1And Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and one poor.”
2The rich man had very many flocks and herds,
3but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished it, and it grew up together with him and with his children. From his morsel it would eat, and from his cup it would drink, and in his bosom it would lie; and it was to him like a daughter.
4Now a traveler came to the rich man, but he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; so he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.
5Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this is a son of death!
6And he shall repay the ewe lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
7Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: ‘I anointed you as king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
8I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your bosom, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that were too little, I would add for you as much again.
9Why have you despised the word of Yahweh, doing what is evil in his eyes? Uriah the Hittite you struck down with the sword, and his wife you took for yourself as a wife; and him you killed by the sword of the sons of Ammon.
10So now the sword shall not depart from your house forever, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’
11Thus says Yahweh: ‘Behold, I am raising up against you disaster out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companions, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
12For you did it in secret, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’”
13Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Yahweh.” And Nathan said to David, “Yahweh also has removed your sin; you shall not die.
14Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the enemies of Yahweh, the son also who is born to you shall surely die.”
15Then Nathan went to his house. And Yahweh struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and it became gravely ill.
16David sought God on behalf of the boy; David fasted a fast, and he went in and spent the night and lay on the ground.
17The elders of his house stood over him to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling, and he would not eat food with them.
18On the seventh day the child died. And 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 our voice; how then can we say to him, ‘The child is dead’? He may do harm.”
19But David saw that his servants were whispering together, and David understood that the child was dead. So David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”
20Then David rose from the ground, washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes, and he came into the house of Yahweh and worshiped. Then he came to his own house, and when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate.
21His servants said to him, “What is this thing you have done? For the child’s sake, while he was alive, you fasted and wept; but when the child died, you rose and ate food.”
22He said, “While the child was still alive I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows? Yahweh may be gracious to me, and the child may live.’
23But now he is dead; why should I fast this? Can I bring him back again? I am going to him, but he will not return to me.”
24Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and he went in to her and lay with her. She bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And Yahweh loved him,
25and he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he called his name Jedidiah, for Yahweh’s sake.
26Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon and captured the royal city.
27Then Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah; indeed, I have captured the city of waters.
28So now, gather the rest of the people, and encamp against the city and capture it, lest I myself capture the city and my name be called over it.”
29So David gathered all the people and went to Rabbah, and he fought against it and captured it.
30He took the crown of their king from off his head — its weight was a talent of gold, and there was a precious stone in it — and it was placed on David’s head. And he brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount.
31And the people who were in it he brought out and set to work at the saw and at iron picks and at iron axes, and made them pass through the brick-mold; and so he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
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