2 Samuel 12:7 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.

NIV: Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

NASB: Nathan then said to David, 'You yourself are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘It is I who anointed you as king over Israel, and it is I who rescued you from the hand of Saul.

CSB: Nathan replied to David, "You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from Saul.

NLT: Then Nathan said to David, 'You are that man! The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul.

KJV: And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;

NKJV: Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

Nathan's words here are one of the most powerful and penetrating sentences about human sin in the Bible. His parable depicted an act of brutal greed and evil. David responded with anger, declaring that the rich man who cruelly stole a pauper's pet lamb deserves death (2 Samuel 12:1–6). Nathan responds emphatically: "You are the man!"

With devastating impact, the meaning of Nathan's parable suddenly comes into focus. David is the rich man. His wives and concubines are the many sheep he possesses. Uriah is the poor man, and Bathsheba is the one sheep he loved dearly. Just as the rich man abused the power of his wealth to take the poor man's lamb, David abused the power of the throne to take Uriah's beloved wife (2 Samuel 11:1–4; 12:1–6).

But David didn't just steal a sheep. He had Uriah killed to cover up the resulting pregnancy (2 Samuel 11:5–17).

Through Nathan, God obliquely reminds David that he was once the poor man. He was nothing but a shepherd boy when he slew Goliath (1 Samuel 17). Soon after, he became King Saul's greatest military commander. And nearly as quickly, he became Saul's target (1 Samuel 18:6–9). David knows what it feels like to lose his wife to another man because a king decided (1 Samuel 25:44). And David knows what it's like to have a king do everything in his power to try to kill him for the foolish reasons (1 Samuel 18:10–11; 19:6). David even knows what it's like for the king to try to murder him by the sword of an enemy army (1 Samuel 18:21).

God's greatest condemnation is yet to come. God not only protected David from Saul, but He also gave David everything Saul owned. God allowed David to retrieve his wife Michal (2 Samuel 3:14–16). God commissioned David to be king, to lead His people with mercy and justice. God rewarded David because of his love for God and His Law. In the span of a few weeks, David despised God and His law for the sake of his own lust.

Second Samuel 12:7–14 records the repercussions to come from David's sin. He thought no one who mattered knew he had taken Bathsheba and murdered Uriah (2 Samuel 11). Nathan told a parable describing David's sin, revealing that David's secret is out. The boy who faithfully followed God's will has now defiled God's law. David repents and will be spared. But Uriah and Bathsheba still deserve justice. David will experience versions of his own crimes against Uriah: loss of a child, violence, and humiliation.

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).