2 Samuel 12:7-23 - LSB - Legacy Standard Bible

2 Samuel 12:7-23

7 Nathan then said to David, “^aYou are the man! Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘^bIt is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I also gave you ^ayour master’s house and your master’s wives into your ¹care, 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 ^ahave you despised the word of Yahweh by doing evil in His sight? ^bYou have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, ^chave taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. 10 So now, ^athe 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 Yahweh, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; ^aI will even take your wives from before your sight and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 Indeed ^ayou did it secretly, but ^bI will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’” 13 Then David said to Nathan, “^aI have sinned against Yahweh.” And Nathan said to David, “Yahweh also has ¹^btaken away your sin; you shall not die. 14 However, because by this deed you have ^agiven occasion to the enemies of Yahweh to blaspheme, the son also that is born to you shall surely die.” 15 And Nathan went to his house.

David’s Child Dies

Then Yahweh smote the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, so that he was very sick. 16 David therefore sought God about the boy; and David ^afasted and went and ^bspent the night lying on the ground. 17 ^aAnd the 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 has died? He might do himself harm!” 19 And David saw that his servants were whispering together, so David discerned that the child had died; so David said to his servants, “Has the child died?” And they said, “He has died.” 20 So David arose from the ground, ^awashed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he came into the house of Yahweh and ^bworshiped. Then he came to his own house, and he asked, and they set food before him, and he ate.
21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? ¹While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” 22 Then he said, “While the child was still alive, ^aI fasted and wept; for I said, ‘^bWho knows, Yahweh may be gracious to me, that the child may live.’ 23 But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? ^aI will go to him, but ^bhe will not return to me.”