The Lord caused the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David to become very ill. ¹⁶David prayed to God that the child would get well. He refused to eat anything, and every night he went into his room and spent the night lying on the floor. ¹⁷His court officials went to him and tried to make him get up, but he refused and would not eat anything with them. ¹⁸A week later the child died, and David’s officials were afraid to tell him the news. They said, “While the child was living, David wouldn’t answer us when we spoke to him. How can we tell him that his child is dead? He might do himself some harm!”

¹⁹When David noticed them whispering to each other, he realized that the child had died. So he asked them, “Is the child dead?”

“Yes, he is,” they answered.

²⁰David got up from the floor, had a bath, combed his hair, and changed his clothes. Then he went and worshipped in the house of the Lord. When he returned to the palace, he asked for food and ate it as soon as it was served. ²¹“We don’t understand this,” his officials said to him. “While the child was alive, you wept for him and would not eat; but as soon as he died, you got up and ate!”

²²“Yes,” David answered, “I did fast and weep while he was still alive. I thought that the Lord might be merciful to me and not let the child die.

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