ead, she mourned for
him as was the custom. When the mourning was over, David sent for her,
and she became his wife and she had a son.

What David had done displeased Jehovah and he sent the prophet Nathan to
David. Nathan went to him and said, "There were two men in one city, the
one rich and the other poor. The rich man had many flocks and herds; but
the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb which he had bought.
He fed it, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat
of his own small supply of food and drink out of his own cup, and it lay
in his bosom and was like a daughter to him.

"Now a traveller came to the rich man; and he spared his own flock and
did not take an animal from it nor from his own herd to make ready for
the traveller who had come to him, but took the poor man's lamb and
prepared it for the guest who had come."

Then David was very angry, and he said to Nathan, "As surely as Jehovah
lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall repay seven
times the value of the lamb, because he showed no pity."

Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Jehovah the God of Israel
declares: 'I made you ruler over Israel and I delivered you out of the
hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives to
be your own, and I gave you the nations of Israel and Judah. If that
were too little, I would add as much again. Why have you despised
Jehovah by doing that which is wrong in his sight? You have struck down
Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your
wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now,
therefore, the sword shall never cease to smite your family, because you
have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your
wife.'"

David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against Jehovah!" Then Nathan said
to David, "Jehovah has also put away your sin so that you shall not die.
Yet, because by this deed you have shown contempt for Jehovah, the child
that is born shall surely die." Then Nathan went to his house.

And Jehovah smote Bathsheba's child so that it fell sick. David prayed
to God for the child, and ate no food but went in and lay all night in
sackcloth upon the earth. The older men in his house stood over him to
raise him up from the earth; but he would not rise nor eat with them.
When on the seventh day the child died, the servants of David were
afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for