David’s Mourning for Absalom

³³ Then the king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept. And as he went, he said thus: ^(A)“O my son Absalom—my son, my son Absalom—if only I had died in your place! O Absalom my son, ^(B)my son!”

⁴ But the king ^(A)covered his face, and the king cried out with a loud voice, ^(B)“O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!”

Wise Sayings of Solomon

10 The proverbs of ^(A)Solomon:

¹⁰ Now therefore, ^(A)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 adversity against you from your own house; and I will ^(B)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, ^(C)but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’ ”

^13 (D)So David said to Nathan, ^(E)“I have sinned against the Lord.”

And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has ^(F)put away your sin; you shall not die. ¹⁴ However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord ^(G)to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” ¹⁵ Then Nathan departed to his house.

The Death of David’s Son

And the ^(H)Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill. ¹⁶ David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and ^(I)lay all night on the ground. ¹⁷ So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them. ¹⁸ Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, “Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm!”

¹⁹ When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?”

And they said, “He is dead.”

²⁰ So David arose from the ground, washed and ^(J)anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and ^(K)worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate. ²¹ Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”

²² And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; ^(L)for I said, ‘Who can tell whether ^[a]the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ ²³ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go ^(M)to him, but ^(N)he shall not return to me.”

³ For ^(A)I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my ^[a]countrymen according to the flesh,

³² Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, ^(A)blot me ^(B)out of Your book which You have written.”

¹⁷ Elijah was a man ^(A)with a nature like ours, and ^(B)he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.