Chapter Twelve
Nathan Rebukes David
12:1 And the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.
We are not told how much time had passed, but since Nathan was the one who told David about the great news of an eternal covenant between God and David (see 2 Samuel 7:1-17) that he would likely be considered a friend to David and possibly would not have expected a chastisement from God when he came to visit David. Nathan begins to tell David a parable, however, based on David’s reaction, he may have thought it was a true story. The parable is about two men and they both live in the same city, one of the men was rich and the other man was poor.
12:2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.
The wealthy man had a great number of flocks and herds, but the poor man had only one ewe lamb, which he bought, brought it up, and it grew up with the man and his family. Being the family pet, it ate and drank out of the man’s provision and was cared for like one of the family.
12:4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
When the rich man had a guest, he was unwilling to take a lamb from his abundant flock or herd, so instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.
12:5 Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, 6 and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
David immediately got angry and told Nathan, as YHWH lives, the man who took the lamb deserves to die, and that he is to restore the lamb by giving the poor man four lambs (see Exodus 22:1) because he did this and that he had no pity! David’s response is often considered to be somewhat overly dramatic as the theft of a lamb is not a capital crime.
12:7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. 8 And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.
Nathan exposes the fact that the rich man in his parable was David. Nathan then tells him that YHWH, the God of Israel, said, “I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.” (2 Samuel 12:8, NIV) God gave him everything and if that wasn’t enough, He would have given him more. Although he never married any of Saul’s wives, God had given David, as king of Israel, everything that was Saul’s.
12:9 Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
Through Nathan, God asks David why he despised the word of YHWH, and do what was evil in His sight. He then revealed that David killed Uriah with the sword and took his wife to be his wife using the ploy that Uriah was struck down by the Ammonites.
12:10 Now therefore the 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 out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’ ”
As a result, the sword shall never depart from his house, because he despised God and taken the wife of Uriah to be his own wife.
In the restatement of David’s offenses, the Lord personalized the king’s transgression against the deity. David had not merely despised the Lord’s word; he had despised the Lord himself. The Lord and his Word were inseparable: to neglect or offend the word of the Torah—that is, the word of the Lord—was to neglect or offend the Lord.[1]
12:13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die.” 15a Then Nathan went to his house.
David confesses to Nathan that he sinned against YHWH. Nathan told him that he will not be punished by death, that YHWH has put away his sin. But, because this deed utterly scorned (Hebrew ni·ʾēṣ’ ni·ʾǎṣ’·tā, to revile, to despise, to reject, having the word repeated emphasizes the point allowing the use of utterly) YHWH, the child who is born to him will die. Then Nathan left.
The Lord’s judgment is duly harsh yet merciful: David had committed a sin whose only stated penalty was death (cf. Lev 20:10; Deut 22:22), yet the Lord sovereignly promised that the king would not die…Uriah had died because of David’s sin, but God decreed that death would enter David’s life as well: “the sword will never depart from your house” (v. 10). This dark judgment presages fatal violence within David’s family and can be seen as the literary motivation for chaps. 13–19 as well as 1 Kings 1–2. All told, four of David’s sons would experience premature death—an unnamed son (cf. 12:18), Amnon (cf. 13:29), Absalom (cf. 18:14–15), and Adonijah (cf. 1 Kgs 2:25).[2]
Although it appears that David was unrepentant for nearly a year (we see that the child was born in verse fourteen), that does not mean he had no guilty conscience or didn’t suffer during that time, as those feelings come to surface when he wrote Psalm 51. True, this psalm was written after he was exposed, but when we read these words they reveal a true penitent heart, not one that was sorry they got caught (see also Psalm 32:1-5). Here are the words to Psalm 51:1-19, from the New Living Translation (NLT):
1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. 3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. 5 For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. 6 But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.
7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice. 9 Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. 13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you. 14 Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. 15 Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you.
16 You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. 18 Look with favor on Zion and help her; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit— with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.
We read in Psalm 32:1-5 that whenever David had any unconfessed sin it weighed heavily on his mind and spirit, David was ready to repent. In Psalm 51:4 he acknowledges that his sin was against God, and only Him, that should not be considered a denial of any offense against Bathsheba, Uriah, or even the nation of Israel, but that all sin is first and foremost a sin against God.
Considerations
A Sin Too Big to be Forgiven?
Humanity often views the concept of sin against God as being either trivial, not being important at all, or with grave concern of being punished by God. While the correct viewpoint probably lies in between those two extremes, it points to another viewpoint that is exclusively human, that is the idea of ‘weighing’ sin. Most people have some view as to what they believe is fair, as well as the concept of what constitutes a minor crime, such as stealing a candy bar, and that of a major crime, like murder, and therefore the penalty or punishment should be doled out accordingly. Most government-based justice systems offers rules with guidelines that provide the framework for attaching the appropriate penalty for each crime. But even with the guidelines a magistrate or judge can overrule and change the penalty, or even forgive and exonerate the guilty person. When a person is forgiven for stealing a candy bar, our sense of fairness would be less ‘offended’ than someone being forgiven for murder, actually in most people it would be considered inappropriate and raise some hostile and angry reactions!
But with God, a sin is a sin, they are not weighed as humans do. If one sin is committed, regardless of our perceived degree of ‘badness’, they are guilty of sin and will be called a sinner (just like when a person commits a crime, they are from that time on, they are called a criminal). Plus, He views not the act by itself, but the person’s heart. One of the more amazing things about God is that He can and does forgive, and we are told He forgets those forgiven sins (see Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 38:17; 43:25; Micah 7:19). That being another difference between us and God, as we are not quick to do either one! But because He does know our hearts, He knows when a confession is real or just “lip service.”
When confronted with his sin, David demonstrated that he was a man “after God’s heart.” Instead of denying his sin, he admitted that he had sinned against YHWH. And He forgave him. Unlike man, no sin is too great for God to forgive.
The Child Dies
12:15b And the LORD afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick.
As God told Nathan in the previous verse that the child will die, He afflicted the child with a sickness.
12:16 David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 17 And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.
Even though God told him that the child would die due to him utterly scorning YHWH, David prayed that God would be merciful and spare the child’s life nonetheless. David fasted and laid on the ground, while the elders of his house (likely his royal advisors and other heads of state) stood nearby trying to persuade him to get up, but would not.
David the man of prayer (cf. Ps 109:4) “pleaded with God for the child” (v. 16). David’s efforts on behalf of his beloved infant were intense, fueled both by a father’s natural compassion for a sick child and by a profound confidence in God’s mercy. Without hesitation the king “fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground.” David’s self-denial and self-abasement probably should be interpreted as a demonstration of his remorse for the sins he had committed, carried out in an effort to gain a reprieve for his son. Alternatively, they may have been an effort to demonstrate to God that the child’s recovery was more important to him than either food, comfort, or pride.[3]
12:18 On the seventh day 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 yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.”
The child died on the seventh day, but the servants did not want to tell David that his son was dead because they were concerned that he might harm himself.
12:19 But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.” 20 Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate.
Hearing his servants whispering, David perceived that the child may have died and inquired if that was so, and was told, “He is dead.” David then got up, washed, anointed himself (Hebrew yā’·sěḵ, to pour upon, usually oil, perhaps a lotion), changed his clothes and went into the house of YHWH (likely the tent where the Ark of the Covenant was located) and worshiped. Afterwards he went back to his home and asked for food to be brought to him and he ate.
12:21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” 22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ 23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”
The servants were perplexed by David’s actions and inquired why did he fast while the child was alive and then when he heard that the child was dead, he got up and ate. He replied, while his son was alive he appealed to God to be gracious and allow the child to live. But now that he had died, there is no reason to continue fasting, it wouldn’t bring the child back to life again. David then says something truly remarkable, that the child cannot return to him, but he will go to the child. He understood that there was life after death.
Considerations
What did David mean when he said, “I will go to the child?”
Some believe that David is referring to Sheol the temporary holding location of the dead prior to judgment and not heaven (click here to read more about Sheol). But David was confident that his son would meet him in heaven and that he would recognize and know him there. This is an indication that infants and young children who pass from this world are saved.
David knew that the little baby was saved. He said, “I will go to him someday.” David knew that when death came to him, he would be reunited with his son.
A child dying in infancy goes to be with the Lord. Matthew 18:10 says, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” The word angels in this verse should be translated “spirits.” When a little baby dies today, that baby goes immediately to be with the Lord. That is the teaching of the Word of God. I don’t know about you, but this means a great deal to me because I have a little one up there, and I am looking forward to one day being with her.
David could rejoice when his infant son died because he knew that one day he would see him again. That was not the case when his son Absalom died many years later. Absalom was a heartbreak to David. When he died, David wept and mourned. Why? David was not sure Absalom was saved.[4]
Solomon is Born
12:24 Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him 25 and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.
David comforted Bathsheba and once again laid with her and God was gracious to them and she bore a son and David named him Solomon (Hebrew šᵉlō·mō(h)’, meaning peace). We are told that YHWH loved him and sent a message through Nathan that expresses that love, as God gave him the name Jedidiah which means, “Beloved of YHWH.”
Rabbah Is Captured
12:26 Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and took the royal city.
The narrative returns to the battlefront, Joab and his men are still fighting against the Ammonites at Rabbah, here identified as their royal city. The siege conducted by the slow process of blockade could now have been easily extended into nearly two years (time required for the conception and birth of two children). The success and victory comes only after David was able to get right with God. Here we read that Joab was able to get an upper hand that finally captured the city.
The story of the Ammonite war serves as a frame around the account of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah. The frame serves to indicate synchronicity—the war was going on at the same time that David was at war with Yahweh and his laws. But it also serves to show that, while at the beginning (2 Sam 11:1) Yahweh’s anointed king was sitting at home, disengaged.[5]
12:27 And Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah; moreover, I have taken the city of waters.
So Joab sent messengers to David to inform him that he had taken the “city of waters.” According to Josephus:
Joab sorely distressed the Ammonites in the siege, by cutting off their waters, and depriving them of other means of subsistence, till they were in the greatest want of meat and drink, for they depended only on one small well of water, and this they durst not drink of too freely, lest the fountain should entirely fail them.[6]
12:28 Now then gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called by my name.”
In his message to David, Joab now calls him to gather the rest of his troops to come to Rabbah and encamp against the rest of the city and take it. He goads David to come by claiming that if he doesn’t come, he is going to name the city after himself. Joab was undoubtedly aware of David’s family problems and wanted David to return to being the king. In a sense he was politely saying, “Stop sitting around and get down here!”
12:29 So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. 30 And he took the crown of their king from his head. The weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David’s head. And he brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount.
David responded by gathering his army together and attacked Rabbah and was victorious. One of the spoils of the battle was a crown. We are told that David took the crown of the king from his head. The crown was made of gold that weighed one talent (approximately seventy-five pounds) and, “it had in its middle a precious stone called a sardonyx.”[7] The Hebrew word that is translated as ‘king’ is mǎl·kā, which does mean king, but since it is also considered a variation of Milcom, the name of the Ammonite god, and due to the crown’s enormous weight, it is thought by some that it may have been on a statute of Milcom, and not on a human king’s head. The crown was placed on David’s head, who also brought out of the city a significant amount of spoil.
12:31 And he brought out the people who were in it and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them toil at the brick kilns. And thus he did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
David displaced the people of Rabbah and turned them into slaves and assigned them labor with saws, iron picks (Hebrew ḥǎri·ṣê’, sharp cutting instrument, wedge, a tool), and iron axes, to work at the brick kilns. He conquered each of the Ammonite cities, plundered them, and made the people in those cities slaves as well. Afterwards, he and his army returned to Jerusalem.
This verse has been understood by some as meaning that David tortured the Ammonites with the tools mentioned in this verse. KJV, for example, says that David “put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln.” Most interpreters, however, understand this to mean that David forced them to do different kinds of work, using these tools for that work.[8]
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[1] Bergen, R. D. (1996). 1, 2 Samuel (Vol. 7, p. 372). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Bergen, R. D. (1996). 1, 2 Samuel (Vol. 7, p. 369, 372). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] Bergen, R. D. (1996). 1, 2 Samuel (Vol. 7, p. 374). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[4] McGee, J. V. (1997). Thru the Bible commentary (electronic ed., Vol. 2, p. 216). Thomas Nelson.
[5] Hoffner, H. A., Jr. (2015). 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 2, pp. 468). Lexham Press.
[6] Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1987). The works of Josephus: complete and unabridged (p. 193). Hendrickson.(Antiquities of the Jews, book VII, chapter vii, section 5, number 159)
[7] Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1987). The works of Josephus: complete and unabridged (p. 193). Hendrickson.(Antiquities of the Jews, book VII, chapter vii, section 5, number 161)
[8] Omanson, R. L., & Ellington, J. (2001). A handbook on second book of Samuel (p. 863). United Bible Societies.