Episode 123: God kills a baby

2 Samuel 12

Nathan's parable

12 ¹ God sent Nathan to tell David this parable:

There were two men in a city, one rich and the other poor.

² The rich man had many flocks and herds.

³ But the poor man had nothing, except for one little lamb, which the poor man loved as his own daughter.

⁴ A traveler came to the rich man's house, and rather than taking one of his own animals to feed his guest, he took the poor man's lamb.

⁵ When David heard the parable, he said,

The man that did this thing must die.

⁶ And he must give four lambs to the poor man, because he had no pity.

⁷ Nathan said to David, "That man is you."

Here's what God says:

⁸ I gave you Saul's wives and kingdom. I would have given you anything.

⁹ So why did you kill Uriah and take his wife?

¹⁰ Because you did this, your kingdom will always be at war.

¹¹ And I’ll force your neighbor to have sex with your wives in the sight of everyone.

¹³ David said, "I have sinned against God."

¹⁴ Nathan said,

Don't worry about it. You won't die. God has forgiven you.

But because what you did makes God look bad to his enemies, he’ll kill the baby.

God kills a baby

¹⁵ God made Bathsheba's baby boy sick.

¹⁶ David begged God not to kill the baby. He fasted, slept on the ground, and refused to eat.

¹⁸ But on the seventh day, the baby died.

²⁰ After the baby died, David washed, got dressed, had a nice meal, and worshiped the God who killed his son.

²¹ David's servants asked him,

What are you doing? You fasted and wept while the baby lived; now when the baby has died, you get up and eat?

²² David said,

While the baby was alive, I fasted and wept, saying to myself, "Who knows? Maybe God won’t kill my son."

But now that he's dead, why should I fast? Will that bring him back to life?

David comforts Bathsheba and Solomon is born

²⁴ David comforted Bathsheba by having sex with her, and she had a son, whom David called Solomon. And God loved him.

²⁵ But God sent Nathan to tell David to name him Jedidiah.

David tortures the children of Ammon

²⁹ David gathered all the people and attacked the Ammonites.

³⁰ After defeating them, he put the king's gold crown on his head, which weighed about a talent.

³¹ Then he tortured and killed the inhabitants of all the cities of Ammon with saws, axes, and brick kilns.