2 Samuel 12:1 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, "There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.

NIV: The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.

NASB: Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said, 'There were two men in a city, the one wealthy and the other poor.

CSB: So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him: There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

NLT: So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: 'There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor.

KJV: 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 other poor.

NKJV: Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor.

David has grossly sinned against one of his great warriors and the man's wife. He thinks no one knows the extent of his betrayal. He thinks no one will confront him (2 Samuel 11).

Ever since Abiathar witnessed Saul's massacre of the priests of Nob and escaped to David and his ragtag group of fighting men, David has consistently asked priests, prophets, and seers to seek God's will (1 Samuel 22:5, 18–21; 23:1–5; 2 Samuel 5:19, 23–24). This time, it appears David isn't listening—or, at least, he's not taking an active role. So, God tells Nathan to initiate the conversation.

In keeping with God's wisdom, Nathan isn't direct. There's no telling how an ancient Middle Eastern king would react if Nathan stomped into the throne room and began casting accusations. Nathan needs David to correctly judge the situation. Ideally, David needs to pronounce sentence himself. So, Nathan uses a parable: a simple story revealing a profound truth. Even more cleverly, Nathan reaches into David's shepherding roots (1 Samuel 17:34–35) with a tale about a young, defenseless lamb.

By the end, David will have accepted the message: Bathsheba was stolen from her rightful lover. Uriah was brutalized. David is a cruel man who can only be brought to justice by someone with a great amount of power and authority.

Second Samuel 12:1–6 exposes King David's hypocrisy. He slept with Bathsheba, murdered her husband, and married her to cover her pregnancy. He thinks no one of consequence knows the truth. He's forgotten about God. God sends a prophet, Nathan, to confront David with his sin. Nathan tells David a parable comparing the king to a rich man who steals a poor man's beloved lamb for dinner. David was a shepherd and he's outraged. Then Nathan reveals that David is the rich man and God's judgment is coming (2 Samuel 12:7–14).

In 2 Samuel 12, David learns the consequences of his sins against Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Samuel 11). David thought no one of consequence knew what he'd done. Nathan the prophet reveals that God knows; the Lord demands justice for David's victims. David's household will rebel, and Bathsheba's son will die. David humbly repents, and Bathsheba later conceives Solomon, the future king. Joab, about to defeat the Ammonites, calls David to finish the fight. In 2 Samuel 13, the seeds of the promised rebellion are sown. Psalm 51 is David's expression of remorse for his sins.

David begins to lose control of his seemingly perfect situation. While the respected soldier Uriah was fighting Ammonites with Joab (2 Samuel 10), David slept with Uriah's wife, Bathsheba. To cover her pregnancy, David arranged for Uriah to die in battle (2 Samuel 11). Nathan, the prophet, confronts David over his crimes. God takes the child's life and will allow David's household to rebel against him. This begins when David's son rapes his own half-sister, Tamar (2 Samuel 13), starting a series of events that will result in another son, Absalom, taking the throne from his father (2 Samuel 14—16).

Second Samuel continues the story of David, who will become king over Judah. The other tribes of Israel are resistant, eventually sparking a civil war. David wins and makes Jerusalem his capital. Early success is followed by moral failure and controversy in David's house. The book of 1 Kings will begin by detailing David's decline and death.