There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. ²The rich man had very large flocks and herds, ³but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised her, and she grew up with him and with his children. From his meager food she would eat, from his cup she would drink, and in his arms she would sleep. She was like a daughter to him. ⁴Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.^D

⁵David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ⁶Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.”^e

⁷Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel,^f and I rescued you from Saul. ⁸I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms,^A and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more. ⁹Why then have you despised the Lord’s command by doing what I consider^B evil?^g You struck down Uriah^h the Hethite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword.ⁱ ¹⁰Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house^j because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hethite to be your own wife.’

¹¹“This is what the Lord says,^k ‘I am going to bring disaster on you from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to another^C before your very eyes, and he will sleep with them in broad daylight.^D ¹²You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel and in broad daylight.’ ”^E

¹³David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”^l

Then Nathan replied to David, “And the Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die.^m ¹⁴However, because you treated^F the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die.”ⁿ ¹⁵Then Nathan went home.

THE DEATH OF BATHSHEBA’S SON

The Lord struck the baby that Uriah’s^o wife had borne to David, and he became deathly ill.

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Footnotes

D for the man who had come to him
A bosom
B tradition reads what he considers
COr to your neighbor
D in the eyes of this sun
E and before the sun
F tradition, one ; reads treated the enemies of; read treated the word of

Cross references

d Ps 51 title
e Ex 22:1; Lk 19:8
f 1Sm 16:13
g Nm 15:30–31; 1Sm 15:19
h Mt 1:6
i 2Sm 11:14–17
j 2Sm 12:18; 13:28–29; 18:14–18; 1Kg 2:22–25; 2Kg 11:1
k 2Sm 16:21–22
l 2Sm 24:10; Ps 32:5; 51:4
m Lv 20:10; 24:17; Ps 32:1–5; Pr 28:13
n 2Sm 12:18
o Mt 1:6