CHAPTER 12
1 Therefore the Lord sent Nathan to David; and when he had come to David, he said to him, Answer thou a doom to me; two men were in one city; one man was rich, and the tother was poor.
2 The rich man had full many sheep, and oxen;
3 and the poor man had utterly nothing, except one little sheep, which he had bought, and nourished, and which had waxed at or with him, and with his sons, and ate together of his bread, and drank of his cup, and slept in his bosom; and it was as a daughter to him.
4 But when a pilgrim came to this rich man, he spared to take of his own sheep and oxen, that he should make a feast to that pilgrim, that came to him; and he took the sheep of the poor man, and prepared meats to the man that came to him.
5 Certainly David was full wroth with indignation against that man, and he said to Nathan, The Lord liveth, for the man that did this thing is the son of death, that is, is worthy of death, for the hideousness of the deed;
6 he shall yield the sheep into four-fold, for he did this word, and spared not.
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art that man, that hast done this thing. The Lord God of Israel saith these things, I anointed thee into king on Israel, and I delivered thee from the hand of Saul,
8 and I gave to thee the house of thy lord, and the wives of thy lord in thy bosom, and I gave to thee the house of Israel, and of Judah; and if these things be little, I shall add to thee much greater things.
9 Why therefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord, that thou didest evils in my sight? Thou hast killed by sword Uriah the Hittite, and thou hast taken his wife into wife to thee, and thou hast slain him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.
10 Wherefore a sword shall not go away from thine house till into with-out end; for thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite, that she should be thy wife.
11 Therefore the Lord saith these things, Lo! I shall raise upon thee the evil of thine house, and I shall take thy wives in thine eyes or thy sight, and I shall give them to thy neigh-bour, and he shall sleep with thy wives in the eyes of this sun.
12 For thou hast done thy sin privily; forsooth I shall do this word in the sight of all Israel, and in the sight of this sun.
13 And David said to Nathan, I have sinned to the Lord. And Nathan said to David, Also the Lord hath turned away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
14 Nevertheless for thou hast made [the] enemies to blaspheme the name of the Lord, for this word the child that is born to thee shall die by death.
15 And Nathan turned again into his house. And the Lord smote the little child, whom the wife of Uriah childed to David, and he despaired.
16 And David prayed to the Lord for the little child; and David fasted by fasting, and entered asides half, and lay on the earth.
17 And the elder men of his house came, and constrained him, that he should rise up from the earth; and he would not, neither he ate meat with them.
18 And it befelled in the seventh day, that the young child died; and the servants of David dreaded to tell to him, that the little child was dead; for they said, Lo! while the little child lived yet, we spake to him, and he heard not our voice; how much more, if we say the child is dead, he shall torment himself?
19 Therefore when David had heard his servants speaking privily, either muttering, he understood that the young child was dead; and he said to his servants, Whether the child is dead? Which answered to him, He is dead.
20 Therefore David rose up from the earth, and was washed, and anointed; and when he had changed his clothes, he entered into the house of the Lord, and worshipped, and came into his house; and he asked, that they should set bread to him, and he ate.
21 And his servants said to him, What is the word that thou hast done? Thou hast fasted, and wept for the young child, while he lived yet; but when the child was dead, thou risedest or hast risen up, and atest bread?
22 And David said, I fasted and wept for the young child, when he lived yet; for I said, Who knoweth, if per-adventure the Lord give him to me, and the young child live?
23 But now for he is dead, why fast I? whether I shall be able to again-call him more? I shall go more to him, but he shall not turn again to me.
24 And David comforted Bathsheba, his wife; and he entered [in] to her, and slept with her. And she engendered a son, and David called his name Solomon; and the Lord loved him.
25 And he sent him in the hand of Nathan, the prophet; and he called his name Amiable to the Lord, for the Lord loved him.
26 Then Joab fought against Rabbah, of the sons of Ammon, and he fought against the king’s city.
27 And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and the city of waters shall be taken.
28 Now therefore gather thou the tother part of the people, and besiege thou the city, and take thou it, lest when the city is wasted of me, the victory be areckoned to my name.
29 Therefore David gathered together all the people, and he went forth against Rabbah; and when he had fought against that city, he took it.
30 And he took the diadem of the king of them from his head, by weight [of] a talent of gold, and having precious pearls; and it was put on the head of David; but also David bare away full much prey of the city.
31 And he led forth the people thereof, and sawed them, and did about them iron instruments of torment, and parted with knives, and led over by the likeness of tilestones; so he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. And David turned again, and all his host, into Jerusalem.