¹Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him, and he said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and one poor. ²The rich man had very many sheep and cattle, ³but the poor man didn't have anything except one small lamb which he had bought and reared, and it grew up together with him and with his sons. It ate from his plate and drank from his cup, and it lay in his bosom, and it became like a daughter to him. ⁴And a traveller came to the rich man, but he spared taking anything from his own flock and herd, and preparing it for the guest who had come to him, and he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” ⁵And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this is deserving of death. ⁶And he will repay the lamb fourfold, since he did this thing and because he did not show pity.” ⁷Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man. This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from Saul's hand. ⁸And I gave your lord's house and your lord's wives into your bosom, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if you had little of anything, I increased it for you left, right and centre. ⁹Why have you despised the word of the Lord in doing evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite down with the sword, and you have taken his wife to be your wife. And you killed him by the sword of the sons of Ammon. ¹⁰So now, the sword will not depart from your house age-abidingly, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ ¹¹This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to stir up evil against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes, and I will give them to your neighbour, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. ¹²For you acted in secret, but I will do this thing in the presence of all Israel and in the presence of the sun.’ ” ¹³Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “However, the Lord has transferred your sin; you will not die for it, ¹⁴except that because you have thoroughly mocked the Lord in this matter, the son born to you will certainly die.” ¹⁵Then Nathan went to his house, and the Lord struck the child whom Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill. ¹⁶And David pleaded with God about the boy, and David fasted, then he went indoors and spent the night lying on the ground. ¹⁷And the elders of his house got up and went to him to lift him up from the ground, but he was not willing, and he did not eat bread with them. ¹⁸Then it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died, but David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child had died, because they said, “Look, when the child was alive, we spoke to him, but he did not heed us, so how can we say to him, ‘The child has died’? He would then do something wrong.” ¹⁹But David saw that his servants were whispering to each other, and David realized that the child had died, and David asked his servants, “Has the child died?” And they said, “He has died.” ²⁰Then David arose from the ground and washed and anointed himself, and he changed his robe, and he went to the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he went to his house and asked for bread, and they served it to him, and he ate. ²¹And his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but when the child died, you got up and ate bread.” ²²And he said, “When the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will have compassion on me, and the child will live?’ ²³But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” ²⁴And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and he went to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called him Solomon. And the Lord loved him. ²⁵And David sent word through the intermediacy of Nathan the prophet, and he called him Jedidiah, because of the Lord. ²⁶And Joab fought in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and he captured the royal city. ²⁷And Joab sent messengers to David, and he said, “I have fought in Rabbah, and moreover I have captured the City of Water. ²⁸So now, gather the rest of the people and encamp against the city and capture it, so that it is not me who captures the city and it becomes called after my name.” ²⁹And David gathered all the people, and he went to Rabbah, and he fought against it, and he captured it. ³⁰And he took their king's crown from his head, and its weight was a talent of gold with a precious gemstone, and it was placed on David's head. He also brought out a great deal of the city's spoil, ³¹and he brought out the people who were in it, and he assigned them to work with the saw, and with iron threshing boards and with iron axes, and he moved them to a brickworks. And he did likewise to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.