2 Samuel 12:1-18 ▼

1 And YHWH sends Nathan to David, and he comes to him, and says to him: “Two men have been in one city, one rich and one poor.

2 The rich has very many flocks and herds,

3 but the poor one has nothing, except one little ewe-lamb which he has bought and keeps alive. And it grows up together with him and with his sons. It eats of his morsel, and it drinks from his cup, and it lies in his bosom, and it is as a daughter to him.

4 And a traveler comes to the rich man, and he spares to take from his own flock, and from his own herd, to prepare for the traveling [man] who has come to him; and he takes the ewe-lamb of the poor man and prepares it for the man who has come to him.”

5 And the anger of David burns against the man exceedingly, and he says to Nathan, “YHWH lives, surely the man who is doing this [is] a son of death,

6 and [for] the ewe-lamb he repays fourfold, because that he has done this thing, and because that he had no pity.”

7 And Nathan says to David, “You [are] the man! Thus said YHWH, God of Israel: I anointed you for king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul;

8 and I give to you the house of your lord, and the wives of your lord, into your bosom, and I give the house of Israel and Judah to you; and if [that is] too little, then I add such and such [things] to you.

9 Why have you despised the word of YHWH, to do evil in His eyes? You have struck Uriah the Hittite by the sword, and you have taken his wife for a wife for yourself, and you have slain him by the sword of the sons of Ammon.

10 And now, the sword does not turn aside from your house for all time, because you have despised Me, and take the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be for a wife for yourself;

11 thus said YHWH: Behold, I am raising up calamity against you, out of your [own] house, and have taken your wives before your eyes, and given [them] to your neighbor, and he has lain with your wives before the eyes of this sun;

12 for you have done [it] in secret, and I do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”

13 And David says to Nathan, “I have sinned against YHWH.” And Nathan says to David, “Also—YHWH has caused your sin to pass away; you do not die;

14 only, because you have caused the enemies of YHWH to greatly despise by this thing, also—the son who is born to you surely dies.”

15 And Nathan goes to his house, and YHWH strikes the boy, whom the wife of Uriah has borne to David, and it is incurable;

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

17 And [the] elderly of his house rise against him, to raise him up from the earth, and he has not been willing, nor has he eaten bread with them;

18 and it comes to pass on the seventh day, that the boy dies, and the servants of David fear to declare to him that the boy is dead, for they said, “Behold, in the boy being alive we spoke to him, and he did not listen to our voice; and how do we say to him, The boy is dead? Then he has done evil.”