20 And if the king’s wrath shall rise, and he shall say to thee, Why approached ye so near to the city for the fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye near the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. [1] 22 So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. 23 And the messenger said to David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were upon them even to the entrance of the gate. 24 And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. 25 Then David said to the messenger, Thus shalt thou say to Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him. [2] [3] 26 And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 And when the mourning was past, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD. [4]
CHAP. 12.
1 And the LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds:
3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it fed of his own food, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him as a daughter. [5]
4 And there came a traveller to the rich man, and he was not willing to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to prepare for the wayfaring man that had come to him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man that had come to him.
5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: [6]
6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee from the hand of Saul;
8 And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given to thee such and such things.
9 Why hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before thy eyes, and give them to thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
13 And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said to David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
14 But, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born to thee shall surely die.
15 And Nathan departed to his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he was very sick.
16 David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. [7]
17 And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.
18 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he would not hearken to our voice: how will he then be grieved, if we tell him that the child is dead? [8]
19 But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said to his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.
20 Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set food before him, and he ate.
21 Then said his servants to him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while he was alive; but after the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
22 And he said, While the child was
