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2 Samuel 12:19

in 2 Samuel 12

When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he perceived that the child was dead. So he asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” “He is dead,” they replied.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.

KJV

But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.

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This verse in 2 Samuel 12

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

on the seventh day, that the child died

on 2 Samuel 12:18-19

The servants fear to tell David the child has died, reasoning that a man who would not be comforted while there was hope will do himself harm once hope is gone. David reads the answer in their whispering before anyone speaks it, and his question is as plain as Nathan's sentence had been, is the child dead. Matthew Henry notes the household's fear says as much about the seven days just past as anything recorded, for they had watched a king brought lower than any subject by grief for a son not yet named. The answer, he is dead, closes the sentence of verse fourteen exactly as it was spoken.

This site's exposition

his servants were whispering to one another

Henry says the child died on the seventh day, before he could be circumcised on the eighth. Henry holds that David still trusted the child was safe with God. He adds that weeping must never keep a man from worship.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And when David saw that his servants whispered,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

He went to acknowledge the hand of God in the affliction, and to humble himself under it, and to submit to his holy will in it, to thank God that he himself was spared and his sin pardoned, and to pray that God would not proceed in his controversy with him, nor stir up all his wrath. Weeping must never hinder worshipping.

The words behind it

18 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיַּ֣רְאand he saw

    vaiyar'H7200 →1300 times

  • דָּוִ֗דDavid

    davidH1732 →999 times

  • כִּ֤יthat

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • עֲבָדָיו֙servants his

    ʾavadavH5650 →799 times

  • מִֽתְלַחֲשִׁ֔ים[were] whispering to one another

    mitlachashimH3907 →

  • וַיָּ֥בֶןand he understood

    vaiyavenH995 →

  • דָּוִ֖דDavid

    davidH1732 →999 times

  • כִּ֣יthat

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • מֵ֣תhe had died

    metH4191 →839 times

  • הַיָּ֑לֶדthe child

    haiyaledH3206 →89 times

  • וַיֹּ֨אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • דָּוִ֧דDavid

    davidH1732 →999 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • עֲבָדָ֛יוservants his

    ʾavadavH5650 →799 times

  • הֲמֵ֥ת¿ has he died

    hametH4191 →839 times

  • הַיֶּ֖לֶדthe child

    haiyeledH3206 →89 times

  • וַיֹּ֥אמְרוּand they said

    vaiyomeruH559 →5305 times

  • מֵֽת׃he has died

    metH4191 →839 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Samuel

David Mourns the Death of Absalom, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
David Mourns the Death of Absalom, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
2 Samuel: the study guide →Read 2 Samuel 12 →

This page draws on John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 2 Samuel 12 →