2 Samuel 12:16
New International Version
David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground.

New Living Translation
David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground.

English Standard Version
David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.

Berean Standard Bible
David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.

King James Bible
David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.

New King James Version
David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.

New American Standard Bible
David therefore pleaded with God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.

NASB 1995
David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.

NASB 1977
David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.

Legacy Standard Bible
David therefore sought God about the boy; and David fasted and went and spent the night lying on the ground.

Amplified Bible
David therefore appealed to God for the child [to be healed]; and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.

Christian Standard Bible
David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted, went home, and spent the night lying on the ground.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted, went home, and spent the night lying on the ground.

American Standard Version
David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And David begged from God for the sake of the boy, and David fasted a fast and spent the night in it and he lay on the ground

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And David enquired of God concerning the child, and David fasted, and went in and lay all night upon the ground.

Contemporary English Version
So David went without eating to show his sorrow, and he begged God to make the boy well. David would not sleep on his bed, but spent each night lying on the floor.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And David besought the Lord for the child: and David kept a fast, and going in by himself lay upon the ground.

English Revised Version
David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
David pleaded with God for the child; he fasted and lay on the ground all night.

Good News Translation
David prayed to God that the child would get well. He refused to eat anything, and every night he went into his room and spent the night lying on the floor.

International Standard Version
David begged God on behalf of the youngster. He fasted, went inside, and spent the night lying on the ground.

JPS Tanakh 1917
David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and as often as he went in, he lay all night upon the earth.

Literal Standard Version
and David seeks God for the youth, and David keeps a fast, and has gone in and lodged, and lain on the earth.

Majority Standard Bible
David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.

New American Bible
David pleaded with God on behalf of the child. He kept a total fast, and spent the night lying on the ground clothed in sackcloth.

NET Bible
Then David prayed to God for the child and fasted. He would even go and spend the night lying on the ground.

New Revised Standard Version
David therefore pleaded with God for the child; David fasted, and went in and lay all night on the ground.

New Heart English Bible
Then David sought from God on behalf of the child. And David fasted, and went in and lay all night on the ground.

Webster's Bible Translation
David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.

World English Bible
David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in and lay all night on the ground.

Young's Literal Translation
and David seeketh God for the youth, and David keepeth a fast, and hath gone in and lodged, and lain on the earth.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
David's Loss and Repentance
15After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground. 17The elders of his household stood beside him to help him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them.…

Cross References
2 Samuel 12:15
After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill.

2 Samuel 13:31
Then the king stood up, tore his clothes, and lay down on the ground; and all his servants stood by with their clothes torn.

Nehemiah 1:4
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Daniel 6:18
Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No entertainment was brought before him, and sleep fled from him.


Treasury of Scripture

David therefore sought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the earth.

besought

2 Samuel 12:22
And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?

Psalm 50:15
And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

Isaiah 26:16
LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

fasted [heb] fasted a fast

Esther 4:16
Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

Psalm 69:10
When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.

Isaiah 22:12
And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

lay all night

2 Samuel 13:31
Then the king arose, and tare his garments, and lay on the earth; and all his servants stood by with their clothes rent.

Job 20:12-14
Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; …

Jump to Previous
Begged Besought Child David Earth Fast Fasted Food Ground House Inquired Keepeth Lain Lay Night Nights Often Pleaded Prayer Seeketh Spent Stretching Youth
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Begged Besought Child David Earth Fast Fasted Food Ground House Inquired Keepeth Lain Lay Night Nights Often Pleaded Prayer Seeketh Spent Stretching Youth
2 Samuel 12
1. Nathan's parable of the ewe lamb causes David to be his own judge.
7. David, reproved by Nathan, confesses his sin, and is pardoned
15. David mourns and prays for the child while it lives
24. Solomon is born, and named Jedidiah
26. David takes Rabbah, and tortures the people thereof














(16) Besought God for the child.--It can hardly be necessary to say that this does not imply any want of submissiveness to God's will on David's part, nor an inordinate love for the child of his guilt. "In the case of a man whose penitence was so earnest and so deep, the prayer for the preservation of his child must have sprung from some other source than excessive love of any created object. His great desire was to avert the stroke as a sign of the wrath of God, in the hope that he might be able to discern, in the preservation of the child, a proof of Divine favour consequent upon the restoration of his fellowship with God. But when the child was dead, he humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, and rested satisfied with His grace, without giving himself up to fruitless pain" (O. von Gerlach, quoted by Keil). Yet David's deep love for the child is not to be overlooked altogether.

Verse 16. - David... went in. He went, not into the sanctuary, which he did not enter until after the child's death, but into some private room in his own house. There he remained, passing his nights stretched on the ground, and fasting until the seventh day. His fasting does not imply that he took no food during this long interval, but that he abstained from the royal table, and ate so much only as was necessary to maintain life. Now, what was the meaning of this privacy and abstinence? Evidently it was David's acknowledgment, before all his subjects, of his iniquity, and of his sorrow for it. The sickness of the child followed immediately upon Nathan's visit, and we may feel sure that news of his rebuke, and of all that passed between him and the king, ran quickly throughout Jerusalem. And David at once takes the position of a condemned criminal, and humbles himself with that thoroughness which forms so noble a part of his character. Grieved as he was at the child's sickness, and at the mother's sorrow, yet his grief was mainly for his sin; and he was willing that all should know how intense was his shame and self-reproach. And even when the most honourable of the rulers of his household (Genesis 24:2), or, as Ewald thinks, his uncles and elder brethren, came to comfort him, he persists in maintaining an attitude of heart stricken penitence.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
David
דָּוִ֛ד (dā·wiḏ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1732: David -- perhaps 'beloved one', a son of Jesse

pleaded
וַיְבַקֵּ֥שׁ (way·ḇaq·qêš)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1245: To search out, to strive after

with God
הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים (hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

for
בְּעַ֣ד (bə·‘aḏ)
Preposition
Strong's 1157: In up to, over against, at, beside, among, behind, for

the boy.
הַנָּ֑עַר (han·nā·‘ar)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5288: A boy, lad, youth, retainer

He
דָּוִד֙ (dā·wiḏ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1732: David -- perhaps 'beloved one', a son of Jesse

fasted
וַיָּ֤צָם (way·yā·ṣām)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6684: To abstain from food, fast

and went into his house
וּבָ֥א (ū·ḇā)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

and spent the night
וְלָ֖ן (wə·lān)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3885: To stop, to stay permanently, to be obstinate

lying [in sackcloth]
וְשָׁכַ֥ב (wə·šā·ḵaḇ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7901: To lie down

on the ground.
אָֽרְצָה׃ (’ā·rə·ṣāh)
Noun - feminine singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 776: Earth, land


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OT History: 2 Samuel 12:16 David therefore begged God for the child (2Sa iiSam 2 Sam ii sam)
2 Samuel 12:15
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