house and asked for food. They set bread before him, and he ate. His servants asked him, “What is this you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but when the child died, you got up and ate bread.” He said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept, for I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me, and the child may live.’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” David comforted his wife Bathsheba. He went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son and named him Solomon. The LORD loved him. He sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he called him Jedidiah because of the LORD. Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal city. Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah and captured the water city. Now gather the rest of the people, camp against the city and capture it, or I may capture the city and it will be called by my name.” So David gathered all the people, went to Rabbah, fought against it and captured it. He took the crown from their king’s head. It weighed about seventy-five pounds of gold and had a precious stone, and it was placed on David’s head. He brought a very great amount of plunder out of the city. He brought out the people who were in it and put them under saws, iron threshing implements and iron axes, and made them pass through the brick kiln. He did this to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

Rights and attribution