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2 Samuel 12:8-18

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8 I gave your master's house to you and your master's wives into your arms,[a] 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 the Lord by doing what I consider[b] evil?[c] 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.[d]
10 Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house[e] 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[f] from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to another[g] before your very eyes, and he will sleep with them publicly.[h]
12 You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel and in broad daylight.' "[i][j]
13 David responded to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord."[k] Then Nathan replied to David, "The Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die.[l]
14 However, because you treated[m] the Lord with such contempt in this matter,[n] the son born to you will die."
15 Then Nathan went home. The Lord struck the baby that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill.

The Death of Bathsheba's Son

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."
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2 Samuel 12:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 12

Nathan is sent to David to charge him with his sin, and convince him of it by a parable, 2Sa 12:1-6; which being accommodated and applied to David's case, brought him to a conviction and acknowledgment of it, and repentance for it, which was forgiven him, 2Sa 12:7-13; though he is told the child begotten in adultery should die, and it was quickly struck with sickness and died; and David's behaviour during its sickness and at its death is recorded, 2Sa 12:14-23; after which Solomon was born to him of the same woman, and had the name of Jedidiah given him by the Lord, which signifies the beloved of the Lord, and as a token of reconciliation, and a confirmation of his sin being forgiven him, 2Sa 12:24,25; and the chapter is concluded with the taking of the city of Rabbah, and the spoil in it, and the usage of the inhabitants of it, 2Sa 12:26-31.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Footnotes 14

  • [a]. Lit bosom
  • [b]. Alt Hb tradition reads what He considers
  • [c]. 1 Sm 15:19
  • [d]. 2 Sm 11:14-17
  • [e]. 2 Sm 13:28; 18:14; 1 Kg 2:22-25
  • [f]. 1 Sm 16:14-16
  • [g]. Or to your neighbor
  • [h]. Lit in the eyes of this sun
  • [i]. Lit and before the sun
  • [j]. 2 Sm 16:21-22
  • [k]. 2 Sm 24:10; Ps 51:4
  • [l]. Lv 20:10; 24:17; Ps 32:1-5; Pr 28:13
  • [m]. Alt Hb tradition, one LXX ms; MT reads treated the enemies of; DSS read treated the word of
  • [n]. 1 Sm 2:17
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