Nathan rebukes David, David’s punishment
12
📚And the LORD sent 📖 Nathan 📖 to David. And he came to him and said to him, “There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 📚The rich man had a great many flocks and herds, 3 📚but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished. And it grew up with him and with his children. It ate from his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him.4 📚“And a traveller came to the rich man, and he spared his own flock and his own herd, refusing to take from them to prepare for the traveller who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him”.
12:2-4 Parables and stories can sometimes point to truths in a gripping way that catches those who listen before they realize they are the persons in the parable. The Lord Jesus often used this method.⚜
5 📚And David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this thing shall surely die!
12:5 How easy it is to see faults in others and to ignore the same faults in ourselves. And how quick men are to condemn others and excuse themselves (Rom 2:1, 21-24). David had a keen sense of justice (2 Sam 8:15; 1 Sam 24:11-15), but it had been asleep until Nathan aroused it with this story.⚜
6 📚And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity”.
12:6 Ex 22:1. David insisted on the penalty of the law for others.⚜
7 📚And Nathan said to David, “You are the man 📖. Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hands of Saul, 8 📚and I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives 📖 into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah 📖. And as if that was too little, in addition I would have given to you other such things. 9 📚Why have you despised the commandment 📖 of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? You have killed 📖 Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, having killed him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
12:9 David’s sin had been against the God who had shown him continual grace (vs 7,8).⚜
10 📚Now therefore the sword 📖 will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’
11 📚“Thus says the LORD: ‘See, I will raise up evil 📖 against you from your own house 📖, and before your eyes I will take your wives and give them to your neighbour, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 📚For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’ ”
12:12 Fulfilled by Absalom. See 2 Sam 16:20-22.⚜
13 📚And David said to Nathan, “I have sinned 📖 against the LORD”.
And Nathan said to David, “The LORD has also put away your sin. You will not die 📖. 14 📚However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme 📖, the child who has been born to you will also surely die 📖”.
The punishment begins
15 📚And Nathan departed to his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it was very sick. 16 📚So David begged God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 17 📚And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the ground, but he was not willing, and did not eat food with them.
12:16-17 David hoped God would change His mind (v 22).⚜
18 📚And it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, “Look, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he would not listen to our voice. How will we tell him the child is dead? Then he may harm himself”.
19 But when David saw that his servants were whispering, David understood that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?”
And they said, “He is dead”.
20 📚Then David arose from the ground, and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes, and came into the house of the LORD and worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate.
12:20 David humbly accepted God’s punishment.⚜
21 📚Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive, but when the child was dead, you got up and ate food”.
22 📚And he said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, so that the child may live? 23 📚But now that 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 📖”.
The birth of Solomon
24 📚And David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her; and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon 📖. And the LORD loved him. 25 📚And he sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.
12:25 Jedidiah means “one the LORD loves”. The name Solomon probably comes from the Hebrew word for peace.⚜
26 📚And Joab fought against Rabbah, belonging to the children of Ammon, and took the royal city. 27 📚And Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the City of Waters. 28 📚Now therefore gather the rest of the people together and camp against the city and take it. Otherwise, if I take the city, it will be called after my name”.
29 And David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah, and fought against it and took it. 30 📚And he took their king’s crown from his head. Its weight was a talent 📖 of gold with the precious stones; and it was placed on David’s head 📖. And he brought plunder out of the city in great abundance. 31 📚And he brought out the people who were in it, and put them to work with saws and with iron instruments and with iron axes, and made them go into the brick kiln. And this he did to all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
12:26-31 These verses describe the end of the campaign mentioned in chapter 11. It probably took place between the time of David’s adultery and his exposure by Nathan.⚜