1. The Lord sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, he said: “Tell me how you judge this case: In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor.
2. The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers.
3. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. Of what little he had she ate; from his own cup she drank; in his bosom she slept; she was like a daughter to him.
4. Now, a visitor came to the rich man, but he spared his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him: he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
5. David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan: “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves death!
6. He shall make fourfold restitution for the lamb because he has done this and was unsparing.”
7. Then Nathan said to David: “You are the man! “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
8. I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives for your own. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more.
9. Why have you despised the Lord and done what is evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; his wife you took as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.