2 Samuel 12:21 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Then his servants said to him, "What is this thing 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."

NIV: His attendants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!"

NASB: Then his servants said to him, 'What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you got up and ate food.'

CSB: His servants asked him, "Why have you done this? While the baby was alive, you fasted and wept, but when he died, you got up and ate food."

NLT: His advisers were amazed. 'We don’t understand you,' they told him. 'While the child was still living, you wept and refused to eat. But now that the child is dead, you have stopped your mourning and are eating again.'

KJV: Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.

NKJV: 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.”

Royal servants responsible for ensuring David's well-being are baffled. For a full week, the king seemed to be in complete despair. He refused to eat or bathe or change clothes or even get up off the ground. His son was dying. All he could do was fast and pray that the Lord would spare the life of his son who suffered for David's sin (2 Samuel 12:15–17).

David's behavior is so foreign to them that they're afraid to tell him when the child dies. Wil the king harm himself in his grief? Instead, David responds to the news by getting up and washing and changing clothes and worshiping the Lord (2 Samuel 12:18–20). Now the servants boldly ask David why this is. Why did he start eating after hearing the thing he dreaded most had happened? David's answer reveals his dependence on and understanding of God's mercy.

Of course, David didn't want the boy to die. But his well-being wasn't dependent on whether the child lived or died. He knows God is a God of mercy and grace (Psalm 51:1). David's prayer and fasting were a conversation with his God. He gave God a "broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart" that he knows God will not despise (Psalm 51:17), and yet, the life of his son is not part of God's plan. David accepts this as he has accepted all the blessings God has given him.

David also has hope. He hasn't missed his opportunity to get to know his son. In the end, David will go up to meet him. They will live forever in God's presence, worshiping God together (2 Samuel 12:23).

Second Samuel 12:15–23 presents David's loss as Uriah's justice. David stole Uriah's wife, made her pregnant, and murdered him, taking away his right to leave a descendant for his family line. As a parallel, David will experience the loss of a child. David fasts and prays for mercy but accepts God's will when the child dies. Bathsheba will have four more sons including Solomon, the future king (2 Samuel 12:24–25; 1 Chronicles 3:5).

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.