2 Samuel 12:1-15

1The Lord sent Nathan to go and speak to David. Nathan told this story to David, ‘There were two men who lived in the same town. One man was rich and the other man was poor.

2The rich man had very many sheep, goats and cows.

3But the poor man had only one little female lamb. He had bought it and he had taken care of it. It had grown up with his own children. It ate his bits of food and it drank water from his cup. It even slept while he held it. It was like a daughter for him.

4One day, the rich man had a visitor to his home. The rich man needed to make a meal for his visitor. But he did not want to kill one of his own animals. Instead, he took the poor man's lamb away from him. He cooked the lamb to feed his visitor.’

5When David heard what the rich man had done, he became very angry. He said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, that man deserves to die.

6He did that cruel thing and he was not sorry for the poor man. So he must pay the poor man enough money to buy four lambs.’

7Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are that man! This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says: “I chose you as king to rule over Israel. I saved you from Saul's power.

8I gave your master's palace to you, and his wives as well. I gave the kingdoms of Israel and Judah to you. And if that was not enough for you, I would have given you even more than that.

9But now you have not respected the Lord's command. You have done an evil thing. You caused Uriah the Hittite to die in a battle. You used the Ammonite soldiers to kill Uriah.

10So now your family will always have people who die in battle. When you took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife, you showed that you did not respect me.”

11This is what the Lord says, “I will cause someone from your own family to bring trouble to you. You yourself will see it happen! I will take your wives from you and I will give them to someone else. He will have sex with them in the daytime, for everyone to see.

12What you did, you did secretly. But I will cause this to happen in the light of day, so that all Israel can see it.” ’

13Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has forgiven your sin. He will not punish you with death.

14But you did not respect the Lord when you did this bad thing. Because of that, your baby son will certainly die.’

15Then Nathan went home. After that, the Lord caused the child of Uriah's wife to become very ill.