2 Samuel 12:17

17 The senior servants of his house approached him to lift him up off the ground, but he refused, and he wouldn't eat with them either.

2 Samuel 12:17 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 12:17

And the elders of his house arose, [and went] to him, to raise
him up from the earth
To persuade him to rise up, and sit upon a seat, and go to bed, after having taken some food; these were some of the chief officers at court, and had the management of the affairs of his household:

but he would not;
they could not persuade him to it:

neither did he eat bread with them;
that evening, as he had used to do; they being the princes of his court, who were wont to sit at table with him.

2 Samuel 12:17 In-Context

15 Then Nathan went home. The LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne for David, and he became very sick.

16 David begged God for the boy. He fasted and spent the night sleeping on the ground.

17 The senior servants of his house approached him to lift him up off the ground, but he refused, and he wouldn't eat with them either.

18 On the seventh day, the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child had died. "David wouldn't listen to us when we talked to him while the child was still alive," they said. "How can we tell him the child has died? He'll do something terrible!"

19 But when David saw his servants whispering, he realized the child had died. "Is the child dead?" David asked his servants. "Yes," they said, "he is dead."

Footnotes

• [a]. LXXL, DSS(4QSama); MT stood over