2 Samuel 12
Nathan confronts David with adultery, murder
Nathan’s story of pet lamb
1The LORD sent the prophet Nathan to David with a story. It went like this:“I want to tell you about two men in a city. One man was rich. The other man was poor. 2The rich man had a lot of livestock. He had herds and flocks. 3The poor man had only one lamb. He raised her as a pet. She grew up with his children. The family drank its milk to stay alive. And the man slept beside her like she was his daughter.
4A traveler came to visit the rich man. But the rich man refused to kill one of his own animals to feed the traveler. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and served it to his guest.”
David, the angry judge
5David erupted in anger over what the rich man did. He told Nathan, “As God is my witness, a man like that deserves to die. 6For showing no pity whatsoever, he needs to give that poor man four replacement sheep.”God, the angry judge
7Nathan said, “You are the rich man. Here’s what the LORD, the God of Israel says to you:I anointed you king of Israel. I kept you safe when Saul was hunting you down and trying to kill you. 8I gave you everything that belonged to your former master, Saul, including his wives. I even gave you control over all of Israel and Judah. If that wasn’t enough to satisfy you, I would have given you more.
9You know what I expected of you. So, why did you do the opposite? You killed Uriah the Hittite so you could steal his wife. You used your enemies in Ammon to do your dirty work by killing him.
10From now on, you will never rule in peace. You chose to solve your problems by the sword. So go ahead and have at it. 11I’m going to bring some hurt into your household. I’m going to give you a taste of your own medicine. I’ll give your wives to someone else. That man is going to sleep with your wives and broadcast what he’s doing. 12You did that in secret, in the shadows. He’ll do it in daylight.”
David confesses he got it wrong
13David told Nathan, “I’m the one. I knew the LORD wouldn’t approve, and I did it anyhow.” Nathan told David, “The LORD has already forgiven you. He pardoned you. He’s not going to kill you. 14But what you did was so wretched that the LORD says your child will die.”David’s son gets sick, and David prays
15Nathan went home. Then the LORD made David’s baby son deathly ill. [1]16David prayed to God, begging for him to spare the baby. He didn’t eat all day. He didn’t sleep all night. He lay on the ground, instead. 17His palace officials pled with him to get up and eat with them. He refused.
David’s son dies
18David’s son died on the seventh day. David’s officials were afraid to tell him. They said if he refused to take their advice when the child was alive, they couldn’t image how he would react when he heard the child had died.19But David saw them whispering to each other and he figured it out. He asked, “Did he die?” They said, “Yes. He’s dead.”
20David got up off the ground, washed, rubbed some scented oil on his skin, and put on fresh clothes. Then he went to the tent worship center and worshiped God. After that, he went home and asked for some food, which they served him.
21David’s officials were confused by his behavior. So they told him, “We don’t understand what’s going on here. When the child was sick, you fasted and you cried over him. Now that he’s dead, you get up and grab a meal.”
22David told them, “As long as he was alive, there was a chance he would live. So I fasted and cried. I thought, ‘Who knows? Maybe the LORD will be kind to me and he’ll let the child live.’ 23But he’s dead now. There’s no reason to fast. Would that bring him back? I will go to him someday. But he will not be coming to me.
A king is born: Solomon
24David comforted his grieving wife Bathsheba. He slept with her, then she got pregnant and had a baby boy. David named him Solomon. The LORD loved that boy.25The LORD told the prophet Nathan about it, and gave the boy another name: Jedidiah, “God Loves Me.” [2]
David captures Ammon capital
1 Chronicles 20:1-3 26David’s military commander, Joab, continued fighting to capture Rabbah, royal capital of Ammon.
27He sent a message to David: “I captured the part of the city where they get their water. 28Come quick and bring the army that’s with you. If you take too long, I’ll have to capture the rest of the city myself. If I do, everyone will credit me with this victory.
29David hurried. He assembled his men, marched them to Rabbah, and fought the city into defeat. 30He took the gold crown off the king’s head and put it on his head. Embedded with jewels, the crown weighed 75 pounds. [3] David pillaged the city for its spoils of war—a wealth of treasure.
31Locals who survived the battle became servants of Israel. David gave the people the tools they would need for their jobs: saws, iron picks, and iron axes. He told some they had to make bricks for Israel. [4] David did this to the people in all the cities of Ammon. Then he went home to Jerusalem. Footnotes
112:15Some students of the Bible suggest that perhaps the child got sick on his own. Infant mortality was high, many scholars report. In Bible times, some people attributed everything to God. They said if bad things happened to some people, it was because God was punishing them. So, some Bible students would argue that the writer of this history book may have simply presumed God made the child sick. In the Bible book of Job, Job’s friends did the same…judging Job for sins he hadn’t committed. It’s tough to imagine God as baby killer, as in Jesus saying, “Let the little children come to me and I’ll infect to death.” With Jesus as the Word of God who came in flesh and blood instead of in the ink scribbles on a leather scroll, the mental portrait of God since New Testament times has been more pleasant. And more accurate, some say. Verse 14 is the counterpoint to the idea God didn’t take the boy. How he could justify that is the mystery behind the fact that God is God and we’re not.
212:25A more traditional phrasing, “Beloved of God.”
312:30Thirty-four kilograms, or 1 talent in the system of weight used in Bible times.
412:31Flashback to when Hebrew slaves made bricks for the cities of Egypt (Exodus 1).
Discussion Questions
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27He sent a message to David: “I captured the part of the city where they get their water. 28Come quick and bring the army that’s with you. If you take too long, I’ll have to capture the rest of the city myself. If I do, everyone will credit me with this victory.
29David hurried. He assembled his men, marched them to Rabbah, and fought the city into defeat. 30He took the gold crown off the king’s head and put it on his head. Embedded with jewels, the crown weighed 75 pounds. [3] David pillaged the city for its spoils of war—a wealth of treasure.
31Locals who survived the battle became servants of Israel. David gave the people the tools they would need for their jobs: saws, iron picks, and iron axes. He told some they had to make bricks for Israel. [4] David did this to the people in all the cities of Ammon. Then he went home to Jerusalem.
Footnotes
Some students of the Bible suggest that perhaps the child got sick on his own. Infant mortality was high, many scholars report. In Bible times, some people attributed everything to God. They said if bad things happened to some people, it was because God was punishing them. So, some Bible students would argue that the writer of this history book may have simply presumed God made the child sick. In the Bible book of Job, Job’s friends did the same…judging Job for sins he hadn’t committed. It’s tough to imagine God as baby killer, as in Jesus saying, “Let the little children come to me and I’ll infect to death.” With Jesus as the Word of God who came in flesh and blood instead of in the ink scribbles on a leather scroll, the mental portrait of God since New Testament times has been more pleasant. And more accurate, some say. Verse 14 is the counterpoint to the idea God didn’t take the boy. How he could justify that is the mystery behind the fact that God is God and we’re not.
A more traditional phrasing, “Beloved of God.”
Thirty-four kilograms, or 1 talent in the system of weight used in Bible times.
Flashback to when Hebrew slaves made bricks for the cities of Egypt (Exodus 1).
Discussion Questions
- Sorry, there are currently no questions for this chapter.