Summary: God uses Nathan—the prophet—bust David. He gives David the illustration of a rich man and poor man. The poor man only had one little ewe lamb, but the rich man stole this from him (v.3). David said that the rich man should get capital punishment for the crime, or he should pay for it four times over (v.5). Nathan turns the table on David, and he tells him that he knows what he did. God opens up by telling him all that he had done for him, and he says, “If that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these!” (v.8) As judgment, God promises David warfare and his wives being taken from him (v.11). While David deserved death, Nathan told him, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die” (v.13). He also told David that the child would die (v.14). The child dies and goes to heaven (v.23). The next son that they have is Solomon (v.24). David continued to conquer the neighboring nations, and he put the people to work (v.31).
(12:1) The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.”
Nathan wasn’t just a savvy or courageous man. It was “the Lord [who] sent Nathan to David.”
(12:2-4) The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. 4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
Nathan gives the parable (or story) of a man who took a poor man’s precious ewe lamb to slaughter, rather than many of his own. The purpose of the story is to arouse David’s moral indignation by making it a separate, hypothetical situation. David might have remembered what it was like to be poor himself (1 Sam. 18:23).
In verse 3, all three verbs were used regarding Uriah’s refusal to “eat… drink… lie…” with his wife (2 Sam. 11:11).
Why did Nathan pick a villain who was a shepherd? This would take David back to his younger days when he was a good shepherd in the hills of Israel (1 Sam. 16:11).
Nathan doesn’t even reach the point where he asks David’s opinion on the matter. Rather, David interrupts the story and pronounces judgment.
(12:5) David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die!”
David’s conscience seems to be working well for others. In fact, he is even harsh in judgment toward this hypothetical man. When people are living for sin, it’s amazing how self-righteous they can be.
When David declares that the man “deserves to die,” this is literally that the man “is a son of death.”[] This could be a play on words with what will happen to David’s own son.
(12:6) “He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
This “fourfold” punishment later comes back to haunt David. This concept of a fourfold punishment for civil crimes comes from Exodus 22:1.
Imagine how scary it would be to make this rebuke to the king. After all, David had just gone through an intricate plot to kill Uriah. Nathan might’ve wondered if David would kill him as well.
(12:7-8) Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! 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. 8 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.”
“I gave… your master’s wives into your arms.” When a new king was coronated, he inherited everything that belonged to the old king. Therefore, this is not teaching that God approves of adultery. Rather, it is a general statement that God gave the kingship to David, and all that it included. God “gave” (nātan) these wives to David, but later we read that God will “give” (nātan) these same wives to Absalom (v.11; cf. 2 Sam. 16:21-22). Copan writes, “Surely this kind of ‘giving’ has the broad sense of permission—not divine blessing and approval… All that belonged to Saul was automatically transferred to David’s household… In the language of the prophet Nathan’s lamb parable (2 Sam. 12:1-5), David had everything—including a ‘flock’ of women—but he nevertheless forcibly took another’s ‘lamb’ (Bathsheba).”[]
Nathan’s setup works on David. He turns the tables and reveals that David is guilty of far worse.
God had rescued David from Saul. But now, David was turning into Saul.
God reminds David of all of the ways that he had blessed him, and God would’ve kept on blessing him. Yet, when we are in the flesh, no amount of blessing is enough!
(12:9) “Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.”
Nathan specifically calls out the sin. He doesn’t allow it to be vague; he names the specific sins.
Saul had been rejected by God for rejecting God’s word as well (1 Sam. 15:23).
(12:10) “Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.”
This is a reference to constant warfare. David’s casual and insensitive words at the death of Uriah (“the sword devours one as well as another”) now come back to haunt him (2 Sam. 11:25). God is going to lift his protection off of David’s life and kingdom.
(12:11) “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight.’”
This is later fulfilled in his son Absalom (2 Sam. 16:20-22). All three of David’s sons learn their sexual sin from their father: Amnon raping Tamar (2 Sam. 13:8-14), Absalom having an orgy with the women in the harem (2 Sam. 16:20-22), and Adonijah trying to take David’s concubine after David’s death (1 Kings 2:13-17).
Just as David “took” Bathsheba, God will “take” David’s wives.
(12:12) “You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
This is reminiscent of Moses’ words: “Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret” (Deut. 27:24). Nathan is saying that God’s blessing will be replaced by a divine curse.
In other nations, the king would’ve simply killed this measly prophet. For example, when Thomas More confronted Henry VIII for his illicit sexual activity and immoral divorce, the king had him beheaded! While most kings throughout history practiced rex lex (“the king is law”), David practiced lex rex (“the law is king”). That is, the king submitted to God (Deut. 17:15, 20). King Saul never received the rebukes of the prophet Samuel very well (1 Sam. 13:12; 15:13, 20). It would’ve been easy for David to merely say, “Off with his head!” He could’ve kept resisting God’s conviction by hiding his sin further or by making a display of power. How will David react?
(12:13-14) Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
David responds with repentance (Ps. 51:4), and God forgives him for the sin (v.13). Yet, the consequences still remain (v.14). Youngblood comments, “The fact that God does not hesitate to strike people down for what might be considered lesser infractions makes his forbearance in David’s case all the more noteworthy.”[]
Why does David make the focus of his sin against God—not people? Bergen writes, “Had David not rebelled against the Lord’s Word, these persons would not have been murdered or abused.”[] Furthermore, God is the ultimate good, and he loves all people. So, if we sin against people, we have sinned against God far, far more. If someone hurts my son, this enrages me far more than if they hurt me personally. Indeed, I would take it far more personal if someone tried to harm my son! And I am merely a sinner like the other 8 billion people on the planet. God, however, has never sinned, and he sees everything. David knew that his sin was ultimately against God, and only derivatively against people.
(12:15-17) After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
David prayed for the consequences to be revoked. While David was forgiven (v.13), the consequences remained.
David sleeps exactly where Uriah had slept in faithfulness to David and the Lord (2 Sam. 11:9).
The people urging David to eat are similar to the people urging Saul to eat after his judgment from Samuel (1 Sam. 31).
(12:18) On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”
There could be some significance to the fact that the child dies on the “seventh day.” Hebrew boys were circumcised on the eighth day. Bergen writes, “David’s son was conceived as a result of David’s contempt for the Lord’s covenant (cf. v. 9), so it was painfully fitting that the child should be permanently excluded from Israel’s covenant community (cf. Gen 17:14). This seventh-day death may also explain why the child is never referred to by name; perhaps the child never received a name, since under normal circumstances naming might not occur until after the child received the covenant sign (cf. Luke 1:59-62).”[]
(12:19) David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked.
“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”
David discerned that his child had died. He must’ve been picking up on their hushed tones and avoiding eye contact with him.
(12:20) Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.
This judgment from God didn’t cause David to become bitter. Instead, it caused him to turn to God in worship and prayer.
(12:21) His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”
The servants have a good question: “Why would you stop mourning and fasting now that the child has died?”
(12:22-23) He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
David must have believed in an afterlife—even for newborn babies. He wasn’t simply comforted by death (after all, why would this be comforting?). David was comforted by the thought that he would one day be reunited with his son.[]
(12:24-25) Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; 25 and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.
Even though God wouldn’t revoke the consequences for David’s sin, God continued to bless David’s life. In fact, Solomon would become David’s most godly son.
David didn’t seek his own comfort, but rather, he comforted Bathsheba.
The fact that God “loved” Solomon seems to harken back to the Davidic Covenant articulated earlier (2 Sam. 7:11-16). God promised to discipline David’s line, but never forsake them. Jedidiah means, “Loved by the Lord.”[]
This is the first time that God calls this David’s wife—even though they’d been married for a year.
(12:26-27) Meanwhile Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal citadel. 27 Joab then sent messengers to David, saying, “I have fought against Rabbah and taken its water supply.
This whole narrative began with David staying home, while his men fought against the Ammonites (2 Sam. 11:1). Even though David was suffering at home, the battle still continued.
(12:28) “Now muster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it. Otherwise I will take the city, and it will be named after me.”
Joab wants reinforcements. Otherwise, he is going to take full credit for this battle by naming the city after himself. After all, Joab did all of the fighting.
(12:29-30) So David mustered the entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it. 30 David took the crown from their king’s head, and it was placed on his own head. It weighed a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones.
David learns his lesson that a king should be going out to war (contra 2 Sam. 11:1). David wins the battle with the Ammonites and takes the gold from the Ammonite king. This battle could have been avoided if the Ammonites hadn’t rejected David’s initial kindness (2 Sam. 10:2).
(12:31) David took a great quantity of plunder from the city and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes, and he made them work at brickmaking. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then he and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.
David lacked control in this area for years. Earlier, we read, “David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him” (2 Sam. 5:12-13). David had six wives at this point (e.g. Michal, Ahinoam, Abigail, Haggith, Abital, Eglah). Yet, the Law stated, “[The king] must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray” (Deut. 17:17). He had been losing this battle for years.
David was living a lazy lifestyle. One of the reasons for losing it spiritually is that we are not keeping busy with the ministry God has given us (v.1). Paul writes, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). This isn’t the trial of failure, but the trial of success.
David missed his way of escape. First, he caught a glance of Bathsheba naked. He could’ve walked away, but he gazed at her.
Next, he began asking about her. What was the purpose of this? Maybe he thought, “If she’s single, I’ll just take a seventh wife. No big deal… I already have five more than I should… What’s the harm with six more?” Yet, he found out that she was married to his close friend, and she was the daughter and granddaughter of loyal friends. This would’ve been the time to walk away. But once the lust started going, even these answers didn’t dissuade him.
Finally, he had her over for dinner. “After all,” he must’ve thought, “what’s wrong with two people getting dinner? I don’t want to be legalistic or anything.”
David had many opportunities to escape having a fall. But he refused to exercise his free will and choose the “way out.” As Paul writes, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure” (1 Cor. 10:13 NLT).
David trusted his past victories too much. He might’ve thought that he was too godly to have a fall like this. After all, who here is more spiritually minded than David? He felt guilty for just cutting off Saul’s robe (1 Sam. 24:5), and he wrote 73 of the psalms. God even called him a man after his own heart. But look at him now! What does all of this mean? If David could fall, then so could you and me.
Sin always leaves us wanting more. How many wives do you need before your sexual lust will be fulfilled? David had six wives at this point (e.g. Michal, Ahinoam, Abigail, Haggith, Abital, Eglah), and he had many concubines (2 Samuel 5:12-13). But that still wasn’t enough. When we sin, we become enslaved to it (John 8:34).
Sin distorts the future. He couldn’t see the consequences accurately. One night of sex ruined his leadership, family, etc.
Sin took David to lengths that he could’ve never imagined. Adultery, murder, lying, conspiracy, etc.
Sin made David extremely self-righteous. Theft wasn’t a capital crime (2 Samuel 12:5).
He didn’t blame-shift, minimize, etc. He simply admitted fault (2 Samuel 12:13).
He focused on God—not people. He said he sinned “against the LORD” (2 Samuel 12:13).
He stopped the image management. Think of how much effort, energy, and tragedy went into covering up his sin?
He had a good friend who spoke the truth. David’s accountability really changed when he lost Jonathan from his life. How could no one see David falling in sin with Bathsheba? He must’ve been neglecting his wife and family. He must’ve surrounded himself with “yes” men. He must’ve created a “culture of compromise.” Where were David’s peers? Joab—his general—participated in the cover up. Only Nathan had the courage to step up. Do you have friends who do this? This doesn’t happen on Snapchat.
There’s no sin so small that it doesn’t warrant damnation, but no sin so big that it cannot be forgiven.
It’s interesting how God fixes a bad situation. He doesn’t call on David and Bathsheba to divorce. He does take the kid from them, but he ushers him into heaven.
This passage shows the bold courage of Nathan to call out David—even though Nathan could’ve died in the process. We often have to speak the truth in love in a form of confrontation—yet we never worry that the person would kill us!
Nathan doesn’t just bring prophetic words of judgment, but also prophetic words of grace (vv.13-14) and comfort (v.25). Nathan returns in 1 Kings to make sure Solomon will secure the throne (1 Kings 1).
This passage also shows David’s humility. He could’ve doubled down on his schemes and his cover-up with Uriah. But instead, he humbled repents before God and Nathan.
Pastor Chuck Smith notes that David develops a moral passivity from this point forward. He is never the same after this event. Pastor Joe Focht frequently notes that David was a worse king after this fall into sin, but he was a better psalmist.
David names one of his sons after Nathan (1 Chron. 3:5).
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 943.
Paul Copan, Is God a Vindictive Bully? (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2022), 159, 160.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 946.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 373.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 375.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 949.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 949.
James is an elder at Dwell Community Church, where he teaches classes in theology, apologetics, and weekly Bible studies.
