2 Samuel 12:9-18

English Standard Version

^9 (A)Why have you despised the word of the Lord, ^(B)to do what is evil in his sight? ^(C)You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and ^(D)have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰ Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ ¹¹ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. ¹² For you did it secretly, ^(E)but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’” ^13 (F)David said to Nathan, ^(G)“I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, ^(H)“The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly ^(I)scorned the Lord,^[a] the child who is born to you shall die.” ¹⁵ Then Nathan went to his house.

David's Child Dies

And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. ¹⁶ David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David ^(J)fasted and went in ^(K)and lay all night on the ground. ¹⁷ And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. ¹⁸ On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.”