2 Samuel 12:11

11 thus said Jehovah, Lo, I am raising up against thee evil, out of thy house, and have taken thy wives before thine eyes, and given to thy neighbour, and he hath lain with thy wives before the eyes of this sun;

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 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

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

2 Samuel 12:11 In-Context

9 `Wherefore hast thou despised the word of Jehovah, to do the evil thing in His eyes? Uriah the Hittite thou hast smitten by the sword, and his wife thou hast taken to thee for a wife, and him thou hast slain by the sword of the Bene-Ammon.

10 `And now, the sword doth not turn aside from thy house unto the age, because thou hast despised Me, and dost take the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be to thee for a wife;

11 thus said Jehovah, Lo, I am raising up against thee evil, out of thy house, and have taken thy wives before thine eyes, and given to thy neighbour, and he hath lain with thy wives before the eyes of this sun;

12 for thou hast done [it] in secret, and I do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.'

13 And David saith unto Nathan, `I have sinned against Jehovah.' And Nathan saith unto David, `Also -- Jehovah hath caused thy sin to pass away; thou dost not die;