2 Samuel 12:11

11 itaque haec dicit Dominus ecce ego suscitabo super te malum de domo tua et tollam uxores tuas in oculis tuis et dabo proximo tuo et dormiet cum uxoribus tuis in oculis solis huius

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 quare ergo contempsisti verbum Domini ut faceres malum in conspectu meo Uriam Hettheum percussisti gladio et uxorem illius accepisti uxorem et interfecisti eum gladio filiorum Ammon
10 quam ob rem non recedet gladius de domo tua usque in sempiternum eo quod despexeris me et tuleris uxorem Uriae Hetthei ut esset uxor tua
11 itaque haec dicit Dominus ecce ego suscitabo super te malum de domo tua et tollam uxores tuas in oculis tuis et dabo proximo tuo et dormiet cum uxoribus tuis in oculis solis huius
12 tu enim fecisti abscondite ego vero faciam verbum istud in conspectu omnis Israhel et in conspectu solis
13 et dixit David ad Nathan peccavi Domino dixitque Nathan ad David Dominus quoque transtulit peccatum tuum non morieris
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.