4. "Now a traveler came to visit the rich man, but he wasn’t willing to take anything from his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had arrived. Instead, he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the visitor."
5. David got very angry at the man, and he said to Nathan, "As surely as the Lord lives, the one who did this is demonic!
6. He must restore the ewe lamb seven times over because he did this and because he had no compassion."
7. "You are that man!" Nathan told David. “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I anointed you king over Israel and delivered you from Saul’s power.
8. I gave your master’s house to you, and gave his wives into your embrace. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. If that was too little, I would have given even more.
9. Why have you despised the Lord’s word by doing what is evil in his eyes? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and taken his wife as your own. You used the Ammonites to kill him.
10. Because of that, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own, the sword will never leave your own house.
11. "This is what the Lord says: I am making trouble come against you from inside your own family. Before your very eyes I will take your wives away and give them to your friend, and he will have sex with your wives in broad daylight.
12. You did what you did secretly, but I will do what I am doing before all Israel in the light of day."
13. "I’ve sinned against the Lord!" David said to Nathan."The Lord has removed your sin," Nathan replied to David. "You won’t die.
14. However, because you have utterly disrespected the Lord by doing this, the son born to you will definitely die."
15. Then Nathan went home.The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne for David, and he became very sick.
16. David begged God for the boy. He fasted and spent the night sleeping on the ground.
17. The senior servants of his house approached him to lift him up off the ground, but he refused, and he wouldn’t eat with them either.
18. On the seventh day, the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child had died. "David wouldn’t listen to us when we talked to him while the child was still alive," they said. "How can we tell him the child has died? He’ll do something terrible!"
19. But when David saw his servants whispering, he realized the child had died."Is the child dead?" David asked his servants."Yes," they said, "he is dead."
20. Then David rose from the ground, bathed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes. He entered the Lord’s house and bowed down. Then he entered his own house. He requested food, which was brought to him, and he ate.