2 Samuel 12:7-23

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.

16David asked the Lord to make his child well again. He lay on the floor of his house all night and he ate no food.

17His palace officers stood around him. They tried to help him to get up from the ground. But he refused and he would not eat anything with them.

18On the seventh day, the child died. David's officers were afraid to tell him. They thought, ‘Even when the child was alive, David refused to listen to us. So what will happen if we tell him that the child is dead? He might try to hurt himself.’

19But David saw that his officers were speaking secretly to each other. So he realized that the child had died. He asked them, ‘Is the child dead?’ They replied, ‘Yes, he is dead.’

20Then David got up from the ground and he washed himself. He put special oil on his body and he dressed himself in clean clothes. Then he went into the Lord's house to worship him. After that, he went back to his palace. He asked his servants to bring some food and he ate it.

21His officers said to him, ‘We do not understand what you are doing. While the child was still alive, you refused to eat food and you wept. But now that the child is dead you are no longer weeping. You are moving around and you are eating. Why?’

22David replied, ‘While the child was still alive, I wept and I did not eat anything. I thought that perhaps the Lord would be kind to me. I thought that he might let the child live.

23But now the child is dead. Even if I fast and I pray, I cannot bring him back to me. One day, I will go to the place where he is. But he will never come back here to me.’