2 Samuel 12:11

11 "This is what the Lord says, 'I am going to bring disaster on you[a] from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to another[b] before your very eyes, and he will sleep with them publicly.[c]

2 Samuel 12:11 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 12:11

Thus saith the Lord
For what he said was not of himself, but under a spirit of prophecy:

behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house:
that is, evil persons, who should be guilty of evil things, and that as a chastisement of him for the sins he had committed, and those out of his own family, as Amnon and Absalom:

and I will take thy wives before thine eyes;
which is so expressed, because it was done in his lifetime, and he knowing it, but not able to hinder it, though he did not, strictly speaking, see it with his eyes:

and give [them] unto thy neighbour;
or friend, meaning his son Absalom, as they were:

and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun;
pointing to the sun in the firmament, and which might be then shining in the room where they were: and which is represented by Homer F21 as seeing all things, "and eyes" are ascribed to it here in the original; the meaning is, that this fact should be done in the daytime, openly and publicly, and was fulfilled, when by the advice of Ahithophel a tent was spread on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel, ( 2 Samuel 16:22 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F21 Odyss. 11. ver. 119. & 12. ver. 380.

2 Samuel 12:11 In-Context

9 Why then have you despised the command of the Lord by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the 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 house because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife.'
11 "This is what the Lord says, 'I am going to bring disaster on you from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to another before 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 the Lord." Then Nathan replied to David, "The Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die.

Footnotes 3

Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.