Morning in Jerusalem: a lone prophet with a staff, small and seen from behind, walks up a narrow stone street between flat-roofed houses toward the plain gate of the king's stone-and-cedar house at the top of the ridge, under a calm, clear sky.

The Book of

2 Samuel 12

The LORD sends Nathan to the king with a story about a poor man’s lamb.

31 verses≈ 7 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

Tap any post to go deeper

In this chapter

Where we are

1–4King in HebronThe house of Saul falls
5–6JerusalemThe ark comes home
7–10A house foreverGod's promise to David
11–12David's sinBathsheba and NathanChapter 12
13–20The swordAmnon, Absalom and Sheba
21–24Last wordsSongs, heroes and an altar

Nathan Rebukes David

Then the LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he arrived, he said, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

The rich man had a great number of sheep and cattle,

but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms and was like a daughter to him.

A town street at dusk: a rich man's servant carries a small white ewe lamb away under his arm while a poor man stands in his doorway with empty hands, his two small children clinging to him.

Now a traveler came to the rich man, who refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.”

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.”

Question

Quick question

Nathan told the king about two men in one city, “one rich and the other poor.”

In Nathan’s story, what did the poor man have?

2 Samuel 12:7

This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more.

Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own. You have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.

Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.

2 Samuel 12:10

This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight. You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”

David’s Loss and Repentance

David

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

Nathan the prophet

“The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.

The LORD has taken away your sin

2 Samuel 12:13

Nevertheless, because by this deed you have shown utter contempt for the word of the LORD, the son born to you will surely die.”

Pray

“I have sinned against the LORD”

Thank the LORD that He takes away the sin of everyone who confesses it to Him, as Nathan told David, “The LORD has taken away your sin.” Ask Him for honest confession without excuses, the kind David prayed in Psalm 51, and for trust in His goodness when His discipline is hard.

On the seventh day the child died.

David’s servants

But David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Look, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not listen to us. So how can we tell him the child is dead? He may even harm himself.”

When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he perceived that the child was dead.

David

So he asked his servants, “Is the child dead?”

David’s servants

“He is dead,” they replied.

Early morning before the tent of the LORD on the hilltop in Jerusalem: King David, washed and in a clean plain robe, kneels before the tent's closed curtain with his hands lifted, the courtyard empty around him.

Then David got up from the ground, washed and anointed himself, changed his clothes, and went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they set food before him, and he ate.

0:11

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

David’s servants

“What is this you have done?” his servants asked. “While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but when he died, you got up and ate.”

David

David answered, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let him live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

I will go to him, but he will not return to me.

2 Samuel 12:23

Reflect

“Who knows?”

David prayed hard while there was hope: “Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me.” Then, when the answer came, he got up, worshiped, and accepted it. Is there a prayer you are still waiting on, or an answer you need to accept? Write to God about both.

Solomon’s Birth

Forgiven, yet disciplined

Whiteboard

David had “acted in secret,” but Nathan’s word exposed it: “You are that man!” When David confessed, “I have sinned against the LORD,” the LORD took away his sin and spared his life. The discipline still came, the sword in his house and the death of the child. And so, as the next verses show, did grace.

Lamplight in a plain room of the king's house: Bathsheba, veiled and fully dressed, seen from the side, holds the swaddled newborn Solomon against her shoulder beside a woven cradle.

Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. So she gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon.

Now the LORD loved the child

and sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah because the LORD loved him.

The Capture of Rabbah

From a hillside: the walled royal city of Rabbah high on its citadel hill, and below it the lower town by a spring and stream in the valley, where Israel's soldiers hold the gate; dark goat-hair tents of the besieging camp on the slopes around.

Meanwhile, Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal fortress. Then Joab sent messengers to David to say, “I have fought against Rabbah and have captured the water supply of the city.

Now, therefore, assemble the rest of the troops, lay siege to the city, and capture it. Otherwise I will capture the city, and it will be named after me.”

So David assembled all the troops and went to Rabbah; and he fought against it and captured it.

A massive crown of beaten gold set with large precious stones rests on a dark wool cloth on a wooden table in a tent of Israel's camp, beside heaped plunder of bronze bowls, rolled cloth and jars.

Then he took the crown from the head of their king. It weighed a talent of gold and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city.

David brought out the people who were there and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes, and he made them work at the brick kilns. He did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.

You’ve experienced

2 Samuel 12

0 of 24 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied.

2 Samuel 12:13

or swipe left