2 Samuel 12:11

11 This is God speaking, remember! I'll make trouble for you out of your own family. I'll take your wives from right out in front of you. I'll give them to some neighbor, and he'll go to bed with them openly.

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 So why have you treated the word of God with brazen contempt, doing this great evil? You murdered Uriah the Hittite, then took his wife as your wife. Worse, you killed him with an Ammonite sword!
10 And now, because you treated God with such contempt and took Uriah the Hittite's wife as your wife, killing and murder will continually plague your family.
11 This is God speaking, remember! I'll make trouble for you out of your own family. I'll take your wives from right out in front of you. I'll give them to some neighbor, and he'll go to bed with them openly.
12 You did your deed in secret; I'm doing mine with the whole country watching!"
13 Then David confessed to Nathan, "I've sinned against God."
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.