10. So your family will never have peace! When you took Uriah’s wife, you showed that you did not respect me.’
11. “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am bringing trouble against you. This trouble will come from your own family. I will take your wives from you and give them to someone who is very close to you. He will have sexual relations with your wives, and everyone will know it!
12. You had sexual relations with Bathsheba in secret, but I will punish you so that all the people of Israel can see it.’”
13. Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan said to David, “The Lord will forgive you, even for this sin. You will not die.
14. But you did things that made the Lord’S enemies lose their respect for him, so your new baby son will die.”
15. Then Nathan went home. And the Lord caused the baby boy who was born to David and Uriah’s wife to become very sick.
16. David prayed to God for the baby. David refused to eat or drink. He went into his house and stayed there and lay on the ground all night.
17. The leaders of David’s family came and tried to pull David up from the ground, but he refused to get up. He refused to eat with these leaders.
18. On the seventh day the baby died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the baby was dead. They said, “Look, we tried to talk to David while the baby was alive, but he refused to listen to us. If we tell David that the baby is dead, he might do something bad to himself.”
19. David saw his servants whispering and understood that the baby was dead. So David asked his servants, “Is the baby dead?” The servants answered, “Yes, he is dead.”
20. Then David got up from the floor. He washed himself. He changed his clothes and got dressed. Then he went into the Lord’S house to worship. After that he went home and asked for something to eat. His servants gave him some food, and he ate.
21. David’s servants asked him, “Why are you doing this? When the baby was alive, you cried and refused to eat. But when the baby died you got up and ate food.”
22. David said, “While the baby was still living, I cried and refused to eat because I thought, ‘Who knows? Maybe the Lord will feel sorry for me and let the baby live.’
23. But now the baby is dead, so why should I refuse to eat? Can I bring the baby back to life? No. Some day I will go to him, but he cannot come back to me.”
24. Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife. He slept with her and had sexual relations with her. Bathsheba became pregnant again and had another son. David named the boy Solomon. The Lord loved Solomon
25. and sent word for Nathan the prophet to give Solomon the name Jedidiah. So Nathan did this for the Lord.
26. Rabbah was the capital city of the Ammonites. Joab fought against Rabbah and captured it.