Nathan rebuked David

12 Yahweh told the prophet Nathan what David had done, and he sent Nathan to tell this story to David: “I heard about two men who were living in a certain city. One was rich and the other was poor. 2 The rich man owned a lot of cattle and sheep. 3 But the poor man had only one little female lamb, which he had bought. He raised the lamb, and it grew up with his children. He would give the lamb some of his own food and let it drink from his cup. He let the lamb sleep in his arms. The lamb was like a daughter to him.

4 One day a visitor came to visit the rich man. The rich man did not want to take one of his own animals and kill it to prepare a meal for the visitor. So instead, he stole the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared a meal for his visitor.”

5 When David heard that, he was very angry about what the rich man had done. He said to Nathan, “I solemnly declare that the man who did that should be executed! 6 But before he is executed, he should pay back to the poor man four lambs for doing this, and for not having pity on the poor man.”

7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man I have been talking about! And this is what Yahweh, the God we Israelis worship, says to you: ‘I appointed you to be king of Israel, after having rescued you from Saul. 8 I gave you his palace and his wives. I caused you to become the king to rule Israel and Judah. If you had told me that you were not content with what I gave you, I would have given you twice as much! 9 So why have you despised my commandment about not committing adultery? You have done what I consider to be very evil! You have arranged for Uriah to be killed in a battle by the Ammon people-group’s soldiers, and you have taken his wife to be your wife! 10 You have despised me, and have taken Uriah’s wife to be your wife. So for many generations some of your descendants will die violently. [MTY, PRS] 11 I solemnly declare to you that I will cause someone from your own family to bring trouble to you. I will take your wives and give them to him, and he will have sexual relations with them in the daytime, where everyone can see it, and you will know all about it. 12 What you did, you did secretly, but what I will cause to happen, everyone in Israel will be able to see it or know about it. [IDM]’ ”

13 David replied, “I have sinned against Yahweh.” Nathan said to David, “Yahweh has forgiven you for your sin: You will not die because of this sin. 14 But, you have shown contempt for Yahweh by doing this. So, your baby will die.”

15 Then Nathan went home.