2 Samuel 12:1-31
12 And Jehovah proceeded to send Nathan+ to David. So he came in to him+ and said to him: “There were two men that happened to be in one city, the one rich and the other of little means.
2 The rich man happened to have very many sheep and cattle;+
3 but the man of little means had nothing but one female lamb, a small one, that he had bought.+ And he was preserving it alive, and it was growing up with him and with his sons, all together. From his morsel it would eat, and from his cup it would drink, and in his bosom it would lie, and it came to be as a daughter to him.
4 After a while a visitor came to the rich man, but he spared taking some from his own sheep and his own cattle to get such ready for the traveler that had come in to him. So he took the female lamb of the man of little means and got it ready for the man that had come in to him.”+
5 At this David’s anger grew very hot against the man,+ so that he said to Nathan: “As Jehovah is living,+ the man doing this deserves to die!*+
6 And for the female lamb he should make compensation+ with four,+ as a consequence of the fact that he has done this thing and because he did not have compassion.”+
7 Then Nathan said to David: “You yourself are the man! This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, ‘I myself anointed+ you as king over Israel, and I myself delivered+ you out of the hand of Saul.
8 And I was willing to give you the house of your lord+ and the wives of your lord+ into your bosom, and to give you the house* of Israel and of Judah.+ And if it were not enough, I was willing to add to you things like these as well as other things.+
9 Why did you despise the word of Jehovah by doing what is bad+ in his eyes? U·riʹah the Hitʹtite you struck down with the sword,+ and his wife you took as your wife,+ and him you killed by the sword of the sons of Amʹmon.
10 And now a sword+ will not depart from your own house to time indefinite,+ as a consequence of the fact that you despised me so that you took the wife of U·riʹah the Hitʹtite to become your wife.’
11 This is what Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am raising up against you calamity out of your own house;+ and I will take your wives under your own eyes and give them to your fellowman,+ and he will certainly lie down with your wives under the eyes of this sun.+
12 Whereas you yourself acted in secret,+ I, for my part, shall do this thing in front of all Israel+ and in front of the sun.’”+
13 David now said+ to Nathan: “I have sinned against Jehovah.”+ At this Nathan said to David: “Jehovah, in turn, does let your sin pass by.+ You will not die.+
14 Notwithstanding this, because you have unquestionably treated Jehovah with disrespect*+ by this thing, also the son himself, just born to you, will positively die.”+
15 Then Nathan went to his own house.
And Jehovah proceeded to deal a blow+ to the child that the wife of U·riʹah had borne to David so that it took sick.
16 And David began to seek the [true] God in behalf of the boy, and David went on a strict fast+ and came in and spent the night and lay down on the earth.+
17 So the older men of his house stood up over him to raise him up from the earth, but he did not consent and did not take bread+ in company with them.
18 And it came about on the seventh day that the child gradually died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child had died; for they said: “Look! While the child continued alive we did speak to him, and he did not listen to our voice; so how can we say to him, ‘The child has died’? Then he will certainly do something bad.”
19 When David got to see that his servants were whispering together, David began to discern that the child had died. So David said to his servants: “Has the child died?” To this they said: “He has died.”
20 Then David got up from the earth and washed and rubbed+ himself with oil and changed his mantles and came to the house+ of Jehovah and prostrated+ himself; after which he came into his own house and asked, and they promptly set bread before him and he began to eat.
21 Consequently his servants said to him: “What does this thing mean that you have done? For the sake of the child while alive you fasted and kept weeping; and just as soon as the child had died you got up and began to eat bread.”
22 To this he said: “While the child was yet alive I did fast+ and I kept weeping,+ because I said to myself, ‘Who is there knowing whether Jehovah may show me favor, and the child will certainly live?’+
23 Now that he has died, why is it I am fasting? Am I able to bring him back again?+ I am going to him,+ but, as for him, he will not return to me.”+
24 And David began to comfort Bath-sheʹba his wife.+ Further, he came in to her and lay down with her. In time she bore a son,+ and his name came to be called Solʹo·mon.*+ And Jehovah himself did love him.+
25 So he sent by means of Nathan+ the prophet and called his name Jed·i·diʹah,* for the sake of Jehovah.
26 And Joʹab+ continued to fight against Rabʹbah+ of the sons of Amʹmon and got to capture the city of the kingdom.*
27 So Joʹab sent messengers to David and said: “I have fought against Rabʹbah.+ I have also captured the city of waters.
28 And now gather the rest of the people and encamp against the city, and capture it; that I myself may not be the one to capture the city, and my name should not have to be called upon it.”
29 Accordingly David gathered all the people and went to Rabʹbah and fought against it and captured it.
30 And he got to take the crown of Malʹcam* off its head,+ the weight of which was a talent* of gold, along with precious stones; and it came to be upon David’s head. And the spoil+ of the city that he brought out was very much.
31 And the people that were in it, he brought out that he might put them at sawing stones and at sharp instruments of iron+ and at axes of iron, and he made them serve* at brickmaking. And that was the way he proceeded to do to all the cities of the sons of Amʹmon. Finally David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
Footnotes
^ Lit., “is a son of death!”
^ “House,” MLXXVg; Sy, “daughters.”
^ “Treated Jehovah with disrespect” was the original reading. The text was emended (corrected) to read, “treated the enemies of Jehovah with disrespect.” See App 2B.
^ Lit., “and one proceeded to call his name Solomon,” M; MmarginTSy and a few Heb. mss, “and she proceeded to call his name Solomon.” “Solomon” means “Peaceable.” Compare 1Ch 22:9 ftns.
^ Meaning “Beloved of Jah.”
^ Probably, “the city of waters,” as in vs 27.
^ Possibly, “Milcom,” an idol god of the Ammonites. LXX, “Melchol their king”; Vg, “their king.”
^ About 34.2 kg (1101 oz t).
^ “He made them serve,” by a correction of one letter; M, “he made them pass [through].”
