2 Samuel 12:16

16 David begged God for the boy. He fasted and spent the night sleeping on the ground.

2 Samuel 12:16 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 12:16

David therefore besought God for the child
Perhaps went into the tabernacle he had built for the ark, and prayed to the Lord to restore the child, and spare its life; for though the Lord had said it should die, he might hope that that was a conditional threatening, and that the Lord might be gracious and reverse it, ( 2 Samuel 12:22 ) ;

and David fasted:
all that day:

and went in;
to his own house from the house of God:

and lay all night upon the earth;
would neither go into, nor lie upon a bed, but lay on the floor all night, weeping and praying for the child's life, and especially for its eternal welfare: he having through sin been the means of its coming into a sinful and afflicted state.

2 Samuel 12:16 In-Context

14 However, because you have utterly disrespected the LORD by doing this, the son born to you will definitely die."

15 Then Nathan went home. The LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne for David, and he became very sick.

16 David begged God for the boy. He fasted and spent the night sleeping on the ground.

17 The senior servants of his house approached him to lift him up off the ground, but he refused, and he wouldn't eat with them either.

18 On the seventh day, the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child had died. "David wouldn't listen to us when we talked to him while the child was still alive," they said. "How can we tell him the child has died? He'll do something terrible!"