³ So David sent servants and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not ^(A)Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of ^(B)Uriah the Hittite?”

⁹ Why ^(A)have you despised the word of the Lord, by doing evil in His sight? ^(B)You have struck and killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, you ^(C)have taken his wife as your wife, and you have slaughtered him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. ¹⁰ Now then, ^(D)the sword shall never leave your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ ¹¹ This is what the Lord says: ‘Behold, I am going to raise up evil against you from your own household; ^(E)I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will sleep with your wives in ^[a]broad daylight. ¹² Indeed, ^(F)you did it secretly, but ^(G)I will do this thing before all Israel, and ^[b]in open daylight.’” ¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “^(H)I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has ^(I)allowed your sin to pass; you shall not die. ¹⁴ However, since by this deed you have ^(J)shown utter disrespect for the ^[c]Lord, the child himself who is born to you shall certainly die.” ¹⁵ Then Nathan went to his house.

Loss of a Child

Later the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s ^[d]widow bore to David, so that he was very sick. ¹⁶ David therefore pleaded with God for the child; and David ^(K)fasted and went and ^(L)lay all night on the ground. ^17 (M)The elders of his household stood beside him in order to help him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them. ¹⁸ Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to ^[e]us. How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm?” ¹⁹ But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; so David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”

^5 (A)These were the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and ^(B)Solomon, four by ^(C)Bath-shua the daughter of Ammiel;