Nathan’s Parable and David’s Repentance
1 So theLordsent Nathan to David.When he arrived, he said to him:
There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.
2 The rich man had a large number of sheep and cattle,
3 but 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.
4 Now 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.
5 David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan: “As theLordlives, the man who did this deserves to die!
6 Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.”
7 Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what theLordGod of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel,and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
8 I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms,and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more.
9 Why then have you despised the command of theLordby doing what I considerevil?You struck down Uriahthe Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife — you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword.
10 Now therefore, the sword will never leave your housebecause you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife.’
11 “This is what theLordsays,‘I am going to bring disaster on you from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to anotherbefore your very eyes, and he will sleep with them publicly.
12 You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel and in broad daylight.’ ”
13 David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against theLord.”
Then Nathan replied to David, “TheLordhas taken away your sin; you will not die.
14 However, because you treatedtheLordwith such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die.”
15 Then Nathan went home.
The Death of Bathsheba’s Son
TheLordstruck the baby that Uriah’swife had borne to David, and he became ill.
16 David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted, went home, and spent the night lying on the ground.
17 The elders of his house stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them.
18 On the seventh day the baby died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him the baby was dead. They said, “Look, while the baby was alive, we spoke to him, and he wouldn’t listen to us. So how can we tell him the baby is dead? He may do something desperate.”
19 When David saw that his servants were whispering to each other, he guessed that the baby was dead. So he asked his servants, “Is the baby dead? ”
“He is dead,” they replied.
20 Then David got up from the ground. He washed, anointed himself, changed his clothes, went to theLord’s house, and worshiped. Then he went home and requested something to eat. So they served him food, and he ate.
21 His servants asked him, “What did you just do? While the baby was alive, you fasted and wept, but when he died, you got up and ate food.”
22 He answered, “While the baby was alive, I fasted and wept because I thought, ‘Who knows? TheLordmay be gracious to me and let him live.’
23 But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I’ll go to him, but he will never return to me.”
The Birth of Solomon
24 Then David comfortedhis wife Bathsheba; he went and slept with her. She gave birth to a son and namedhim Solomon.TheLordloved him,
25 and He sent a message through Nathan the prophet, who namedhim Jedidiah,because of theLord.
Capture of the City of Rabbah
26 Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonitesand captured the royal fortress.
27 Then Joab sent messengers to David to say, “I have fought against Rabbah and have also captured the water supply.
28 Now therefore, assemble the rest of the troops, lay siege to the city, and capture it. Otherwise I will be the one to capture the city, and it will be named after me.”
29 So David assembled all the troops and went to Rabbah; he fought against it and captured it.
30 He took the crown from the head of their king,and it was placed on David’s head. The crown weighed 75 poundsof gold, and it had a precious stone in it. In addition, David took away a large quantity of plunder from the city.
31 He removed the people who were in the city and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, and to labor at brickmaking.He did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then he and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.
—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/2SA/12-6eb75010ff49127f9d033c9fdc5db0b6.mp3?version_id=72—