{"id":60353,"date":"2019-07-31T11:11:28","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T08:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=60353"},"modified":"2023-02-23T12:33:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T10:33:52","slug":"king-david-and-the-prophet-nathan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/king-david-and-the-prophet-nathan\/","title":{"rendered":"King David And The Prophet Nathan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In our Chapter, the court prophet Nathan, who previously delivered an oracle before David (7:4-17), now returns to reprimand David for his sins of illicitly possessing Bathsheba and arranging to have her husband, Uriah, killed in battle. In this confrontation with the king, Nathan employs a parable about two men, one rich and one poor. The rich man had large flocks, but the poor man had only one lamb, which he raised as his own child. When a traveler came to the rich man, instead of taking from his own flocks to prepare a meal, he took the poor man\u2019s one lamb. Upon hearing this, David said to Nathan: \u201cAs the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He shall pay for the lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and showed no pity.\u201d Nathan replied to David: \u201cThat man is you!\u201d (12:1-7).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the continuation, David shows appropriate contrition: \u201cDavid said to Nathan, \u2018I stand guilty before the Lord!\u2019 And Nathan replied to David: \u2018The Lord has remitted your sin. You shall not die. However, since you have spurned the enemies of the Lord by this deed, even the child about to be born to you shall die\u2019\u201d (verses 13-14).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Midrash (Sifre Devarim 26) expands on this admission of guilt. David is depicted as pleading with God not to document his transgression for posterity. But God replies that this would not be in David\u2019s best interest, because people would say that because of His love for David, God showed him favoritism by expunging all record of David\u2019s wrongdoing. As in the biblical text on which this Midrash is based, a parable is employed to concretize the idea being expressed. There was a rich man who each year borrowed one thousand \u201ckor\u201d (\u201ctons\u201d) of wheat from the king. People wondered, how could this man incur such debt without providing collateral but only being required to sign an informal document acknowledging his debt (i.e. an IOU) to the king. One time this previously rich man was unable to repay his debt to the king. So, the king entered the man\u2019s home and took his children. When the man\u2019s children were put on the block to be sold as slaves people realized he had lost his wealth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, David\u2019s fall from God\u2019s favor was \u201cquadrupled\u201d, as it says: \u201cHe shall pay for the lamb four times over\u201d (12:6). For the death of Uriah, in his own lifetime David shall suffer the loss of four loved ones: Bathsheba\u2019s first child, Amnon, Tamar and Absalom (see Talmud Bavli Yoma 22b). David confessed his sins to Nathan, but later David added in direct confession to God: \u201cI recognize my transgressions and am ever conscious of my sin. Against You alone have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight. You are just in Your sentence, and right in Your judgment\u201d (Psalms 51:5-6).<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: The Prophet Nathan Rebukes King David, Eug\u00e8ne Siberdt, 1866-1931, Antwerp<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":60354,"id":60354,"title":"2sam12-david-and-nathan2","filename":"2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/king-david-and-the-prophet-nathan\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam12-david-and-nathan2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":60353,"date":"2019-07-31 08:11:16","modified":"2019-07-31 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