10 ‘Now therefore, athe sword shall 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, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; aI will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in 1broad daylight.

12 ‘Indeed ayou did it secretly, but bI will do this thing before all Israel, and 1under the sun.’ ”

13 Then David said to Nathan, “aI have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has 1btaken away your sin; you shall not die.

14 “However, because by this deed you have agiven occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.”

15 So Nathan went to his house.

Loss of a Child

Then the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s 1widow bore to David, so that he was very sick.

16 David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David afasted and went and blay all night on the ground.

17 aThe elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them.

18 Then 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, “Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to our voice. How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm!”