Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 22 May 2022
Read from NAW: Then Yahweh sent Nathan to David, and he went to him and said to him, “Two men were in one city; one was rich and one was poor. A great many sheep and cattle belonged to the rich man, but to the poor man there belonged nothing except one little ewe-lamb which he had bought. Now, he kept it alive, and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate from his plate and it drank from his cup, and it laid down on his chest, so it was like a daugher to him. Now, a traveller came to the rich man, but he deferred to take from his sheep or from his cattle to make-dinner for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe-lamb of the poor man and made-dinner for the man who had come to him.” Then David’s anger really heated up against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As Yahweh is alive, the man who did this is a son of death! Therefore, he shall make amends four times over for the ewe-lamb, in that he did this thing and in that he did not defer.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who anointed you to be king over Israel, and it was I who rescued you from the hand of Saul. I also gave to you the house of your Lord and even the women of your Lord into your embrace, that is, I have given to you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if it were a small thing, I also would have added this, that, and the other to you. Why did you despise the word of Yahweh by doing what is evil in His sight? Uriah the Hittite you have struck down with the sword! Moreover, his wife you have taken for yourself to be a wife while you slaughtered him with the sword of the descendants of Ammon! Now therefore, the sword shall never turn away from your household, in that you despised me and you took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to become your wife.’ Thus says Yahweh, ‘Here I am, raising up against you an evil out of your own household, and I will take your wives before your eyes and will give them to your fellow, and he will lie down with your wives in the sight of this same sun! As for you, you did it in secret, but I, I will do this thing in the presence of all Israel and in the presence of the sun.’” So David said to Nathan, “I sinned against Yahweh!” Then Nathan said to David, “Yahweh Himself has also passed over your sin; you will not die. That’s the end of it: because you really denigrated the {word} of Yahweh through this thing, also the son that will be born to you shall surely die.” Then Nathan went to his home. And Yahweh struck the newborn whom the wife of Uriah bore to David, and it became incurably-ill.
In the story of David and Bathsheba, we have seen
King David send servants with messages,
General Joab has sent messengers,
and even the noblewoman Bathsheba had servants to send messages,
but now we see that God also had a servant that he could send with a message.
So the King of kings sends a message to the King of Israel through Nathan the Prophet.
“God herein manifesteth his loue toward his elect, in that he will not suffer them to lie downe in their sinne, but euer calleth them home in time.” ~Andrew Willett
Nathan tells a story about a rich man who stole from a poor man in order to feed a third character – a “wayfarer,” “traveler,” “guest,” “who had come by1” – possibly a nomadic travelling salesman, or maybe just a homeless tramp.
Now, David was capable of identifying with any of the characters in this story:
He had considered himself “poor2,” once upon a time, when he was a lowly member of King Saul’s court,
He had also lived the life of a transient wayfarer, when he was a political refugee, taking whatever food and shelter he could find,
and now he was “rich as a king.”
Which character would he side with?
The Hebrew word for “took,” which Nathan uses in the story about taking the lamb, is the same Hebrew word used in chapter 11 when David sent messengers to “take” Bathsheba.
The parable allowed David to step outside of himself and identify the simple facts of injustice without all the other complicating factors of real life distracting him.
So, as the royal judge of Israel, David responds to the story by giving a keen verdict.
“As Yahweh is alive, the man who did this is a son of death! Furthermore, he should make amends four times over for the ewe-lamb, in that he did this thing and in that he did not defer.”
The Hebrew word I translated “defer” is the same word from the parable describing what the rich man did with his sheep and cattle: He “deferred” to slaughter any of his own animals to feed his guest. So why does David condemn him for NOT deferring in v.6?
Here’s what I think is going on: I think David is speaking as a judge, issuing a judicial sentence followed by his reasoning for it.
First he issues a verdict on the rich man’s character. He is literally a “son of death.” The only other times this phrase occurs in the Old Testament are
when King Saul told Prince Jonathan that David should be captured and killed because he was afraid that David would become king instead of Jonathan3,
and when David reproved General Abner for sleeping in the army camp when he should have been keeping watch over King Saul. 1 Sam. 26:15-16 David said to Abner, "...This thing which you did is not good. As Yahweh is alive, so y'all who have not kept watch over your master... are sons of death.” (NAW)
I am not certain on this point, but I suspect that this statement has more to do with shaming someone for being a bad actor than with actually pronouncing a death sentence4, kind of like when someone says, “You’ll be the death of us all!” Nevertheless, it was (and is) a serious thing to put such a stain on someone’s character.
Then David issues the sentence: The rich man should make amends by paying four lambs to the poor man.
Then David gives his reasoning – two reasons in fact, both preceeded by a Hebrew phrase that denotes a causal clause, in other words, even though half the English versions drop out the second “because,” the word for “because” is there twice in Hebrew, giving two reasons:
first, because he took the poor man’s lamb, and
second, because he did not defer or retract his action of taking the poor man’s lamb.
These two reasons are significant in the Biblical laws for adjudicating theft, because,
if someone stole something, but the stolen item was returned, the thief only had to make amends by paying the victim one more thing equal in value to what he stole.
But if he stole something and never deferred, leaving the victim to take the case to court to force the thief to make amends, then, if the judge found the thief guilty, and if the original stolen item was nowhere to be found, the thief had to pay four times the amount stolen5 instead of just double.
Exodus 22:1&4 "If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep... If the theft is certainly found alive in his hand, whether it is an ox or donkey or sheep, he shall restore double.” (NKJV)
That’s what I think is going on.
By the way, that’s also why Zaccheus the tax collector told the Lord Jesus that he would make restitution fourfold for everything he had wrongfully seized (Luke 19:8).
David had carefully studied God’s law in order to be equipped for civil leadership, and we would do well to study God’s law too if we want to understand justice.
God is the judge over all kings and judges, and now that David has rendered his judicial verdict, God puts on His judicial robe, as it were, and He judges the judge of Israel!
“You are that man!” The man whom you just condemned justly is you yourself.
Nathan then lays out the logic of God’s case against King David.
First, David’s life and David’s position came from God, therefore he is accountable to God.
The NASB does the best job among the English translations of rendering the emphatic first person singular pronoun “I” in the Hebrew of v.7: “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who anointed you to be king over Israel, and it was I who rescued you from the hand of Saul.”
If God is the one who anointed David King and kept him for that office, this means that David is answerable to God for how he lives and officiates. He is not free to live as a free agent, doing whatever he pleases. He is accountable to the LORD.
In the same way, brothers and sisters, your life and your position also come from God, making you accountable to the Lord Jesus for how you live and lead.
“…you are not your own; you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God with your body…” (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
Nathan goes on to note in v.8 that God gave “the house of [David’s] master and the women of [David’s] master to [David]...”
All the commentators6 I read who interpreted the “Master” as King Saul expressed puzzlement over the seeming contradiction that God says he gave Saul’s house and wives to David when David never took over Saul’s house in Ramah or married any of Saul’s wives (It is just a coincidence that one of David’s wives had the same first name as Saul’s wife Achinoam.)
But the puzzlement mostly goes away if the “Master” is interpreted as Yahweh. The only puzzle that remains is why the words adonai “Master,” nashim “wives,” and beit “house” were used and what they mean in this message.
In verse 8, the “house” which God had given to David is defined as “the house of Israel and Judah.” I see verse 8, therefore, as explaining verse 7.
I also think that the word “adonai/master/lord” is chosen because God is stating His superiority over David as the one who gave him his life and his position and who can hold him accountable for what he does.
The adonai’s “house,” then, is the kingdom of “Israel and Judah” that God placed in King David’s care.
That leaves the adonai’s nashim, who were held in David’s “bosom/embrace.” (The Hebrew word actually denotes the “chest” rather than the “arms.”) This can be made-sense-of if we interpret the Hebrew word nashim literally as “women” rather than figuratively as “wives.” God doesn’t have wives, but the women of the land of Israel were part of the kingdom that had been given to David to defend and to govern as king, and some of them, David had married and held in his embrace as a wife. God had provided David with nine wives, and there were legitimate ways he could have gotten another wife, even if polygamy wasn’t advisable.
But here’s the point: God had not given Bathsheba to David as a wife; God had given her to Uriah to husband. Under God’s authority, David’s only legitimate relationship to Bathsheba as his “master’s wom[a]n” was to be her king by defending her country and rendering just rulings for her in civil government.
David instead had violated civil justice against her and her husband,
David had failed to lead the army in defending her country,
and David had committed adultery with her.
Now God, as King David’s authority, was coming to hold him accountable.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he ha[s] done, whether... good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10, KJV)
God the judge found David guilty of three crimes in v.9:
Surprisingly, adultery is not the first crime mentioned. Consistent with the fact that such sins come only after a corruption in the thought life7, the first crime David is convicted of is that of “despising the word of the LORD.”
“Why did you despise the word of Yahweh by doing what is wrong in His sight?”
Every sin that we commit – whether it is indulging in pornography, or taking God’s name in vain, or not keeping the sabbath day, or disobeying parents, or stealing, or telling a lie, or coveting, or whetever – is because we first despised the word of God.
Obedience to every one of the commandments of God flows out of the first and greatest commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.” Here is where we must fight the battle against sin: making sure there are no other gods in our life besides the Triune God of the Bible. The more we love God and respect His word the less we’re going to sin.
1 Samuel 2:30 God said, “...those who glorify me I will glorify, but those who despise me will become insignificant.”
Another application from Nathan’s first question in v.9 is that every sin we have ever committed has been seen by God. When we do evil, we do it “in His sight.” He sees everything, and there is nothing hidden from His sight. And because God has personally witnessed every sin committed on this earth, He can hold every human being perfectly accountable and can execute perfect justice; nobody is going to get away with anything.
The second crime God finds David guilty of in v.9 is murder.
The name of Uriah the Hittite is placed in an emphatic position in the Hebrew sentence as if to bring Uriah before David’s eyes to consider what a great comrade-in-arms he had been and how insane it was to have ordered Uriah, of all people, to be struck dead, and that not by the sword of an Israelite executioner but by the sword of foreign Ammonites. First degree murder!
Finally God finds David guilty of adultery: “Moreover, his wife you have taken for yourself to be a wife while you slaughtered him...!”
For these three sins...
God’s sentencing in Verse 10 follows the same structure of David’s sentencing against the rich man who stole the lamb in v.6: a punishment followed by the reasoning.
The sentence of the “sword” (that is, the misuse of lethal force), always being active in David’s “household,” such that assasinations and murders would continue to occur in David’s family, is fitting,
not only because of David’s misuse of lethal force8 to get Uriah killed,
but also because God’s law gives the death sentence for any man who commits murder9
and furthermore, God’s law gives the death sentence for any man who commits adultery with another man’s wife10.
This was in addition to the fact that being “cut off” and put into exile was the punishment decreed in the law for “despising” God and committing intentional sins: “[T]he person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the LORD, and he shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD, and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him.” (Numbers 15:30-31, NKJV)
We see the fulfillment of this part of the sentence in the ensuing history,
as Absalom assasinates his half-brother Amnon in the next chapter,
and as David’s son Absalom forms a coup and threatened to kill David, then gets himself (and 20,000 other Israelites) killed in battle in the following chapters,
as well as Solomon’s execution of his half-brother Adonijah for his treason in 1 Kings.
In v.11, we see more of God’s sentence against David’s adultery: God promised to raise up evil out of David’s own household that will result in losing some of his wives to another man who will violate them in broad daylight (literally “under this same sun”).
This was fulfilled in detail four chapters11 later, when David’s son Absalom overthrew David, leaving David to escape with his ten wives while Absolom violated David’s 10 concubine-women on top of David’s palace “in the sight of all Israel.”
God made good on His threats. The consequences of David’s adultery were horrific. (The consequences are always worse than adulterers think they will be.)
Now, after 39 verses describing David’s sin and Nathan’s exhortation, finally David confesses: “I sinned against Yahweh!”
No blameshifting (“Bathsheba tempted me!”), no minimizing (“well it wasn’t technically murder because Uriah might have gotten killed in battle anyway”), no denying it, just “I sinned.”
Notice how he acknowledges that his sin was against God. When we sin, we sin against God. Now, most of our sins are against other people too, so we need to ask forgiveness not only of the people we sinned against but also of God.
In the context of David’s Psalms12, we know that David is not just saying he made a “mistake;” we know that he is recognizing what he did as morally wrong and that he is in need of being saved from his sin and forgiven and restored to right relationship with God.
And so it is that David hears words of grace immediately after his confession: “Yahweh Himself has also passed over your sin; you will not die.”
Banishment and death were the fair consequences of David’s sins, and yet God graciously says, “You shall not be put to death over this, nor shall you suffer eternal death in hell over this.”
This is not because God is unjust and sometimes doesn’t punish sin, but rather because God Himself literally “caused [David’s] sin to pass over.” It’s the same verb used in Exodus 12 when the death angel “passed over” the houses with the blood of the lamb painted on the doorframe.
Here’s a question, “If God caused David’s sin to pass over from David to somebody else, who was it that took on the guilt of David’s sin and suffered death for it?”
In v.15 we see that “Yahweh struck the newborn whom the wife of Uriah bore to David, and it became incurably-ill, and… died.”13
Typologically, the child of David and Bathsheba’s illicit union was the one who died as a consequence of David’s sin, but not even that son’s death could atone for David’s sins, because that child was born with a sin nature like everyone else, deserving to die like everyone else for his own sin. He did not have a sinless nature capable of atoning for David’s sin in addition to his own sin nature.
Ultimately this points us to the later descendant of David, Jesus, who was born with a perfect, sinless nature and who died on the cross taking on Himself the guilt of David’s sin (and our sin too) in order to pay the price of death for our sin so that God’s wrath against our sin could pass over us too, as it passed over David and onto the son of God.
Micah 7:18 “Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy.” (NKJV) That mercy is found in Christ Jesus’ substitutionary atonement.14
But just because our sins can be forgiven and we can be made right with God through the resurrected Jesus doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences for our sin that we have to live with. David had to live with terrible relationships with his wives and his sons trying to kill each other and the stillbirth of this infant, but God can give us the grace to love Him and be loved by Him through it all, just as He did with David.
There is a curious addendum in v.14, which reads in the Masoretic Hebrew, “because you really provoked the enemies of Yahweh through this thing, also the son born to you will surely die.”
Translators throughout history have struggled to make sense of that first phrase in v.14, because the Hebrew verb chain clearly means “you (singular, David15) greatly despised/provoked/blasphemed/showed contempt/scorn,” and this is followed in the Hebrew by a direct object indicator which means that “the enemies of Yahweh” is the object that David greatly despised/provoked/blasphemed. But the story doesn’t seem to be about David making the enemies of God mad, so translators have tried different wordings:
The ESV, following an obscure Jewish tradition16 tried to solve the problem by removing the word “enemies,” so the ESV reads, “you have greatly provoked the Lord,” which makes sense, but it is not faithful to the original text, because there is an object before the word “Lord” in every ancient manuscript there is: In all but one of the ancient Greek and Latin and Hebrew manuscripts it is the word “enemies,”
In the Dead Sea Scroll it is the word “word,” as in, “You have denigrated the word of the Lord” (which is the manuscript I chose to follow because it is the oldest-known manuscript and it makes the most sense).
Aquila’s second century Greek translation rendered it “you really dragged the enemies of the Lord away together,” which isn’t what this story is about,
and the Aramaic Targums read “you greatly opened the mouth of the enemies,” which requires changing the meanings of some of the Hebrew words, but which is the sense of the King James, “you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme.”
It certainly should give us pause to consider what testimony our actions bear to the world about our God.
If the world sees us complaining about what all we don’t have, non-Christians are not going to be led to think that there is much satisfaction in being a Christian.
Likewise, if the world sees us consumed with getting more and more things and doing more and more things in our own effort, non-Christians will assume that our God makes no difference because we are materialistic humanists just like them.
Or, if the world sees us constantly upset and quarreling, non-Christians will decide they want nothing to do with a God who just makes people upset and angry.
David’s actions of lust and adultery, coercion, murder and subterfuge all spoke a message to anyone who was watching that
Yahweh doesn’t know or care about our secret sins,
Yahweh actually supports abusive treatment of inferiors,
and, in fact, Yahweh is an awful lot like the gods of all the other nations.
And just like David, when we sin, we also proclaim similar lies about God, which cause His name to be defamed in the world. This is part of the reason why, when we sin, we are also sinning against God.
Deuteronomy 31:20-21 warns us about how this happens, "When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey... and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant. Then... many evils and troubles [will] come upon them...” (NKJV) but all the painful consequences are designed by God to bring us back into a right relationship with him. I plan to look in to that in the next sermon.
Meanwhile, what can we take away from this story so far?
All that we have is a gift from God, so let us love the Lord instead of despising Him and giving occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme.
God is a just judge. He will hold everyone accountable, from the lowliest peon to the most powerful authorities. It doesn’t matter how well we have hidden our sin, God sees all, and He will bring it to light and bring justice to the matter. Don’t indulge in sin because you think you can hide it, and if you have sinned in secret, don’t keep hiding it. (Eccl. 12:14 “For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.” NKJV)
Confess sin to God and forsake it; Jesus died to make forgiveness possible, and you will be treated mercifully if you come to Him.
Proverbs 28:13 “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” NKJV)
Psalm 32:5 “My sin I acknowledge to you, and my iniquity I do not cover over; I talk; I hand against myself my transgressions to you, Yahweh, and you will lift away the iniquity of my sin.” (NAW)
Luke 18:13 Jesus taught us what to say through the tax collector in His parable of the Two Men in the Temple, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”
1 John 1:9 “If we are confessing our sins, He is faithful and righteous in order to send away from us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (NAW)
Finally, from Nathan’s example, we learn that we can help each other recognize sin and remind each other what God says. So if God lays a message on your heart, share it like Nathan did. Nowadays the Bible is complete, so don’t expect to get new messages from God to share with the whole world, but the Holy Spirit still does prompt us with ideas and concerns that corroborate with Scripture, and He will help us speak to one another with appropriate encouragement and exhortation out of love. “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20 NASB)
LXX |
Brenton |
DRB |
KJV |
NAW |
MT |
1 καὶ ἀπέστειλεν κύριος τὸν Ναθαν [τὸν προφήτην] πρὸς Δαυιδ, καὶ εἰσῆλθεν πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Δύο ἦσαν ἄνδρες ἐν πόλει μιᾷ, εἷς πλούσιος καὶ εἷς πένης· |
1
And the Lord sent Nathan [the
prophet]
to David; and he went in to him, and said to him, There were two
men in one city, one rich and the |
1
And the Lord sent Nathan to David: and when he was come to him, he
said to him: There were two men in one city, the one rich, and the
|
1
And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and
said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and
the |
1 Then Yahweh sent Nathan to David, and he went to him and said to him, “Two men were in one city; one was rich and one was poor. |
1 וַיִּשְׁלַח יְהוָה אֶת-נָתָןB אֶל-דָּוִד וַיָּבֹא אֵלָיו וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ שְׁנֵי אֲנָשִׁים הָיוּ בְּעִיר אֶחָת אֶחָד עָשִׁיר וְאֶחָד רָאשׁ: |
2 καὶ τῷ πλουσίῳ ἦν ποίμνια καὶ βουκόλια πολλὰ σφόδρα, |
2 And the rich man had very many flocks and herds. |
2 The rich man had exceeding many sheep and oxen. |
2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: |
2 A great many sheep and cattle belonged to the rich man, |
2 לְעָשִׁיר הָיָה צֹאן וּבָקָר הַרְבֵּה מְאֹד: |
3 καὶ τῷ πένητι οὐδὲν ἀλλ᾿ ἢ ἀμνὰς μία μικρά, ἣν ἐκτήσατο καὶ περιεποιήσατο [καὶ ἐξέθρεψεν αὐτήν,] καὶ ἡδρύνθη μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ μετὰ τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό, ἐκ τοῦ ἄρτου αὐτοῦ ἤσθιεν καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ποτηρίου αὐτοῦ ἔπινεν καὶ ἐν τῷ κόλπῳ αὐτοῦ ἐκάθευδεν καὶ ἦν αὐτῷ ὡς θυγάτηρ· |
3 But the poor man had only one little ewe lamb, which he had purchased, and preserved, [and reared;] and it grew up with himself and his children in common; it ate of his bread and drank of his cup, and slept in his bosom, and was to him as a daughter. |
3 But the poor man had nothing at all but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up, and which had grown up in his [house] together with his children, eating of his bread, and drinking of his cup, and sleeping in his bosom: and it was unto him as a daughter. |
3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. |
3 but to the poor man there belonged nothing except one little ewe-lamb which he had bought. Now, he kept it alive and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate from his plate and it drank from his cup, and it laid down on his chest, so it was like a daugher to him. |
3 וְלָרָשׁ אֵין-כֹּל כִּי אִם-כִּבְשָׂהC אַחַת קְטַנָּה אֲשֶׁר קָנָה וַיְחַיֶּהָ וַתִּגְדַּל עִמּוֹ וְעִם-בָּנָיו יַחְדָּו מִפִּתּוֹ תֹאכַל וּמִכֹּסוֹ תִשְׁתֶּה וּבְחֵיקוֹ תִשְׁכָּב וַתְּהִי-לוֹ כְּבַת: |
4 καὶ ἦλθεν πάροδος τῷ ἀνδρὶ τῷ πλουσίῳ, καὶ ἐφείσατο λαβεῖν ἐκ τῶν ποιμνίων αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ τῶν βουκολίων αὐτοῦ τοῦ ποιῆσαι τῷ ξένῳ ὁδοιπόρῳ ἐλθόντι πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ ἔλαβεν τὴν ἀμνάδα τοῦ πένητος καὶ ἐποίησεν [αὐτὴν] τῷ ἀνδρὶ τῷ ἐλθόντι πρὸς αὐτόν. |
4 And a traveller came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his flocks and of his herds, to dress for the traveller that came to him; and he took the poor man's lamb, and dressed [it] for the man that came to him. |
4
And when a [certain]
|
4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. |
4 Now, a traveller came to the rich man, but he deferred to take from his sheep or from his cattle to make-dinner for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the ewe-lamb of the poor man and made-dinner for the man who had come to him.” |
4 וַיָּבֹא הֵלֶךְ לְאִישׁ הֶעָשִׁיר וַיַּחְמֹלD לָקַחַת מִצֹּאנוֹ וּמִבְּקָרוֹ לַעֲשׂוֹת לָאֹרֵחַ הַבָּא-לוֹ וַיִּקַּח אֶת-כִּבְשַׂת הָאִישׁ הָרָאשׁ וַיַּעֲשֶׂהָ לָאִישׁ הַבָּא אֵלָיו: |
5 καὶ ἐθυμώθη ὀργῇ Δαυιδ σφόδρα τῷ ἀνδρί, καὶ εἶπεν [Δαυιδ] πρὸς Ναθαν Ζῇ κύριος, ὅτι υἱὸς θανάτου ὁ ἀνὴρ ὁ ποιήσας τοῦτο |
5
And David was greatly |
5
And David's anger |
5
And David's anger |
5 Then David’s anger really heated up against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As Yahweh is alive, the man who did this is a son of death!” |
5 וַיִּחַר-אַף דָּוִד בָּאִישׁ מְאֹד וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל-נָתָן חַי-יְהוָה כִּי בֶן-מָוֶת הָאִישׁ הָעֹשֶׂה זֹאת: |
6
καὶ τὴν ἀμνάδα
ἀποτείσει
|
6
And he shall restore
the lamb |
6 X He shall restore the ewe fourfold, because he did this thing, and X had no pity. |
6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. |
6 Therefore, he shall make amends four times over for the ewe-lamb, in that he did this thing and in that he did not defer.” |
6 וְאֶת-הַכִּבְשָׂה יְשַׁלֵּם אַרְבַּעְתָּיִם עֵקֶב אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אֶת-הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה וְעַל אֲשֶׁר לֹא-חָמָל: |
7 καὶ εἶπεν Ναθαν πρὸς Δαυιδ Σὺ εἶ ὁ ἀνὴρ [ὁ ποιήσας τοῦτο]· τάδε λέγει κύριος ὁ θεὸς Ισραηλ Ἐγώ εἰμι ἔχρισά σε εἰς βασιλέα ἐπὶ Ισραηλ, καὶ ἐγώ εἰμι ἐρρυσάμην σε ἐκ χειρὸς Σαουλ |
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man [that has done this]. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I X anointed thee to be king over Israel, and I X rescued thee out the hand of Saul; |
7 And Nathan said to David: Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I X anointed thee X king over Israel, and I X delivered thee from the hand of Saul, |
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I X anointed thee X king over Israel, and I X delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; |
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who anointed you to be king over Israel, and it was I who rescued you from the hand of Saul. |
7 וַיֹּאמֶר נָתָן אֶל-דָּוִד אַתָּה הָאִישׁ כֹּה-אָמַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אָנֹכִי מְשַׁחְתִּיךָ לְמֶלֶךְ עַל-יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָנֹכִי הִצַּלְתִּיךָ מִיַּד שָׁאוּל: |
8 καὶ ἔδωκά σοι τὸν οἶκον τοῦ κυρίου σου καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας τοῦ κυρίου σου ἐν τῷ κόλπῳ σου καὶ ἔδωκά σοι τὸν οἶκον Ισραηλ καὶ Ιουδα· καὶ εἰ μικρόν ἐστιν, προσθήσω σοι κατὰ ταῦτα X X X. |
8 and I gave thee the house of thy lord, and the wives of thy lord into thy bosom, and I gave to thee the house of Israel and Juda; and if that had been little, I would have given thee yet more X X X. |
8 And gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and Juda: and if these [things] be little, I shall add far greater things X unto thee. |
8 And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been [too] little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. |
8 I also gave to you the house of your Lord and even the women of your Lord into your embrace, that is, I have given to you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if it were a small thing, I also would have added this, that, and the other to you. |
8 וָאֶתְּנָה לְךָ אֶת-בֵּית אֲדֹנֶיךָ וְאֶת-נְשֵׁי אֲדֹנֶיךָ בְּחֵיקֶךָ וָאֶתְּנָה לְךָ אֶת-בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל וִיהוּדָה וְאִם-מְעָט וְאֹסִפָה לְּךָ כָּהֵנָּה וְכָהֵנָּה: |
9 τί ὅτι ἐφαύλισας τὸν λόγονF κυρίου τοῦ ποιῆσαι τὸ πονηρὸν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ; τὸν Ουριαν τὸν Χετταῖον ἐπάταξας ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ ἔλαβες σεαυτῷ εἰς γυναῖκα καὶ αὐτὸν ἀπέκτεινας ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ υἱῶν Αμμων. |
9 Why hast thou set at nought the word of the Lord, to do that which is evil in his eyes? thou hast slain Urias the Chettite with the sword, and thou hast taken his wife to be X thy wife, and thou hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. |
9
Why [therefore]
hast thou despised the word of the Lord, to do X
evil
in |
9
Wherefore hast thou despised the |
9 Why did you despise the word of Yahweh by doing what is evil in His sight? Uriah the Hittite you have struck down with the sword! Moreover, his wife you have taken for yourself to be a wife while you slaughtered him with the sword of the descendants of Ammon! |
9 מַדּוּעַ בָּזִיתָ אֶת-דְּבַר יְהוָה לַעֲשׂוֹת הָרַע בְּעֵינוֹH אֵת אוּרִיָּה הַחִתִּי הִכִּיתָ בַחֶרֶב וְאֶת-אִשְׁתּוֹ לָקַחְתָּ לְּךָ לְאִשָּׁה וְאֹתוֹ הָרַגְתָּ בְּחֶרֶב בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן: |
10 καὶ νῦν οὐκ ἀποστήσεται ῥομφαία ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου σου ἕως αἰῶνος ἀνθ᾿ ὧν ὅτι ἐξουδένωσάς με καὶ ἔλαβες τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ Ουριου τοῦ Χετταίου τοῦ εἶναί σοι εἰς γυναῖκα. |
10 Now therefore the sword shall not depart from thy house for ever, because thou has set me at nought, and thou hast taken the wife of Urias the Chettite, to be thy wife. |
10 X Therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house, because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Urias the Hethite to be thy wife. |
10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. |
10 Now therefore, the sword shall never turn away from your household, in that you despised me and you took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to become your wife. |
10 וְעַתָּה לֹא- תָסוּר חֶרֶב מִבֵּיתְךָ עַד-עוֹלָםI עֵקֶב כִּי בְזִתָנִי וַתִּקַּח אֶת-אֵשֶׁת אוּרִיָּה הַחִתִּי לִהְיוֹת לְךָ לְאִשָּׁה: ס |
11 τάδε λέγει κύριος Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐξεγείρω ἐπὶ σὲ κακὰ ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου σου καὶ λήμψομαι τὰς γυναῖκάς σου κατ᾿ ὀφθαλμούς σου καὶ δώσω τῷ πλησίον σου, καὶ κοιμηθήσεται μετὰ τῶν γυναικῶν σου ἐναντίον τοῦ ἡλίου τούτου· |
11 Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up against thee evil out of thy house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and will give them to thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. |
11 Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before thy eyes and give them to thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. |
11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. |
11 Thus says Yahweh, “Here I am, raising up against you an evil out of your own household, and I will take your wives before your eyes and will give them to your fellow, and he will lie down with your wives in the sight of this same sun. |
11 כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה הִנְנִי מֵקִים עָלֶיךָ רָעָה מִבֵּיתֶךָ וְלָקַחְתִּי אֶת-נָשֶׁיךָ לְעֵינֶיךָ וְנָתַתִּי לְרֵעֶיךָJ וְשָׁכַב עִם-נָשֶׁיךָ לְעֵינֵי הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ הַזֹּאת: |
12 ὅτι σὺ ἐποίησας κρυβῇ, κἀγὼ ποιήσω τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦτο ἐναντίον παντὸς Ισραηλ καὶ ἀπέναντι τούτου τοῦ ἡλίου. |
12 For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing in the sight of all Israel, and before the sun. |
12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing in the sight of all Israel, and in the sight of the sun. |
12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. |
12 As for you, you did it in secret, but I, I will do this thing in the presence of all Israel and in the presence of the sun.” |
12 כִּי אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ בַסָּתֶר וַאֲנִי אֶעֱשֶׂה אֶת-הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה נֶגֶד כָּל-יִשְׂרָאֵל וְנֶגֶד הַשָּׁמֶשׁ: ס |
13 καὶ εἶπεν Δαυιδ τῷ Ναθαν Ἡμάρτηκα τῷ κυρίῳ. καὶ εἶπεν Ναθαν πρὸς Δαυιδ Καὶ κύριος παρεβίβασεν τὸ ἁμάρτημά σου, οὐ μὴ ἀποθάνῃς· |
13 And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, And the Lord has put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. |
13 And David said to Nathan: I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David: The Lord also hath taken away thy sin: thou shalt not die. |
13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. |
13 So David said to Nathan, “I sinned against Yahweh!” Then Nathan said to David, “Yahweh Himself has also passed over your sin; you will not die. |
13 וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד אֶל-נָתָן חָטָאתִי לַיהוָה ס וַיֹּאמֶר נָתָן אֶל-דָּוִד גַּם-יְהוָה הֶעֱבִיר חַטָּאתְךָK לֹא תָמוּת: |
14 πλὴν ὅτι παροξύνων παρώξυναςL τοὺς ἐχθροὺς κυρίου ἐν τῷ ῥήματι τούτῳ, καί γε ὁ υἱός σου ὁ τεχθείς σοι θανάτῳ ἀποθανεῖται. |
14 Only because thou hast given great occasion of provocation to the enemies of the Lord by this thing, thy son also that is born to thee shall surely die. |
14 Nevertheless, because thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, for this thing, X the child that is born to thee, shall surely die. |
14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. |
14 That’s the end of it: because you really denigrated the {word} of Yahweh through this thing, also the son born to you will surely die.” |
14 אֶפֶס כִּי- נִאֵץ נִאַצְתָּM אֶת- אֹיְבֵיN יְהוָה בַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה גַּם הַבֵּן הַיִּלּוֹד לְךָ מוֹת יָמוּתO: |
15 καὶ ἀπῆλθεν Ναθαν εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ. Καὶ ἔθραυσεν κύριος τὸ παιδίον, ὃ ἔτεκεν ἡ γυνὴ Ουριου τῷ Δαυιδ, καὶ ἠρρώστησεν. |
15 And Nathan departed to his house. And the Lord smote the child, which the wife of Urias [the ChettiteP] bore to David, and it was ill. |
15
And Nathan |
15 And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick. |
15 Then Nathan went to his home. And Yahweh struck the newborn whom the wife of Uriah bore to David, and it became incurably-ill. |
15 וַיֵּלֶךְ נָתָן אֶל-בֵּיתוֹ וַיִּגֹּף יְהוָהQ אֶת-הַיֶּלֶד אֲשֶׁר יָלְדָה אֵשֶׁת-אוּרִיָּה לְדָוִד וַיֵּאָנַשׁR: |
1The three Hebrew words used to describe this man are הֵלֶךְ אֹרֵחַ הַבָּא
21 Samuel 18:23 So Saul's servants spoke these words in David's ears, but David said, "Is it insignificant in y'all's eyes to be an in-law with the king? I am but a poor man and insignificant." (NAW)
31 Sam. 20:31 “[A]ll the days in which the son of Jesse lives upon the earth your kingdom will not be established? So now, send servants and capture this young man, for he is a son of death."
4Willett, Henry, and Keil & Delitzsch considered it a serious death sentence, but Goldman called it “an expression of indignation rather than a judicial verdict.”
5Exodus
22:1&4 "If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and
slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and
four sheep for a sheep... If the theft is certainly found alive in
his hand, whether it is an ox or donkey or sheep, he shall restore
double.” (NKJV)
Acccording to Goldman, the Talmud (Yoma
22b) notes that the deaths of this child, then of Amnon, Absalom,
and Tamar (for whom I might substitute Adonijah) total a fourfold
payback for the stealing of Uriah’s life.
6Goldman, Tsumura, Osiander, Jamieson, K&D, and others stated that this meant that David had the right to marry Saul’s wives, but, pagan traditions notwithstanding, there was no such right in God’s law, and God’s law furthermore forbade marrying one’s father-in-law’s wife. cf. Willett: “By his Lords wiues, to vnderstand women, which were Gods creatures…” Matthew Henry, on the other hand, suggested Nabal as a “master” whose “house” David got, and while it seems likely that David got Nabal’s house, Nabal never was actually David’s master.
7“This is the spring and this is the malignity of sin, that it is making light of the divine law and the law-maker; as if the obligation of it were weak, the precepts of it trifling, and the threats not at all formidable.” ~Matthew Henry
8Technically Uriah was killed by a projectile such as an arrow, not by a sword, so this is a figurative use of the word “sword” with the more generalized meaning of “lethal force.”
9Genesis 9:6 “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed…” (KJV)
10Leviticus 20:10 “And any man who commits adultery with someone's wife – who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife – shall surely be put to death – the adulterer as well as the adulteress.” (NAW)
112 Sam. 16:22 “So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel.” (NKJV)
12Psalm 51:1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. “Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions...” (NKJV)
13Most English versions simply say that the child got “sick,” but this unique Hebrew word is translated “incurable” almost everywhere else it occurs in all the English versions, except in Jeremiah 17, where it is translated “desperate,” “woeful,” “disastrous” (and the KJV translates it “desperate” in Isaiah 17 too).
14Acts 13:38 "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man [Jesus Christ] is preached to you the forgiveness of sins” (NKJV)
15The Piel stem of the Hebrew Perfect verb also indicates direct rather than indirect action. cf. Tsumura: “there is no support for taking this Pi. Verb(n’s) as causative.”
16Goldman called it “a tikkun sopherim for ‘blasphemed the Lord,’” but followed the American Jewish Version which reads, “blasphemed the enemies of the LORD.” Tsumurah held a similar position, not wanting to include “the enemies of” but admitting that there was no way to prove that it was not original.
AMy
original chart includes the NASB and NIV, but their copyright
restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. I have included the ESV in
footnotes when it employs a word not already used by the KJV, NASB,
or NIV. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation adds words not
in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use
of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square
brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different
from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs
too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far
from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I
insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scroll containing 2 Samuel 12 is 4Q51Samuela, which
contains fragments of vs. 1-31, and which has been dated between
50-25 B.C. Where the DSS is legible and in agreement with the MT,
the MT is colored purple. Where the DSS
supports the LXX (or Vulgate) with omissions or text not in the MT,
I have highlighted with
yellow the LXX and its translation into English, and where I
have accepted that into my NAW translation, I have marked it with
{pointed brackets}.
BA few Hebrew manuscripts, as well as the Septuagint and the Syriac, add “the prophet” here, but it is the same person.
CThis word occurs in only three other passages: Gen. 21:28-30; Lev. 14:10; and Num. 6:14.
DIt’s ironic that Saul was also condemned for “sparing” the sheep and cattle of the Amalekites in 1 Sam. 15.
E“because he did this thing and” is in the LXX (and Vaticanus); Brenton accidentally skipped over it in his translation.
FThe Lucian rescription and the version by Theodotion omit this word.
GThe Qere of the MT as well as some other Hebrew manuscripts support the first person “my eyes.” In Hebrew spelling, the difference is merely in how long the pen stroke is on the final letter of this word.
HThe change from Yahweh as first person “I” to third person “him” in the MT (“his eyes”) has raised the question in the minds of many as to whether this should be corrected. The copiers of the MT, in the 900’s AD (supported by several Hebrew manuscripts) thought it should be read בְּעֵינַי "in my eyes," and the Vaticanus, dating back to 400 AD, reads that way. A couple of other Hebrew manuscripts read ynda ynyub “in the eyes of my lord,” which would mean the end of the quote from Yahweh and the beginning of commentary from Nathan. The Syriac (500’s AD) and Targums (1800’s?), on the other hand, don’t appear to have any pronoun. The DSS from 50 BC is illegible at this point in the verse, so it doesn’t help, but the LXX from the 300’s AD reads the same as the MT.
IGoldman and Willett argued that the length of time should be understood as for the rest of David’s life, which is well within the range of meaning of the Hebrew word, rather than “forever,” which is also a meaning of that word.
JThe MT is plural here “your neighbors/fellows” but every ancient version reads singular, including Targums, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, as well as some Hebrew manuscripts. Tsumura, following Driver explains that this yod is “an etymological, no a plural, indicator.”
KDSS has an additional letter at the end of this word, but it is obliterated. Perhaps it is a directional ה, which would not change the meaning.
LVaticanus reads παροργιζων παρωργισας (“greatly angered” which is not much different from the LXX “greatly provoked”). Aquila rendered it διασυρων διεσυρας (“greatly dragged away together”), and Symmachus βλασφημησαι εποιησας (“did to blaspheme”). Theodotion used the same verb as the Vaticanus, but changed “enemies” to εναντιοις (“those opposed”). This indicates that translators throughout history have found this passage as puzzling to them as it does to us today.
MThere are a variety of translations of this verb among the versions. Targums read מִפתָח פְתַחתָא ית פֻומָא דְסָנְאֵי (“greatly opened the mouth of the enemy”), Syriac reads דרורבת לבעלדבבוהי דמריא בעבידתא הדא (?). For the Greek versions, see the previous endnote.
NDSS instead rbd (“thing”)
ODSS switches the middle two letters, changing the verb stem from a Qal to a Hophal, but it doesn’t change the meaning.
P“the Hittite” is inserted in the Vaticanus, but it is not in the majority of Septuagint manuscripts.
QThe Dead Sea Scrolls (<yhwlah) and the Lucian rescription (o qeoV) of the LXX read “God” instead of “Yahweh,” but this doesn’t change the story.
RThis phrase “and he became ill” does not appear in the DSS or in some LXX manuscripts. It doesn’t change the story, however. This verb is also a hapex legomenon, although it occurs 8 other times as an adjective (Job 34:6; Isa. 17:11; Jer. 15:18; 17:9, 16; 30:12, 15; Mic. 1:9) where it is generally translated “incurable.”