1. The Lord sent Nathan to David. Nathan went to him and said, “There were two men in a city. One man was rich, but the other man was poor.
2. The rich man had lots of sheep and cattle.
3. But the poor man had nothing except one little female lamb that he bought. The poor man fed the lamb, and the lamb grew up with this poor man and his children. She ate from the poor man’s food and drank from his cup. The lamb slept on the poor man’s chest. The lamb was like a daughter to the poor man.
4. “Then a traveler stopped to visit the rich man. The rich man wanted to give food to the traveler, but he did not want to take any of his own sheep or cattle to feed the traveler. No, the rich man took the lamb from the poor man and cooked it for his visitor.”
5. David became very angry with the rich man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this should die!
6. He must pay four times the price of the lamb because he did this terrible thing and because he had no mercy.”
7. Then Nathan said to David, “You are that rich man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I chose you to be the king of Israel. I saved you from Saul.