2 Samuel 12:1–15

Nathan’s Parable and David’s Repentance

12So the Lord sent Nathan to David. ^eWhen he arrived, he said to him:

There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. ²The rich man had a large number of sheep and cattle, ³but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up, living with him and his children. It shared his meager food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms, and it 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. ^f

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.” ^g

⁷Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, ^hand I delivered you from the hand of Saul. ⁸I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms, ⁱand 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 command of the Lord by doing what I consider ^jevil? ^kYou struck down Uriah ^lthe Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword. ^m10Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house ⁿbecause you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife.’

¹¹“This is what the Lord says, ^o‘I am going to bring disaster on you from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to another ^pbefore your very eyes, and he will sleep with them publicly. ^q12You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel and in broad daylight.’ ” ^r

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

Then Nathan replied to David, “The Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die. ^t14However, because you treated ^uthe Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die.” ^v15Then Nathan went home.

The Death of Bathsheba’s Son

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