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Old Testament Reading - God punishes David

^1-2So the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to tell David this story:

“There were two men in a certain city, one very rich, owning many flocks of sheep and herds of goats; ³ and the other very poor, owning nothing but a little lamb he had managed to buy. It was his children’s pet, and he fed it from his own plate and let it drink from his own cup; he cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. ⁴Recently a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing a lamb from his own flocks for food for the traveler, he took the poor man’s lamb and roasted it and served it.”

⁵David was furious. “I swear by the living God,” he vowed, “any man who would do a thing like that should be put to death; ⁶he shall repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.”

⁷Then Nathan said to David, “You are that rich man! The Lord God of Israel says, ‘I made you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul.

¹⁰Therefore murder shall be a constant threat in your family from this time on because you have insulted me by taking Uriah’s wife. ¹¹I vow that because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man, and he will go to bed with them in public view.^{a 12}You did it secretly, but I will do this to you openly, in the sight of all Israel.’”

¹³“I have sinned against the Lord,” David confessed to Nathan.

Then Nathan replied, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin. ¹⁴But you have given great opportunity to the enemies of the Lord to despise and blaspheme him, so your child shall die.”

¹⁵Then Nathan returned to his home. And the Lord made Bathsheba’s baby deathly sick. ¹⁶ David begged him to spare the child and went without food, and lay all night before the Lord on the bare earth. ¹⁷The leaders of the nation pleaded with him to get up and eat with them, but he refused.

1. Literally, “under this sun.”