^12:1So the Lord sent Nathan¹ to David. When he came to David,² Nathan³ said,⁴ “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. ^12:2The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. ^12:3But the poor man had nothing except for a little lamb he had acquired. He raised it, and it grew up alongside him and his children.⁵ It used to⁶ eat his food,⁷ drink from his cup, and sleep in his arms.⁸ It was just like a daughter to him.

^12:4“When a traveler arrived at the rich man’s home,⁹ he did not want to use one of his own sheep or cattle to feed¹⁰ the traveler who had come to visit him.¹¹ Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and cooked¹² it for the man who had come to visit him.”

^12:5Then David became very angry at this man. He said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die!¹³^12:6Because he committed this cold-hearted crime, he must pay for the lamb four times over!”¹⁴

^12:7Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I chose¹⁵ you to be king over Israel and I rescued you from the hand of Saul.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

1 A few medieval Hebrew , the , and the add “the prophet.” The words are included in a few modern English version (e.g., , , ).
2 Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 Heb “he”; the referent (Nathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 The Hebrew text repeats “to him.”
5 Heb “his sons.”
6 The three Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in this sentence have a customary nuance; they describe past actions that were repeated or typical.
7 Heb “from his morsel.”
8 Heb “and on his chest [or perhaps, “lap”] it would lay.”
9 Heb “came to the rich man.” In the translation “arrived at the rich man’s home” has been used for stylistic reasons.
10 Heb “and he refused to take from his flock and from his herd to prepare [a meal] for.”
11 Heb “who had come to him” (also a second time later in this verse). The word “visit” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarity.
12 Heb “and prepared.”
13 Heb “the man doing this [is] a son of death.” See 1 Sam 20:31 for another use of this expression, which must mean “he is as good as dead” or “he deserves to die,” as 1 Sam 20:32 makes clear.
14 With the exception of the Lucianic recension, the Old Greek translation has here “sevenfold” rather than “fourfold,” a reading that S. R. Driver thought probably to be the original reading (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, ). However, Exod 22:1 [21:37 ] specifies fourfold repayment for a stolen sheep, which is consistent with 2 Sam 12:6. Some of the and the exaggerate the idea to “fortyfold.” Heb “the lamb he must repay fourfold because he did this thing and because he did not have compassion.”
15 Heb “anointed.”