2 Samuel 12

2 Samuel 12:1-15: 1a Then the LORD sent Nathan to David.

1b And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. 4 And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

“When the child is born, Nathan is sent to David by the LORD. Why did the LORD wait so long? Is it that perhaps He waited in His great patience for David’s confession? However, this confession does not come. Therefore He must come now Himself.” (G. de Koning) “‘Nathan came to David as if his purpose was to ask his judicial decision on a case which had been submitted to him.” (Albert Barnes) “David could have had no suspicion whatever of the prophet's true mission, because all of his previous communications from God through Nathan had been extremely favorable to the king (as in 2 Sam 7).” (Coffman Commentary)

“‘So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man.’ (5a) His outburst of anger and condemnation of the injustice done to the poor man shows that he did not think of his own case.” (Gaebelein)— Thus, Nathan caused David to “unawares to give sentence against himself.” (Poole) “And he said to Nathan, ‘As the LORD lives, the man who has done this shall surely die!’ — Literally בן מות ben maveth, ‘he is a son of death,’ a very bad man, and one who deserves to die.” (Clarke) I believe that David was speaking here of the fiery wrath that awaits all unrepentant sinners as foreshadowed in the ancient words, “In the day you eat thereof (of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), you shall surely die!“ (Gen 2:17) The man is son thereof. He who is circumcised in Israel is obliged to keep the entire Torah of God. If not, they will die in their sins and after the Judgment, they will die the second death, similar to the first.

David knew the law or Torah of God. “But the law did not sentence a sheep-stealer to death.” (Adam Clarke) They must only make restitution with the plaintiff: “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.” (Exo 22:1) “God does not say that that 'put away sin' shall never smart. God does not tell you there shall be no temporal punishment (consequences) for that forgiven sin!” (Expositor's Dict.) All can be forgiven but only the eternal affect averted- the second death.

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!' the son of death!" What a terrible word! And by it David appears to have been transfixed, and brought into the dust before the messenger of God.” (Adam Clarke) "The accusation came with all the greater force since David was not aware of the fact that he himself was concerned. The wisdom, tact, and firmness with which Nathan approached the king are truly admirable. ‘Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel’, therefore his crime had been one against the royal office, ‘and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul,’ an act of divine kindness and grace; — ‘and I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives in to thy bosom’, both the property and the harem of the king being legally given into the hands of his successor, although it does not follow that David actually married Saul's wife, ‘and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah’; the entire nation had promised him allegiance, and he might have had his choice of the virgins of the country; ‘and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things’ (7-8); His bountiful goodness was not yet exhausted."(Kretzmann’s Commentary)

The Nathan speaks the Word of temporal consequences for David's sins in 2 Samuel 12:9-10 as seen below: “‘Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord’, literally, ‘the word,’ that is, the law, of God, ‘to do evil in His sight’, in this double transgression?— ‘Thou hast killed Uriah, the Hittite, with the sword’, in fact, though not in person,’ and hast taken his wife to be thy wife’, she who still should have been Uriah's wife now lived in a guilty marriage with David, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon, according to a well-laid plan.— ‘Now, therefore, the sword shall *NEVER depart from thine house’, its bloodiness being evident in the murder of Amnon, the death of Absalom, and the execution of Adonijah; ‘because thou hast despised Me’, since he who despises God's Word despises Him, ‘and hast taken the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, to be thy wife.’ This was the first punishment.” (Kretzmann)

*NEVER defined.— “‘Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house,’ (10) —This word, in both its positive and negative forms, for ever and ever, is constantly used to express the longest time possible in connection with the subject of which it is used. Here it must mean ‘as long as David lives.’” (C. J. Ellicott) David’s enemies would raise their heads and Israel would ever be subduing them, as long as David lived. In a natural sense: “The prophet speaks of God threatening to do what He only permitted to be done. The fact is, that David's loss of character, by the discovery of his crimes, tended, in the natural course of things, to diminish the respect of his family, to weaken the authority of his government, and to encourage the prevalence of many disorders throughout his kingdom.” (Jamieson Fausset, Brown)

But there is a second word of prophecy in 1 Samuel 12-11-12:

“Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’ This God did by inclining David’s heart to leave his concubines to keep his house, and so to come into Absalom’s power; by giving up Ahithophel to his own carnal policy, which readily suggested to him that wicked and desperate counsel; and by exposing Absalom to these temptations, and leaving him to his own vicious inclinations, which God certainly knew would in such circumstances produce that effect. So the sin was wholly from men, but the ordering and overruling their mistakes and miscarriages to this end was from God.” (Poole)—> “‘For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’ (11- 12b) This would be literally fulfilled when Absalom lay with David’s concubine wives in broad daylight and in the sight of all Israel (2 Sam 16:21-22).” (Peter Pett)

David responded, “I have sinned against the LORD.” The same words were used by Saul (1 Samuel 15:24; 15:30), but in a totally different spirit. Saul’s confession was a concession to the prophet for the purpose of securing his support, and with no real penitence; David, in these few words, pours out before God the confession of a broken heart.” (C. J. Ellicott)

“And Nathan said to David, ‘The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.’ Unlike the man in the feigned story “David had committed two crimes for which the Law imposed the penalty of death—adultery (Lev 20:10) and murder (Lev 24:17). As an absolute monarch he had no reason to fear that the sentence would be put in force by any human authority; and the Divine word is to him of far more importance as an assurance of forgiveness than as a warding off of any possible earthly danger. The phrase is thus parallel to, and explanatory of, the previous clause, ‘The Lord also hath put away thy sin.’” (C. J. Ellicott)

God, in the person of Christ Jesus, is a propitiation for whoever will receive Him (cp. 1 John 2:2) “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:23) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) “’However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme,’ by uttering slanderous speeches against religion, and against all classes of professors, as though the whole church were composed of hypocrites and deceivers.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)— Thus, “’the child also who is born to you shall surely die.’ This seems unfair, but there will be a Judgment and the child shall surely survive it. “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (Eze 18:20) "Then," after the successful mission, “Nathan departed to his house.”

The consequences will remain and God predicted them but "we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

People shun me more for my open theism than conditionalism. But they go together. And they are both the truth of God. This is my conviction! I don’t think that it was God’s will for David to commit adultery and murder. And I don’t think that God knew it, being outside of time. He began to know it as David began to build his forbidden concubine. Lust was allowed to creep into the heart of the king of Israel! Then God knew it!

David loved the Lord and was called according to His purpose to be the king of Israel. But he was then threatened with temporal, as well as eternal death. This sentence was averted by repentance. All that my open view of the future affirms is libitarian free will, that “metaphysically and morally, man is an autonomous being, one who operates independently, not controlled by others or by outside forces.” (Got Questions) However, I affirm that we can from time to time, more or less, allow the Spirit of God to direct our steps. It is achieved by prayer and study of the Scriptures! And God will continue to follow us down any of the various paths that we take to a certain point… let us not grieve the Spirit. And if we continued to try to listen to His voice, He will lead us into the Green pasture of Paradise.

2 Samuel 12: The Death of David’s Son

15 And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill. 16 David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 17 So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them.

Nathan had told him that certainly the child should die; yet, while it is in the reach of prayer, he earnestly intercedes with God to change His mind. Hear the various testimonies on the issue:

1. “‘David therefore pleaded with God for the child,’ etc. thinking by his constant prayer that God would have restored his child, but God had determined otherwise.” (Geneva Study Bible)

2. “David therefore besought God to restore the child, and spare its life; for though the Lord had said it should die, he might hope that that was a conditional threatening, and that the Lord might be gracious and reverse it, 2 Samuel 12:22.” (John Gill)

3. “David knows that God’s heart can be moved. We learn from David what prayer is. David does not accept the message as a fate. He knows God as a God who can revoke a decision. That is not because the decision is not good, but because He wants to be prayed for it. Our prayers have a place in God’s plan. Our relationship with God determines our begging.” (G. de Koning)

4. “David, and indeed all others under the Mosaic dispensation, were so satisfied that all God's threatenings and promises were conditional, that even in the most positive assertions relative to judgments, etc., they sought for a change of purpose. And notwithstanding the positive declaration of Nathan, relative to the death of the child, David sought for its life, not knowing but that might depend on some unexpressed condition, such as earnest prayer, fasting, humiliation, etc., and in these he continued while there was hope.” (Adam Clarke)

“And lay all night upon the earth. — By this χαμευνια , humi-cubatio, lying on the ground, joined with his fasting and prayer, David doth both evidence his affection and edge his devotion. It was in the time of this humiliation, it is thought by some, that David uttered the fifty-first Psalm: which he afterwards published.” (John Trapp)

18 Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, “Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm!”

19 When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?”

And they said, “He is dead.”

20 So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate.

Then on the seventh day, the child died and entered into his rest. Perhaps the sevnth day of the week. Or "it died on the seventh day, when it was seven days old, and therefore not circumcised, which David might perhaps interpret as a further token of God's displeasure, that it died before it was brought under the seal of the covenant.” (Matthew Henry) Yet: “Children are a part of their parents, they are their goods.” (John Trapp) Thus David’s Shalom!

“Perhaps nothing more perfectly reveals the sincerity of his repentance than this ready acceptance of the stroke by which God refused to answer his prayer.” (G. Campbell Morgan)

21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” 22 And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ 23 But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

“And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ ’ For God’s threatening of the child’s death might be conditional, as that was of Nineveh’s destruction, Jonah 3:4.” (Matthew Poole)

“‘Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. ‘ I cannot save from death. At the time of Jesus, David had not yet ascended to heaven, nor do I believe that he has now. It was after Jesus’ resurrection—Christ the first fruits— that Paul preached, “Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” (Acts 2:29)

“What then was David's hope? In admitting that he was not the one to save Israel, and that he – along with his wife – deserved only eternal death, he looks to another. He prayed that the LORD might send Him whom He had promised, the Messiah, and that the LORD might none the less establish his throne, through His grace alone!

And as Peter says in Acts 2, the LORD answered this prayer. Peter states definitely that David went to his son, and that he died and was buried. There is no reason to embellish and glorify David! He was not able to bring his son back to life. Much as he could do great things, death was the end point for him in this dispensation. But David's great Son had come, Jesus Christ. And He was able to do what David, through sin and weakness, could not do.

This was the royal Son that David prayed and hoped for! And through the shadows of the dispensation in which David lived we can – however faintly – see the lines of the new dispensation! For he believed that he would see his departed son again. And he believed and confessed that even though he would have to go to death, that death was still not the end for him! Indeed, he would have to die, and wait for the Messiah. But he also believed in His coming and saving work! He foresaw and confessed the resurrection of Christ also in these words concerning his departed son. For in confessing that he was not able to bring him back, and that he also could not bring himself back, he looked in faith to One who was coming, who not only would ‘bring Himself back’ through God's power, but also be able to bring back all those who in repentance and faith took refuge in Him! He could not bring back one from the grave, and his own grave was a living testimony to his impotence. But the possibility of coming back, and the eventual reality of being brought back by another, his great Son, this he still confessed!… The grave is still the place where we all must go. But we have One in heaven who has been there, and come back, and who assures us that He will also bring us back from there again! We have a sure pledge that He will take us to Himself! And we have His Spirit as a sure pledge that we will be strengthened to triumph over death's power in Him. He makes us alive! So we may follow in the same royal confession, and expect the day of His coming with rejoicing!” (Jack de Jong)

“I shall go to him,” (23b) into the state of the dead (Sheol), in which he is, and (eventually) into heaven, where I doubt not I shall find him.” (Matthew Poole)

2 Samuel 12: Solomon Is Born

24 Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in to her and lay with her. So she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. Now the LORD loved him, 25 and He sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet: So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.

“And David comforted Bathsheba his wife.’ “Till now she was called the wife of Uriah: but now…., she is called David’s wife: and he, as a kind husband, comforteth her with the comforts wherewith himself had been comforted of God, 2Co 1:4 which was doubtless the effect of his seven days fasting.” (John Trapp) “It is observable, however, that there is not one word said to her in all this relation, either concerning her guilt or her punishment. She was punished in the calamities that befell David; who enticed her, and not she him, to commit the foul sin of adultery, and was innocent in the murder of Uriah.” (Joseph Benson)

"So she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon." It was later revealed that the word of the LORD had come to David, saying, “HIS NAME SHALL BE SOLOMON, for I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days.” Moreover concerning the house and the kingdom, “He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.” (1 Chron 22:9-10) So, promise of the scepter resting on Judah, until Shiloh comes (Genesis 49:10) had been further defined more particularly for the line of Solomon. His reign would be a one of peace. This was surely part of the comfort. “The name was given at the time of circumcision (Luke 1:59; Luke 2:21). The Hebrew form of the name is Shĕlômôh, the Sept. Salômôn, which by the time of the N.T. had become shortened to the familiar Solomon. It signifies peaceable, and was given him in anticipation of the peace and quietness promised to Israel in his reign in contrast to his father’s wars (1 Chronicles 22:9).” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)

“Now the LORD loved him."— Perhaps preferred is better. "’Hate’ as opposed to ‘love’ is by no means as stark in New Testament usage as may first appear. The remark of the Lord about discipleship recorded in Luke 14:26, ‘If any man hate not his father and mother… he cannot be my disciple’ bears ample testimony to this fact.” (D. Stuart Briscoe on Romans 9:13) —

"'And He sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet: So he (David) called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.’ Jedidiah means “beloved of Jah.” “It never came into use as a personal title.” (C. J. Ellicott) This was David’s nickname for Solomon. The LORD preferred Solomon and his descendants to be kings of Israel until the time of Jesus.

"When we recollect that from this issue, after the flesh, Christ came, how mysterious and unsearchable are the ways of God. It is a subject which challenges our attention, and at the same time our reverence, that in two or three instances the Lord was pleased to mark the descent of the Lord Jesus, as if to humble all human pride, and to throw down all the proud reasoning's of men. Rahab the harlot; Ruth the Moabitish damsel; and Bath-sheba the unfaithful wife of Uriah, were in the chosen race from whom, after the flesh, sprung the Lord and Saviour of our nature. Surely! here, if anywhere, it may be said, the Lord's ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts. See Matthew 1:5-6 ; Ruth 4:17; Ruth 4:17 . Solomon means peaceful: Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord. And in this we discover the grounds of this name, being so striking a type in many instances of him who is the Jedidiah, the only-begotten and beloved Son of his Father, full of grace and truth." (Robert Hawker)

“David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.” This is said for our sakes, for our example. “Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah. Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah. Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon." (Matt 1:6a-11) — “And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor. Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud. Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob." (Matt 1:12-15) "After a further succession of twelve private individuals who were not kings…But as during the whole period that those twelve private persons lived, the royalty of the house of Judah was violently suppressed, it is natural to conclude that they are the persons who would have been kings on the throne of Judah, from generation to generation, had the throne of David continued to stand. In other words, St Matthew gives us the succession of the heirs of David's and Solomon's throne. But as, according to the Jewish law, this succession was from father to son as long as there were male heirs, we should have no reason to doubt but that this list was also a genealogical stem in the strictest sense of the word,” (Arthur Charles Hervey) except the climax. “And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.” (Matt 1:16) There was no physical relation here. He was the Son of God.

2 Samuel 12: Israel Takes Rabbah

26 Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the people of Ammon, and took the royal city. 27 And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, “I have fought against Rabbah, and I have taken the city’s water supply. 28 Now therefore, gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called after my name.” 29 So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah, fought against it, and took it. 30 Then he took their king’s crown from his head. Its weight was a talent of gold, with precious stones. And it was set on David’s head. Also he brought out the spoil of the city in great abundance. 31 And he brought out the people who were in it, and put them to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes, and made them cross over to the brick works. So he did to all the cities of the people of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

Joab fought and took the royal city of Rabbah from Ammon and sent messenger to David to come for his glory. “‘David gathered all the people and went’— The reader will naturally observe that this was an expedition which came very seasonably to relieve David in his distress, and to revive his glory in arms. And if Joab considered it in this light, as in all probability he did, the praise of his generosity is still more ennobled in this view.” (Benson)

“Ammon did horrible things to the women of Israel. (Amos 1:13 .) A fearful retribution came upon them. How often it has been repeated in history, even down to the 20th century with all its boasted civilization, now collapsed in the greatest and most awful war the world has ever witnessed. And thus it will continue to the end, till the true King comes.” (Arno Gaebelein)

“’Then he took their king’s crown from his head.’ The same Hebrew letters, translated their king, form the name of Milcom, the chief idol of the Ammonites, and hence some writer have quite unnecessarily supposed that the idol’s crown is meant.” (C. J. Ellicott)

“Also he brought out the spoil of the city in great abundance.” These were in great abundance because of their covetness and pillaging of the wealth others. “And he brought forth the people that [were] therein, and put [them] under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln.’ Signifying that as they were malicious enemies of God, so he put them to cruel death.” (Geneva Study Bible)

“‘Made them pass through the brick-kiln,’ i.e. to be burnt in brickkilns. Or, made them to pass through the furnace of Malchen, i.e. of Moloch, called also Milchom, and here Malchen; punishing them with their own sin, and with the same kind of punishment which they inflicted upon their own children: see 2 Kings 16:3; 2 Kings 23:10; Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:2; Deuteronomy 18:10.” (Matthew Poole)

“’And he brought forth the people that were there in,’ in the acropolis, ‘and put them under saws,’ putting them to death by sawing them apart, ‘and under harrows, instruments or axes, of iron, and under axes of iron,’ knives or other cutting instruments, ‘and made them pass through the brick-kiln,’ the place where they burned their children to their idol Moloch; ‘and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon.’ The purpose was to inflict a striking punishment upon idolatry, for the war was a holy war. ‘So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.’ This great victory was another proof of God's grace and favor, for He is kind and gracious, and abundant in mercy and truth, forgiving iniquities, and transgressions, and sins.” (Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible)

Many want to place blame on David here, but I only see his service restored to Israel. Joab called him to action. “David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” (1 Kings 15:5) Others try to soften this to slavery, putting them to work on the various instruments, but these foes were supposed to be destroyed from the land. Thus, in effect, David “hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.” (Esther 7:10) There is no evident of torture or prolonged suffering inflicted in these deaths, as some accuse the Lord of. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)