Глава 12

Divine punishment of David for his fall with Bathsheba. End of the war with the Ammonites. 2 Samuel 12:1. And the Lord sent Nathan [the prophet] to David, and he came to him and said to him: in one city there were two men, one rich and the other poor; 2 Samuel 12:2. the rich man had a lot of small and large livestock, 2 Samuel 12:3. and the poor man had nothing but one lamb, which he bought small and fed, and it grew up with him along with his children; She ate of his bread, and drank from his cup, and slept on his chest, and was like a daughter to him; 2 Samuel 12:4. and a stranger came to a rich man, and he was sorry to take from his sheep or oxen to prepare [dinner] for the stranger who came to him, but he took the poor man's sheep and prepared it for the man who came to him. 2 Samuel 12:5. David was very angry with this man and said to Nathan: As the Lord lives! the person who did this deserves death; 2 Samuel 12:6. and for the lamb he must pay four times, for the fact that he did it, and for the fact that he had no compassion. 2 Samuel 12:7. And Nathan said to David: You are the man [who did this]. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I have anointed you king over Israel, and I have delivered you from the hand of Saul, “The Prophet Nathan first transfers the accusation to a person decently invented for this purpose, because we look differently at the sin of others and differently at our own bad deeds; why do we judge ourselves and others differently? We pronounce a righteous sentence over others, but when we ourselves sin, we either completely erase the consciousness of it from our thoughts, or, seeing a sin, we find an excuse for it” (Blessed Theodoret, commentary on 2 Kings, question 24). “And he must pay four times for the lamb.” See ( Ex. 22:1 ). 2 Samuel 12:8. and he gave you your master's house and your master's wives for your bosom, and he gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if this was not enough [for you], he would add even more to you; “And he gave you the house of your master (Saul) and your master’s wives for your bosom,” that is, he gave them over to your complete power. 2 Samuel 12:10. So the sword shall never depart from your house, because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. “The sword shall never depart from your house.” This refers to the subsequent disturbances in David's family life and in the life of his state: the incest of Amnon with Tamar, the death of Amnon at the hands of Absalom, the indignation and death of Absalom, the indignation of Adonijah, as well as misfortunes in the life of the Jewish people under David's successors. 2 Samuel 12:11. Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring evil against you out of your house, and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will sleep with your wives before this sun; “I will bring evil upon you from your house.” David's subsequent grief was caused by those closest to him (Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah). “I will take your wives” and so on See (2 Samuel 16:20–22). 2 Samuel 12:13. And David said to Nathan: I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David: And the Lord has taken away thy sin from thee; you will not die; “And David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Saul once said the same thing (1 Samuel 15:24), but, as Rambach notes, “duo cum Saint idem, – non est idem.” The words of the king and prophet David expressed his full awareness of his fall, burning repentance for what had been done and an undoubted determination not to repeat the mistake. Saul, as we noted above (see example to (1 Samuel 15:24–31)), was aware of his sin, but did not feel it. An expressive monument to the spiritual torment of the sinner David is his 50th Psalm. 2 Samuel 12:25. and he sent Nathan the prophet, and he called his name Jedidiah, * according to the word of the Lord. “Jedidiah” is the middle name of David’s son Solomon. 2 Samuel 12:26. Joab fought against Rabbah of Ammon and took the almost royal city. 2 Samuel 12:27. And Joab sent to David to tell him: I attacked Rabbah and took possession of the water of the city; 2 Samuel 12:28. Now gather the rest of the people and approach the city and take it; for if I take it, my name will be called upon it. Having brought the enemy's capital city to the point of surrender, Joab invited David to the battlefield in order to give him the pleasure and honor of a brilliant conclusion to the war. You might be interested in: