2 Samuel 12 · Story · Justice
Nathan Before David
Second Samuel 12 tells of a prophet's case at court, a king's confession and the death of his son.
David passed sentence on a thief in a story and learned that the sentence was his own.
Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
- Where
- Jerusalem
- Who
- Nathan, David
Summary
After David took Uriah's wife and had Uriah killed, the LORD sent the prophet Nathan to the king. Nathan brought him a case of a rich man who took a poor man's only lamb. David ruled that the man deserved to die and must repay fourfold. Nathan's answer turned the ruling on the king. David confessed, and Nathan told him that the LORD had taken away his sin, while the sword would not leave his house and the child would die.
- Nathan's case was a parable, and David judged it as a real lawsuit.
- The LORD's charge named two crimes, the killing of Uriah and the taking of his wife.
- The king stood under the same law he enforced on others.
Justice Brought to a King
A prophet with a case brought the king who judged Israel under the judgment of God.
This is the story of the day the prophet Nathan came to King David with a case for judgment. It belongs to justice, the value Scripture first names in God and then requires of every judge and king. David had used his power to take a man's wife and his life, and no court in Israel could try him.
The question the story answers is how justice reaches a king who stands above the courts. A reader meets it in a ruling the king gave against himself, a confession, a pardon and a sentence that stood. This study sets the chapter on a timeline and tells each scene with its verses. It reads the two Hebrew words on which the scene turns, tells of a bishop who rebuked an emperor, and sets out two readings of the pardon.
The Case in Eight Events
The eight events run from the end of 2 Samuel 11 to the end of chapter 12.
The verdict, the confession and the pardon fall within one conversation, 2 Samuel 12:5 to 13.
- The LORD sees what David has done"the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD"2 Samuel 11:27
- Nathan brings the king a case"There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor."2 Samuel 12:1
- David rules on the case"Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity"2 Samuel 12:6
- Nathan names David as the man"You are that man!"2 Samuel 12:7
- The LORD's charge and sentence"the sword will never depart from your house"2 Samuel 12:10
- David confesses and is pardoned"The LORD has taken away your sin"2 Samuel 12:13
- The child falls ill and dies"the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David"2 Samuel 12:15
- Solomon is born and named Jedidiah"Now the LORD loved the child"2 Samuel 12:24 to 25
A timeline of eight events, each with words of its verse from the Berean text.
The child falls ill and dies, Solomon is born and named Jedidiah
The Story Told in Order
The chapter moves from a case at court to a verdict, a confession and a death in the king's house.
A case of two men in one city2 Samuel 12:1 to 4
The prophet came under orders, and he came with a case for the king to judge (2 Samuel 12:1).
but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms and was like a daughter to him.The verse makes the animal a member of the household, which sets the size of the wrong.
Now a traveler came to the rich man, who refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.”The rich man's choice is the act the king will be asked to judge.
The king passed sentence on the rich man2 Samuel 12:5 to 6
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!The oath shows that David took the parable as a real lawsuit.
He added the sentence of the law: “he must pay for the lamb four times over” (2 Samuel 12:6). The law had set that measure for a stolen sheep, “four sheep for a sheep” (Exodus 22:1).
Nathan turned the case on the king2 Samuel 12:7 to 12
Nathan then spoke for the LORD, who had anointed David king and delivered him from Saul. The LORD asked why David had despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight (2 Samuel 12:9).
Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’The sentence on David's house answers the sword with which he killed Uriah.
The LORD added that what David had done in secret would be repaid “in broad daylight before all Israel” (2 Samuel 12:12).
David's confession2 Samuel 12:13 to 15
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.David's confession and the LORD's pardon stand in one verse.
Nevertheless, because by this deed you have shown utter contempt for the word of the LORD, the son born to you will surely die.”This verse is why the pardon cannot be read as a sentence cancelled.
The child died, and the LORD loved Solomon2 Samuel 12:15 to 25
David fasted and lay all night on the ground while the child was ill. When the servants told him of the death, he rose, washed and worshiped (2 Samuel 12:16 to 20). Bathsheba then bore a son, and they named him Solomon. Nathan brought word to name him Jedidiah “because the LORD loved him” (2 Samuel 12:24 to 25).
The study of David and Bathsheba tells 2 Samuel 11 and sets Nathan's case out as exhibits.
Three Hebrew Phrases in the Scene
David's sentence, Nathan's answer and David's confession each turn on a Hebrew phrase.
A Bishop Before an Emperor
In the fourth century Ambrose of Milan barred the emperor Theodosius from the church after a massacre.
Theodoret tells the story in his Ecclesiastical History (book 5, chapter 17, translated by Blomfield Jackson, 1892). The emperor Theodosius punished a riot at Thessalonica, and “No trial preceded the sentence.” Ambrose, bishop of Milan, barred him from the church. Eight months later the emperor signed a law that delayed sentences of death by thirty days and did public penance. Theodoret wrote decades later and admired both men.
In one of his letters Ambrose asks its reader, “Are you ashamed, sir, to do as David did,” and retells Nathan's case of the ewe lamb (Letter 51, section 7).
God Proved Right When He Judges
Psalm 51 puts the king's confession into the words of a prayer.
Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.The psalm gives in prayer the verdict Nathan gave in court.
Teachers on Nathan and David
Four teachers from the sixth century to the nineteenth read the case, the king's anger and his confession.
died 604 · Gregory the Dialogist
The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 2
Gregory the Great on reproving the powerful
The quotation1 quotation
“But sometimes, when the powerful of this world are taken to task, they are first to be searched by certain similitudes, as on a matter not concerning them; and, when they have pronounced a right sentence as against another man, then in fitting ways they are to be smitten with regard to their own guilt; so that the mind puffed up with temporal power may in no wise lift itself up against the reprover, having by its own judgment trodden on the neck of pride, and may not try to defend itself, being bound by the sentence of its own mouth.”
Gregory the Dialogist · The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 2 · on 2 Samuel 12:1 to 6Patristic
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“Nathan was obedient to the heavenly vision, and went on God's errand to David. He did not say, ‘David has sinned, I will not come near him.’ No; count him not an enemy, but admonish him as a brother, 2 Thess. iii. He did not say, ‘David is a king, I dare not reprove him.’ No; if God sends him, he sets his face like a flint, Isa. l.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on 2 Samuel 12:1Puritan
1703 to 1791 · John Wesley
Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament
The quotation1 quotation
“But it is observable, that David now when he was most indulgent to himself, and to his own sin, was most severe and even unjust to others; as appears by this passage, and the following relation, ver. 31, which was done in the time of David's impenitent continuance in his sin.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament · on 2 Samuel 12:5Evangelical
1834 to 1892 · Charles Spurgeon
The Treasury of David, Vol. 2
The quotation1 quotation
“Against thee, thee only have I sinned. The virus of sin lies in its opposition to God: the psalmist's sense of sin towards others rather tended to increase the force of this feeling of sin against God. All his wrong doing centred, culminated, and came to a climax, at the foot of the divine throne. To injure our fellow men is sin, mainly because in so doing we violate the law of God.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 · on Psalm 51:4
John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon
Two Readings of the Pardon
Nathan's words “You will not die” have been read two ways.
The pardon took away the guilt, and the sword stayed as disciplineMatthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 2 Samuel 12:10
Matthew Henry asked, “Can the mercy and the sword consist with each other?” His answer was that they can.
The pardon spoke of the death of the soulAlbert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, on 2 Samuel 12:13
Albert Barnes reads the words another way in his Notes. He wrote that they were “Not spoken of the punishment of death as affixed to adultery by the Mosaic Law”. He held that the law could not be applied to an Eastern king and that “The death of the soul is meant.”
The Verdict and the Mercy
The king who judged the case received both the verdict he gave and a mercy he did not ask for.
One prophet carried both the verdict and the mercy into the palace.
He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.Proverbs states as a general rule the mercy David found when he confessed.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible TBESH, Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0.
- Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 17, translated by Blomfield Jackson, 1892.
- Ambrose of Milan, Letter 51, section 7.
- Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule, part 3, chapter 2.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on 2 Samuel 12:1 and 12:10.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), on 2 Samuel 12:5.
- Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, volume 2 (1870), on Psalm 51:4.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old Testament, on 2 Samuel 12:13.
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