2 Samuel 12:8-18

8 'I also gave you ¹your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these!

9 'Why ²have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? ³You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, ⁴have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

10 'Now therefore, ⁵the sword shall never * * depart from your house, because * you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'

11 "Thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; ⁶I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight *.

12 'Indeed ⁷you did it secretly, but ⁸I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.' "

13 Then David said to Nathan, "⁹I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has ¹⁰taken away your sin; you shall not die.

14 "However, because by this deed you have ¹¹given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die."

15 So Nathan went to his house.

Then the LORD struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David, so that he was very sick.

16 David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David ¹²fasted * and went and ¹³lay all night on the ground.

17 ¹⁴The elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling * and would not eat food with them.

18 Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, "Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to our voice. How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm!"

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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

Cross References 14

1. 2 Samuel 9:7
2. 1 Samuel 15:23, 26
3. 2 Samuel 11:14-17
4. 2 Samuel 11:27
5. 2 Samuel 13:28; 2 Samuel 18:14; 1 Kings 2:25
6. Deuteronomy 28:30; 2 Samuel 16:21, 22
7. 2 Samuel 11:4-15
8. 2 Samuel 16:22
9. 1 Samuel 15:24, 30; 2 Samuel 24:10; Luke 18:13
10. Leviticus 20:10; Leviticus 24:17; Proverbs 28:13; Micah 7:18
11. Isaiah 52:5; Romans 2:24
12. Nehemiah 1:4
13. 2 Samuel 13:31
14. Genesis 24:2

Footnotes 4

[a]. Lit "bosom"
[b]. Lit "the sight of this sun"
[c]. Lit "before"
[d]. Lit "caused your sin to pass away"