2 Samuel 12

1 And the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to David. And he came in to him and said to him, “There were two men in one city, one rich and one poor. 2 The rich man had flocks and herds, very many. 3 And the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and kept alive and raised. And it grew up with him and with his sons together; it ate from his bread and drank from his cup and slept in his arms, and it was to him like a daughter. 4 And a traveler came to the rich man, and he spared his own flocks and his own herds and would not take from them to make a meal for the stranger on the road who had come to him. He took the poor man’s ewe lamb and made it ready for the man who had come to him.”

5 And David burned with anger against the man, and David said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this is a son of death. [a] 6 And he will pay back the lamb seven times over, in return for this — because he did this thing, and because he did not spare the lamb.” [b]

7 And Nathan said to David, “You are the man who has done this. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am the one who anointed you king over Israel, and I am the one who rescued you out of the hand of Saul, 8 and I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that is too little, I will add as much again to you. [c] 9 Why have you made light of the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his eyes? Uriah the Hittite you struck down with the sword, and his wife you took for yourself as a wife, and you killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. 10 And now the sword will never depart from your house, because you counted me as nothing and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife.’

11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Look, I am raising up evil against you out of 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. 12 For you did it in secret, but I will do this thing in the sight of all Israel, and in front of the sun.’”

13 And David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “And the Lord has put your sin aside; you will not die. † 14 Only, because in this thing you have provoked the enemies of the Lord, and provoked them bitterly, the son also that is born to you will surely die.”

15 And Nathan went away to his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and it fell sick. 16 And David sought God for the boy, and David kept a fast, and he went in and spent the night in sackcloth on the ground. [d] 17 And the elders of his household stood over him to raise him from the ground, but he would not, and he would not eat bread with them.

18 And on the seventh day the boy died. And David’s slaves were afraid to tell him that the boy was dead, for they said, “Look — while the boy was still alive we spoke to him and he would not listen to our voice. How can we tell him the boy is dead? He will do something terrible.” [e] 19 And David understood that his servants were whispering, and David realized that the boy was dead. And David said to his servants, “Is the boy dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”

20 Then David got up from the ground and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes, and he went into the house of God and bowed down to him. And he went into his own house and asked for bread to eat, and they set bread before him, and he ate. 21 And his servants said to him, “What is this thing you have done? While the boy was still alive you fasted and wept and kept watch; and when the boy died, you got up and ate bread and drank.” 22 And David said, “While the boy was still alive I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will have mercy on me, and the boy will live?’ 23 But now he is dead. Why should I go on fasting? Will I be able to bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not come back to me.”

24 And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and he went in to her and lay with her; and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Solomon, and the Lord loved him. [g] 25 And he sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord. [h]

26 And Joab fought against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and he took the royal city. [i] 27 And Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah, and I have taken the city of waters. [j] 28 So now gather the rest of the people and camp against the city and take it first, so that I do not take the city myself and my name be called over it.” 29 And David gathered all the people and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. 30 And he took the crown of Milcom their king from his head — its weight was about seventy-five pounds of gold, with precious stone — and it was on David’s head. And he carried out very many spoils out of the city. [k] 31 And he brought out the people who were in it and put them to the saw and to the iron threshing sledges, and he made them pass through the brick kiln. And this is what he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. And David and all the people went back to Jerusalem. [m]