{"id":60115,"date":"2018-07-09T17:43:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-275\/"},"modified":"2023-02-23T12:47:51","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T10:47:51","slug":"wall-275","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-275\/","title":{"rendered":"chapter-Prophets-II Samuel-12"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"chapter","wall_id":"275","date":"20260917","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","books_group":"Prophets","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"59794","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"JPS Audio Bible - II Samuel Chapter 12 ","post_title":"JPS Audio Bible - II Samuel Chapter 12","slug":"jps-audio-bible-ii-samuel-chapter-12","old_id":"59794","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34686,"post_title":"Soundcloud","slug":"soundcloud","old_id":"34686","first_name":"","last_name":"","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34656,"alt":"","title":"491","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","width":300,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium_large-width":300,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","large-width":300,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","1536x1536-width":300,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","2048x2048-width":300,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","post_full_size-width":300,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"4","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"JPS Audio Bible","tile_main_caption":"II Samuel 12","tile_main_caption_size":"2","tile_sub_caption":"Hear the daily chapter","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/929-bible\/JPS_Audio_Bible_II_Samuel_Chapter_12","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","date":"20260917","wall_id":"275"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":2,"id":"60276","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Listening to the Prophets with Rabbi Abby Sosland- II Samuel 12 ","post_title":"Listening to the Prophets with Rabbi Abby Sosland- II Samuel 12","slug":"listening-to-the-prophets-with-rabbi-abby-sosland-ii-samuel-12","old_id":"60276","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":56624,"post_title":"Abby Sosland","slug":"abby-sosland","old_id":"56624","first_name":"Abby ","last_name":"Sosland","description":"Rabbi Abby Sosland is a spiritual advisor, writer, and educator, based at The Leffell School in Westchester, New York. 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He and his daughter studied the Tanach again for her bat mitzvah. Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group. When not studying for 929, Josh works as an in-house lawyer in New Jersey.","short_description":"Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group, and is an in-house attorney in New Jersey. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":78134,"alt":"","title":"josh blechner","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","width":276,"height":351,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","medium_large-width":276,"medium_large-height":351,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","large-width":276,"large-height":351,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","1536x1536-width":276,"1536x1536-height":351,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","2048x2048-width":276,"2048x2048-height":351,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","post_full_size-width":276,"post_full_size-height":351,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","home_baner-width":276,"home_baner-height":351}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"David\u2019s dispatching of Uriah has many levels\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

The chapter begins with Nathan\u2019s brilliant parable\/trap for David. David himself grew up as a shepherd so he would have been particularly sensitive to the plight of a poor shepherd versus a wealthy one. After Nathan reveals the truth behind his story, he tells David that God is furious with what he did.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Why then have you flouted the command of the LORD and done what displeases Him? You have put Uriah the Hittite to the sword; you took his wife and made her your wife and had him killed by the sword of the Ammonites\u201d (verse 9).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Why does the verse repeat that Uriah was killed by a sword?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Radak explains that the first killing was based on the order that David gave to Joab to send Uriah to his death. The second killing is mentioned because Uriah was killed by the Ammonites. This sin is not just about Uriah dying but the fact that David gave comfort to the enemies of Israel. Metzudat David simply explains that this was two parts of the sin: the order to kill and the actual fact that he was killed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Perhaps the answer lies in the wording of the verse. The first time the text used the word \u201c<\/span>hikita<\/span><\/em>\u201d- you \u201cstruck down\u201d with your sword. Then Nathan admonishes David for stealing Bathsheba, and the second time it uses \u201c<\/span>haragta<\/span><\/em>\u201d-you \u201ckilled\u201d with your sword. The phrase \u201cstruck down\u201d appears earlier in the David story when David goes to Nob. He asks Ahimelech the priest if there are any weapons in Nob because David saw one of Saul\u2019s entourage there. Ahimelech responds that the only weapon they have is \u201cthe sword that you struck down Goliath with.\u201d David actually killed Goliath with his slingshot, but striking Goliath down with Goliath\u2019s own sword was the symbolic killing of the Philistine warrior. Nathan uses these two different words then to distinguish between the actual murder of Uriah by the Ammonites and the symbolic striking down of Uriah by David through his machinations in the background.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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She has been sharing her passion for Jewish texts of all kinds for over 15 years, with students of all ages. Sarah\u2019s essays have been published in a variety of internet and print media, including Times of Israel, Kveller, Jewish Action, OU Life, The Lehrhaus, TorahMusings, and more. 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While the story of David and Bathsheba is often analyzed to determine the exact nature and extent of <\/span>David\u2019s<\/span><\/i> sin \u2013 a sin that, in a sense, leads to the birth of the next great Jewish king \u2013 it is not just his story.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Exploring <\/span>her<\/span><\/i> story and <\/span>their <\/span><\/i>story, we find a woman who demonstrates increasing agency over her life and her child\u2019s future, and we find a relationship enriched (surprisingly) by communication and trust.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Leaving aside for now the difficult question of Bathsheba\u2019s part in their initial encounter (see Ketubot 9a), at least after that fact we find that Bathsheba is not one to just sit back and accept whatever happens to her. She tells David immediately of her pregnancy, calling him to take responsibility for his behavior. One wonders whether she could have guessed <\/span>what<\/span><\/i> David would do about the news \u2013 but at the very least, we see that <\/span>she<\/span><\/i> acted.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

After the tragic death of that first child, their relationship deepens as David \u201cconsoled his wife Bathsheba\u201d (v. 24) \u2013 she is now properly his wife, and he begins to connect with her on an emotional level. According to a midrash quoted by Radak, Bathsheba asserts herself further at this point. Verse 24 continues with an apparent redundancy, \u201che went to her and lay with her\u201d; the midrash suggests \u201che went to her\u201d alludes to a separate step, a conversation of equals: she resisted his advances, until they talked and came to terms with the sin at the root of their relationship and their potential to develop something positive in its wake.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This union then produced Solomon \u2013 the son David had been told would succeed his father as king and succeed in building the Temple (I Chronicles 22:9).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And who determined this baby was to be the long-awaited Solomon? Tradition preserves two versions. In verse 24, the text is written \u201cand <\/span>he<\/b> named him Solomon,\u201d but we read \u201cand <\/span>she<\/b> named...\u201d Radak explains that both God and Bathsheba named the baby Solomon, together solidifying his destiny.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When she later hears that destiny is being challenged, Bathsheba again calls the king to action. Although the prophet advised her what to say (\u201c<\/span>Did not<\/b> you swear\u2026 Solomon shall succeed me\u201d \u2013 v. 13), Bathsheba chooses her own words (beginning with the more assertive \u201cMy lord, you yourself swore\u2026\u201d \u2013 v. 17). And although Nathan follows to reinforce her arguments, King David ignores him and calls for Bathsheba to come near and hear his recommitment (v. 28).\u00a0 It was David\u2019s <\/span>eyes<\/b> that initially drew him to Bathsheba, and dishonesty that brought her to him \u2013 but by the end, David has <\/span>ears<\/b> only for Bathsheba, and the drive to retain her trust.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The beginning of David\u2019s and Bathsheba\u2019s relationship was problematic at the time, it was difficult for the Talmudic sages to reconcile, and it is disturbing to the modern mind. But at the very least, we can appreciate how her actions helped develop their connection and ultimately ensured their son\u2019s future success.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Bathsheba, Willem Drost (1654) \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60357,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-bathsheba","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","width":649,"height":406,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba-300x188.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":188,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","medium_large-width":649,"medium_large-height":406,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","large-width":649,"large-height":406,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","1536x1536-width":649,"1536x1536-height":406,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","2048x2048-width":649,"2048x2048-height":406,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","post_full_size-width":649,"post_full_size-height":406,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","home_baner-width":649,"home_baner-height":406}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Bathsheba Takes Control","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"She gradually asserts her voice and her desires, leading to a fruitful union","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60357,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-bathsheba","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","width":649,"height":406,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba-300x188.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":188,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","medium_large-width":649,"medium_large-height":406,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","large-width":649,"large-height":406,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","1536x1536-width":649,"1536x1536-height":406,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","2048x2048-width":649,"2048x2048-height":406,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","post_full_size-width":649,"post_full_size-height":406,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-bathsheba.jpg","home_baner-width":649,"home_baner-height":406}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","date":"20260917","wall_id":"275"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"600","name":"Women","old_id":"1000"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"911","name":"Bathsheba","old_id":"1311"}]},{"order":5,"id":"60347","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"But Who Is The Sheep?\u00a0 ","post_title":"But Who Is The Sheep?\u00a0","slug":"but-who-is-the-sheep","old_id":"60347","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":39842,"post_title":"Avigayil Halpern","slug":"avigayil-halpern","old_id":"39842","first_name":"Avigayil ","last_name":"Halpern ","description":"Avigayil Halpern graduated from Yale in May of 2019 and is beginning study toward rabbinic ordination at the Hadar Institute. Avigayil has written extensively on issues of Jewish observance and gender in the Jewish media, and was an opinion columnist for the Yale Daily News.","short_description":"Avigayil Halpern graduated from Yale in May of 2019 and is beginning study toward rabbinic ordination at the Hadar Institute","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":39843,"alt":"","title":"A. Halpern headshot","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A.-Halpern-headshot-e1536749058221.jpg","width":1612,"height":1935,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A.-Halpern-headshot-e1536749058221-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A.-Halpern-headshot-e1536749058221-250x300.jpg","medium-width":250,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A.-Halpern-headshot-e1536749058221-768x922.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":922,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A.-Halpern-headshot-e1536749058221-853x1024.jpg","large-width":853,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A.-Halpern-headshot-e1536749058221.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A.-Halpern-headshot-e1536749058221.jpg","2048x2048-width":1612,"2048x2048-height":1935,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A.-Halpern-headshot-e1536749058221-1000x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A.-Halpern-headshot-e1536749058221-350x420.jpg","home_baner-width":350,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"

Nathan\u2019s parable of the poor man\u2019s sheep is well-known as an example of subtlety and even pastoral wisdom. Through his allegory, Nathan illuminates to David the error of his actions in seducing Bathsheba and having Uriah killed. But Nathan\u2019s tale is not itself unproblematic.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In casting David as a rich man and Uriah as poor, Nathan starkly captures the difference in power between the two men. Though it is true that David is, as the king, genuinely wealthier than Uriah, there is no evidence that Uriah is destitute. The economic status of the men in the story is a metaphor that conveys the ability of David, like a rich man living near a poor man, to act with impunity towards his less powerful neighbors and suffer no automatic consequence.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But who is the sheep here? Of course, the ovine character in the story is a stand-in for Bathsheba. Unlike the two men in the parable, though, the sheep of course takes no actions. The rich man steals the sheep, which the poor man has lavished with care and attention. The sheep has no agency. Bathsheba\u2019s comparison to this sheep casts her as sheeplike: in this narrative, she too has made no choices, but only been subjected to the whims of men.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The silence and lack of agency of Nathan\u2019s imaginary sheep is disappointingly echoed by the rest of the Biblical narrative itself. Bathsheba barely speaks, and her wants and motivations are opaque. Does she, too, desire the affair with David, or is it entirely coercive? How does she feel about marrying him immediately after the mourning period for Uriah has ended? About these and other questions we can only speculate.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The text of the Bible, as pointed out by centuries of commentators, is always sparse. We must turn to imagination and interpretation to attempt to understand the internal lives of the characters who animate the pages of the sacred text. In doing so, it is critical to ask: Which characters do we know even less about than we ought to? Who is unheard but important? Asking\u00a0 these questions about the Tanach can train us to ask them in the rest of our lives as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60348,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-lamb","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"But Who Is The Sheep?\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Bathsheba\u2019s comparison to a sheep casts her as sheeplike","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60348,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-lamb","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-lamb-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","date":"20260917","wall_id":"275"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"483","name":"Feminism","old_id":"883"},{"term_id":"704","name":"Parable","old_id":"1104"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"911","name":"Bathsheba","old_id":"1311"},{"term_id":"912","name":"Uriah","old_id":"1312"},{"term_id":"913","name":"Nathan","old_id":"1313"}]},{"order":6,"id":"60345","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"You Are The Man\u2026 I Have Sinned Against The Lord ","post_title":"You Are The Man\u2026 I Have Sinned Against The Lord","slug":"you-are-the-man-i-have-sinned-against-the-lord","old_id":"60345","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34243,"post_title":"Moshe Sokolow","slug":"moshe-sokolow","old_id":"34243","first_name":"Moshe","last_name":"Sokolow","description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University, and teaches a weekly class in parashat hashavu`a at Lincoln Square Synagogue. He is the author of TANAKH: An Owner\u2019s Manual (Jerusalem: Urim\/Ktav, 2015).\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34244,"alt":"","title":"sokolow","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","width":302,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-300x298.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":298,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","medium_large-width":302,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","large-width":302,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","1536x1536-width":302,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","2048x2048-width":302,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","post_full_size-width":302,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"But why then does Solomon get to build the Temple?","post_main_content_content":"

Preface: Nechama Leibowitz once claimed that\u00a0 \u201cIt is prohibited to teach chapter 11, without teaching chapter 12.\u201d In deference to Nehama, this post is a direct continuation of yesterday\u2019s \u201cWhoever Says David Sinned is Mistaken.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In contrast to the talmudic attempt to exonerate David, we have the self-evident testimony of Scripture that David, confronted by the parable of Nathan the Prophet (12:1-4), admitted his guilt (12:13), and accepted its consequences, which included the death of the infant son born of that union\u2014although Solomon, a subsequent child by Bathsheba, does succeed him.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It is that confession to which Nehama Leibowitz alluded in her remarks about chapter twelve, and her argument that David\u2019s acknowledgment of wrongdoing outweighs rabbinic attempts to find him innocent is persuasive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But it is to Solomon that we turn, here, in order to fathom how God could allow the child of an adulterous union to occupy so prominent a role in building the Temple from which David himself was precluded (see chapter 7). The answer, astonishingly, is that it is precisely Solomon\u2019s checkered past that made him the ideal candidate for that imposing task, because David had several other \u201cskeletons\u201d in his closet alongside which it was content to rattle. Here, to illustrate the point, is another pointed rabbinic remark.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

[God instructed Lot] \u201cLeave the city with your wife and your two daughters who are to be <\/span>found<\/span><\/i>.\u201d R. Tobiya and R. Yitzhak said: Two <\/span>findings<\/span><\/i>, Ruth the Moabite and Na`amah the Ammonite. R. Yitzhak [also] said: \u201cI <\/span>found<\/span><\/i> My servant David\u201d (Ps. 89:21). Where did I <\/span>find<\/span><\/i> him? In Sodom.\u201d (Bereishit Rabba 41)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David, on his mother\u2019s side, was descended from Ruth who\u2014apart from the questionable nature of her liaison with Boaz\u2014was a Moabite, and Moab was the product of the incestuous union between Lot and his elder daughter that took place right after the destruction of Sodom (Genesis 19:37). Lot\u2019s younger daughter bore him Ammon (op.\u00a0 cit.:38), who was the ancestor of Naamah the Ammonite, wife of Solomon and mother to Rehoboam, his successor (1 Kings 14:21), so the Davidic line, of which the Messiah is intended to derive, is marked all along the way by incest, adultery, and, to say the least, highly questionable and inappropriate behavior. (Recall, too, that David was descended from Judah via his dalliance with his daughter-in-law, Tamar.)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

One last rabbinic adage completes the hermeneutic circle.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Yohanan said in the name of R. Simeon b. Yehotzadak: One should not appoint any one administrator of a community, unless he carries a basket of vermin on his back, so that if he became arrogant, one could tell him: Look behind you!<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60324,"alt":"","title":"\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05d4_\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05e5","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05d4_\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05e5.jpg","width":250,"height":190,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05d4_\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05e5-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05d4_\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05e5.jpg","medium-width":250,"medium-height":190,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05d4_\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05e5.jpg","medium_large-width":250,"medium_large-height":190,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05d4_\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05e5.jpg","large-width":250,"large-height":190,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05d4_\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05e5.jpg","1536x1536-width":250,"1536x1536-height":190,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05d4_\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05e5.jpg","2048x2048-width":250,"2048x2048-height":190,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05d4_\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05e5.jpg","post_full_size-width":250,"post_full_size-height":190,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05d4_\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05e5.jpg","home_baner-width":250,"home_baner-height":190}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Continuation of: Whoever Says David Sinned is Mistaken","tile_main_caption":"You Are The Man\u2026 I Have Sinned Against The Lord","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"But why then does Solomon get to build the 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Her particular area of interest is biblical leadership. Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","short_description":"Molly Morris holds a Masters degree in Leadership and Community Engagement. Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":92561,"alt":"","title":"molly morris","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","width":2192,"height":2488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-264x300.jpg","medium-width":264,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-768x872.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":872,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-902x1024.jpg","large-width":902,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","1536x1536-width":1353,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","2048x2048-width":1804,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-1057x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1057,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-370x420.jpg","home_baner-width":370,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"When looking for faults use a mirror, not a telescope (Anonymous)","post_main_content_content":"

Following King David\u2019s sin with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, God sends the prophet Nathan to David to deliver news of his punishment. Nathan knows his King well, and he also has the wisdom to know that sometimes you have to beat around the bush to get to the point. Nathan doesn\u2019t come right out and tell David what he\u2019s done wrong. Instead he tells David a parable about a rich man and a poor man and how the rich man stole the poor man\u2019s one and only beloved lamb and fed it to a traveller, rather than take one from his own plentiful stock. David responds with righteous indignation proclaiming the rich man deserving of death because of his vile behaviour.\u00a0 David didn\u2019t understand that this parable was about him until Nathan spelled it out, saying \u201cYou are the man\u201d (12:7).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The medieval commentator Radak points out that David\u2019s proclamation that the rich man was deserving of death was in accordance with the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law. \u201c<\/span>When he said that the man deserves to die, he was speaking in hyperbole, for a man is not liable to the death penalty for the act of stealing. But since he did something despicable, he said that he deserved to die.<\/span>\u201d Similarly, David\u2019s sin of taking Bathsheba and sending Uriah to die in battle was likewise a violation deserving of penalty, but not actual execution.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

So, what was the purpose of the parable rather than just giving David the facts? It\u2019s common to see the failings of others while not seeing our own. Nathan recognized that to bring David to a full comprehension of what he had done wrong would require making him judge a parallel case. David\u2019s behaviour was as despicable as the rich man\u2019s, the one David proclaimed worthy of death.\u00a0 But unlike David\u2019s decree, God did not sentence David to death. Although his punishment was the loss of a son, which is arguably even worse.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Nathan held up a mirror by way of a parable, but David failed to recognize his own image; perhaps because he was looking through the proverbial telescope.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60351,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-telescope","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope.jpg","width":1100,"height":587,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope-300x160.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":160,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope-768x410.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":410,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope-1024x546.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":546,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope.jpg","1536x1536-width":1100,"1536x1536-height":587,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope.jpg","2048x2048-width":1100,"2048x2048-height":587,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope.jpg","post_full_size-width":1100,"post_full_size-height":587,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope-787x420.jpg","home_baner-width":787,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Why Speak In Parables?\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"When looking for faults use a mirror, not a telescope (Anonymous)","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60351,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-telescope","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope.jpg","width":1100,"height":587,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope-300x160.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":160,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope-768x410.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":410,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope-1024x546.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":546,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope.jpg","1536x1536-width":1100,"1536x1536-height":587,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope.jpg","2048x2048-width":1100,"2048x2048-height":587,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope.jpg","post_full_size-width":1100,"post_full_size-height":587,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-telescope-787x420.jpg","home_baner-width":787,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","date":"20260917","wall_id":"275"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"547","name":"Punishment","old_id":"947"},{"term_id":"704","name":"Parable","old_id":"1104"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"913","name":"Nathan","old_id":"1313"}]},{"order":8,"id":"60362","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"The Price Bathsheba Paid ","post_title":"The Price Bathsheba Paid","slug":"the-price-bathsheba-paid","old_id":"60362","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":41525,"post_title":"Sivan Rotholz","slug":"sivan-rotholz","old_id":"41525","first_name":"Sivan ","last_name":"Rotholz","description":"Sivan Rotholz is a joint rabbinical and MARE student at Hebrew Union College, where she is a Wexner Graduate Fellow and a New Israel Fund Elissa Froman Fellow. She taught feminist Torah study and creative writing at Brooklyn College, Tel Aviv University, and Temple Israel of the City of New York. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Brooklyn College and a Juris Doctorate from Golden Gate University School of Law and is the Managing Editor of the Saturday Poetry Series on As It Ought To Be. ","short_description":"Sivan Rotholz is a joint rabbinical and MARE student at Hebrew Union College, where she is a Wexner Graduate Fellow and a New Israel Fund Elissa Froman Fellow. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":41526,"alt":"","title":"sivan rotholz","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","width":320,"height":312,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz-300x293.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":293,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","medium_large-width":320,"medium_large-height":312,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","large-width":320,"large-height":312,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","1536x1536-width":320,"1536x1536-height":312,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","2048x2048-width":320,"2048x2048-height":312,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","post_full_size-width":320,"post_full_size-height":312,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","home_baner-width":320,"home_baner-height":312}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"

\u201cI have offended against the Lord,\u201d says David. And in return Nathan prophecies: \u201cyou shall not die\u2026 [but] the son born to you is doomed to die.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou have put Uriah the Hittite to the sword; you took his wife and made her your wife and had him killed,\u201d Nathan chastises David, and so, the Torah tells us, \u201cthe LORD afflicted the child whom Bathsheba wife of Uriah the Hittite had borne David\u2026 and on the seventh day the child died.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In this crucial moment when we learn the fate of the infant, Bathsheba is designated as <\/span>wife of Uriah<\/span><\/i>. David is punished because he took another man\u2019s wife and had that man killed. But Bathsheba is not referred to here as David\u2019s wife\u2014a status that might implicate her in the wrongdoing\u2014but as Uriah\u2019s; she is among the victims.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David\u2019s greed, his lechery, his taking, results in a child. The child\u2014an innocent\u2014dies as punishment for David\u2019s crimes. For <\/span>David\u2019s<\/span><\/i>. But what of Bathsheba? Why must the mother suffer for the father\u2019s sins?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In 2 Samuel, Bathsheba is silent when David calls her up her from the privacy of her ritual bath and orders her into his bed. Powerless to protest when the king has her husband murdered. She speaks only three words, \u201cI am pregnant,\u201d words that transform her from the object of David\u2019s lust into the mother of his heir. But now that she is mother, what price must she pay?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Echoing the silence of Sarah during Isaac\u2019s sacrifice, of Rebecca when Jacob absconds, and of Leah when Dina is raped, the Torah does not grant us insight into this mother\u2019s grief. While David\u2014after hearing that the child is dead\u2014rises, freshens up, and eats, we do not know the depths of Bathsehba\u2019s despair. We are left with only a hint of her pain when we learn that, following the infant\u2019s death, David consoles his wife.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cAnd David consoled Bathsheba his wife, and he came to her and lay with her, and she bore him a son and called him Solomon...\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But how does David \u201cconsole\u201d his grieving wife? He sleeps with her. This poor woman, who is within the year of mourning for her husband, who is recovering from giving birth, whose child <\/span>just died<\/span><\/i>, is once again called to David\u2019s bed, only to find herself pregnant again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From this second union comes King Solomon. Unlike the child that was sacrificed for David\u2019s sins, this is the rightful son of a king. Solomon will become the wisest and greatest king the Jewish people will ever know. But we would be wise to remember his mother and to ask what price she paid to deliver such a king to Israel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: David and Bathsheba Mourning over Their Dead Son, Salomon Koninck, c. 1642 \/ 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Price Bathsheba Paid","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Why must the mother suffer for the father\u2019s 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She has a BA from the University of Chicago in the History and Philosophy of Science and a JD from NYU School of Law. She studied in the Drisha Scholars Circle as well as at other programs in Israel and Boston, and has taught at a variety of synagogues and Hillels. She previously practiced commercial litigation at a large law firm, and completed a judicial clerkship in the Southern District of New York","short_description":"Miriam Gedwiser teaches Talmud and Tanakh at Ramaz and at Drisha.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":60045,"alt":"","title":"Miriam Gedwiser 2 cropped","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","width":453,"height":522,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-260x300.jpg","medium-width":260,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","medium_large-width":453,"medium_large-height":522,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","large-width":453,"large-height":522,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":453,"1536x1536-height":522,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":453,"2048x2048-height":522,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":453,"post_full_size-height":522,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-364x420.jpg","home_baner-width":364,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"David owes his kingship to Joab\u2019s loyalty, and Joab owes his position to David\u2019s favor","post_main_content_content":"

The central drama of this chapter unfolds around Nathan confronting David, and around the birth and death of David and Bathsheba\u2019s child. But,<\/span> as always<\/span><\/a>, Joab is waiting in the wings, and he emerges at the end of the chapter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The events of Chapters 11 and 12 take place within a frame story that begins in 11:1 - Joab\u2019s war against Amon on behalf of David. Throughout it all, Joab has been at the front while David has been in Jerusalem.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The frame story comes to its conclusion at the end of chapter 12, beginning in verse 26: \u201cJoab attacked Rabbah of Ammon and captured the royal city.\u201d In verse 28, Joab sends a message to David to come to the front himself, \u201cmuster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it; otherwise I will capture the city myself, and my name will be connected with it,\u201d and in verse 27, David in fact comes to finish the job.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

So who captured Rabbah, Joab or David? The verses seem to attribute the same victory to both. This seeming inconsistency yet again highlights the<\/span> interdependence<\/span><\/a> between Joab and David. Without Joab\u2019s work in the background of these two chapters, David would have nothing to show for the time but some capital crimes and a dead child. Further, Joab knows, and makes sure David knows he knows, that Joab could snatch all the glory of the military victory for himself (\u201cmy name will be connected with it\u201d). As in Chapter 11, Joab proves himself indispensable through his very loyalty. And yet, without David, Joab would have no one\u2019s army to lead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Talmud, in Sanhedrin 49a, hints at this interdependence, albeit with its own spin on David\u2019s side of the work: \u201cWere it not for David [who studied Torah], Joab would not have been able to wage war successfully, and were it not for the military acumen of Joab, David would not have been able to study Torah. As it is written: \u201cAnd David executed judgment and justice to all his people, and Joab, son of Zeruiah, was over the army\u201d (II Samuel 8:15\u201316).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In some fundamental way, David owes his kingship to Joab\u2019s loyalty, and Joab owes his position to David, notwithstanding David\u2019s curse, in chapter 3.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Over the coming chapters, David\u2019s house will begin to unravel in the aftermath of his sin.\u00a0 Throughout these difficult times, Joab\u2019s centrality to David\u2019s success will become even more clear.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60360,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-david and joab","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/gif","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","width":625,"height":631,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab-150x150.gif","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab-297x300.gif","medium-width":297,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","medium_large-width":625,"medium_large-height":631,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","large-width":625,"large-height":631,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","1536x1536-width":625,"1536x1536-height":631,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","2048x2048-width":625,"2048x2048-height":631,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","post_full_size-width":625,"post_full_size-height":631,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab-416x420.gif","home_baner-width":416,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The King And His General, Intertwined","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"David owes his kingship to Joab\u2019s loyalty, and Joab owes his position to David\u2019s favor","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60360,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-david and joab","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/gif","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","width":625,"height":631,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab-150x150.gif","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab-297x300.gif","medium-width":297,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","medium_large-width":625,"medium_large-height":631,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","large-width":625,"large-height":631,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","1536x1536-width":625,"1536x1536-height":631,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","2048x2048-width":625,"2048x2048-height":631,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab.gif","post_full_size-width":625,"post_full_size-height":631,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-joab-416x420.gif","home_baner-width":416,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","date":"20260917","wall_id":"275"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"895","name":"Loyalty","old_id":"1295"},{"term_id":"900","name":"Joab","old_id":"1300"}]},{"order":11,"id":"60353","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"King David and the Prophet Nathan ","post_title":"King David And The Prophet Nathan","slug":"king-david-and-the-prophet-nathan","old_id":"60353","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33877,"post_title":"Marc Bregman","slug":"marc-bregman","old_id":"33877","first_name":"Marc","last_name":"Bregman","description":"Marc Bregman received his Ph.D. from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1991. 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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>\r\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>\r\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>\r\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>\r\n

Image: The Prophet Nathan Rebukes King David, Eug\u00e8ne Siberdt, 1866-1931, Antwerp<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60354,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-david-and-nathan2","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","width":660,"height":350,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2-300x159.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":159,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","medium_large-width":660,"medium_large-height":350,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","large-width":660,"large-height":350,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","1536x1536-width":660,"1536x1536-height":350,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","2048x2048-width":660,"2048x2048-height":350,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","post_full_size-width":660,"post_full_size-height":350,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","home_baner-width":660,"home_baner-height":350}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"King David and the Prophet Nathan","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"In the midrash, God refuses to erase the records of David\u2019s sins","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60354,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-david-and-nathan2","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","width":660,"height":350,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2-300x159.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":159,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","medium_large-width":660,"medium_large-height":350,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","large-width":660,"large-height":350,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","1536x1536-width":660,"1536x1536-height":350,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","2048x2048-width":660,"2048x2048-height":350,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","post_full_size-width":660,"post_full_size-height":350,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-david-and-nathan2.jpg","home_baner-width":660,"home_baner-height":350}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","date":"20260917","wall_id":"275"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"363","name":"Midrash","old_id":"763"},{"term_id":"390","name":"Prophets","old_id":"790"},{"term_id":"547","name":"Punishment","old_id":"947"},{"term_id":"571","name":"Repentance","old_id":"971"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"913","name":"Nathan","old_id":"1313"}]},{"order":12,"id":"112935","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"The Tanakh Podcast-IISam12 ","post_title":"The Tanakh Podcast-IISam12","slug":"the-tanakh-podcast-iisam12","old_id":"112935","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33692,"post_title":"Alex Israel","slug":"33692-2","old_id":"33692","first_name":"Alex","last_name":"Israel","description":"Alex Israel teaches Tanakh at the Pardes Institute, Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi and Matan, Jerusalem. 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","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":60053,"alt":"","title":"alon meltzer","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer.jpg","width":1383,"height":1583,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-262x300.jpg","medium-width":262,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-768x879.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":879,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-895x1024.jpg","large-width":895,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer.jpg","1536x1536-width":1342,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer.jpg","2048x2048-width":1383,"2048x2048-height":1583,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-1048x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1048,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-367x420.jpg","home_baner-width":367,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"But can we truly forgive and forget when misdeeds are so great?","post_main_content_content":"

God is upset with David; he sends the prophet Nathan. Nathan shares a story about economic injustice. David flies into a rage and says the person who abused his power should be put to death. Nathan strikes while the iron is hot, saying that David is the one who has abused his power.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David confesses his guilt. Both he and Batsheba are punished with the premature death of their unborn child. He tries to regain his closeness with the Almighty, and in the end the future king, Solomon, is born to the couple.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David receives severe punishment. He is punished like the Torah stipulates, an eye for an eye. Each action that David undertook; he receives back in kind. The 12<\/span>th<\/span> century commentator, Radak and the 15<\/span>th<\/span> century commentator, Arbarbanel, explain that he took another\u2019s wife and his concubines were taken from him, and died. He set up a situation whereby Uriah was killed and so his family was beset by troubles and violence. But David himself was spared through his repentance.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It takes a lifetime to build a name for oneself, and only a matter of moments to have it all torn down. The only one to blame is the person who commits the acts. Can we truly forgive and forget when misdeeds are so great?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Arbarbanel explains that David\u2019s sins were human failings, but they weren\u2019t done to subvert the rule of law or his love of God. They were human mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The bible teaches us a very deep lesson here; both in the act and the response. David destroyed his own reputation, it wasn\u2019t victimless, and there are many who confirm his guilt, but he took his punishment, understood his crime, and accepted his responsibility, and God responds by ensuring that he is given a second chance.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Not every sin nor every sinner deserves a second chance, but it behooves all of us to understand that not everyone deserves to have that chance stripped from them. The sinner should be rebuked, but they also need to be offered a chance to prove that they have repented and changed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60366,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-thou shalt not","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not.jpg","width":1920,"height":1488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-300x233.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":233,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-768x595.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":595,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-1024x794.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":794,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1190,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1488,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-1200x930.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":930,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-542x420.jpg","home_baner-width":542,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Sinner is Rebuked","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"But can we truly forgive and forget when misdeeds are so great?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60366,"alt":"","title":"2sam12-thou shalt not","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not.jpg","width":1920,"height":1488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-300x233.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":233,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-768x595.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":595,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-1024x794.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":794,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1190,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1488,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-1200x930.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":930,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam12-thou-shalt-not-542x420.jpg","home_baner-width":542,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","date":"20260917","wall_id":"275"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"400","name":"Sin","old_id":"800"},{"term_id":"459","name":"Forgiveness","old_id":"859"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"}]},{"order":14,"id":"60335","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"David Dissociates ","post_title":"David Dissociates","slug":"david-dissociates","old_id":"60335","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":56443,"post_title":"Moshe Halbertal","slug":"moshe-halbertal","old_id":"56443","first_name":"Moshe ","last_name":"Halbertal ","description":"Prof. Moshe Halbertal is a professor of Jewish thought and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a professor of law at New York University (NYU) and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. 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","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":56444,"alt":"","title":"Moshe-Halbertal","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","width":500,"height":500,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","medium_large-width":500,"medium_large-height":500,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","large-width":500,"large-height":500,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","1536x1536-width":500,"1536x1536-height":500,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","2048x2048-width":500,"2048x2048-height":500,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","post_full_size-width":500,"post_full_size-height":500,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"His very capacity for repentance reveals how David\u2019s political existence has overridden his moral sensibility as a man\u00a0\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Nathan\u2019s reproach elicited David\u2019s palpably sincere repentance, thereby deepening our understanding of dissociation. His very capacity for repentance reveals how thoroughly David\u2019s political existence has overridden the moral sensibility he retains as a man. We catch a glimpse of David\u2019s politically smothered moral impulses in his angry reaction to Nathan\u2019s fable of the rich man who, instead of taking a beast from his own ample flock, sacrifices a poor man\u2019s only ewe to feed a traveler. David is genuinely incensed that the rich man had no pity. The extent to which David has dissociated himself even from his own moral responses is then brought out dramatically when Nathan tells him \u201cYou are the man!\u201d (12:7).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In response, David becomes momentarily capable of returning to the moral self previously silenced by the weight of his sovereign persona and accepting his guilt: \u201cI have offended against the Lord\u201d (12:13). In the same repentant spirit, David implores God to save his newborn son who, soon after Bathsheba gave him birth, fell gravely ill, supposedly as God\u2019s way of punishing the father for his sins. For seven days, David would not eat or rise from the ground. When the baby finally succumbed, the king\u2019s servants were afraid to be the bearers of bad news. But when David learns that the child is dead, he returned to his house and ate, recognizing the finality of the child\u2019s death, which he grimly associates with the inevitability of his own: \u201cI am going to him and he will not come back to me\u201d (12:23).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David\u2019s underlying capacity for heartfelt grief, which we will encounter again at the end of the Absalom episode but which has been suppressed in David\u2019s plot to save his public reputation and thus his throne by having Uriah killed, makes the grip that sovereign power exerts over its wielder all the more harrowing. Had David been a cold-blooded tyrant, his quest for deniability would have little moral significance. As a calculating attempt to dupe the public, it would not have involved David\u2019s need to silence his own conscience. Our author drives home the uncanny power of dissociation and its capacity to generate violence, therefore, precisely by giving us such a rich portrayal of David\u2019s complexity as a human being and not merely a king.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Excerpts from The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 96-97.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":56668,"alt":"","title":"halbertal-book 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He has written over twenty books, focusing on such topics as the European novel from the 18th century to the present, contemporary American fiction, and modern Hebrew literature. He has also written extensively on the literary aspects of the Bible. His most recent work is his monumental three volume translation of the entire Hebrew Bible - The Hebrew Bible, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019 - from which the selections in 929 are taken. ","short_description":"Robert Alter is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of the three-volume translation of the entire Hebrew Bible - The Hebrew Bible, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":54357,"alt":"","title":"robert alter","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","width":184,"height":275,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","medium-width":184,"medium-height":275,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","medium_large-width":184,"medium_large-height":275,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","large-width":184,"large-height":275,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","1536x1536-width":184,"1536x1536-height":275,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","2048x2048-width":184,"2048x2048-height":275,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","post_full_size-width":184,"post_full_size-height":275,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","home_baner-width":184,"home_baner-height":275}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"David\u2019s compensatory zeal to be a champion of justice overrides any awareness he might have of the evident artifice of Nathan\u2019s story","post_main_content_content":"

12:1 \u201cAnd the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said to him: \u2018Two men there were in a single town, one was rich and the other poor.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Commentary: Nathan\u2019s parables, from its very first syllables, makes clear its own status as a traditional tale and a poetic construction. The way one begins a storyteller\u2019s tale in the Bible is with the formula \u201cthere was a man\u201d -- compare the beginning of Job, or the beginning of the story of Hannah and Elkanah in 1 Samuel 1. The Hebrew prose of the parable also is set off strongly from the language of the surrounding narrative by its emphatically rhythmic character, with a fondness for parallel pairs of terms -- an effect this translation tries to reproduce. The vocabulary, moreover, includes several terms that are relatively rare in biblical prose narrative: <\/span>kivsah<\/span><\/em> (ewe), <\/span>ra\u2019sh<\/span><\/em> (poor), <\/span>helekh<\/span><\/em> (wayfarer), <\/span>`oreah<\/span><\/em> (wayfarer). Finally the two \u201cmen\u201d of the opening formula are at the end separated out into \u201crich man\u201d \u201cpoor man\u201d and \u201cthe man who had come\u201d (in each of these cases, Hebrew <\/span>`<\/span>ish<\/span><\/em> is used). This formal repetition prepares the way, almost musically, for Nathan\u2019s two-word accusatory explosion, <\/span>`atah ha`ish<\/span><\/em>, \u201cYou are the man!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Given the patently literary character of Nathan\u2019s tale, which would have been transparent to anyone native to ancient Hebrew culture, it is a little puzzling that David should so precipitously take the tale as a report of fact requiring judicial action. Nathan may be counting on the possibility that the obverse side of guilty conscience in a man like David is the anxious desire to do the right thing. As a king, his first obligation is to protect his subjects and to dispense justice, especially to the disadvantaged. In the affair of Bathsheba and Uriah, he has done precisely the opposite. Now, as he listens to Nathan\u2019s tale, David\u2019s compensatory zeal to be a champion of justice overrides any awareness he might have of the evident artifice of the story.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From: Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible<\/em>, vol. 2: Prophets, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019, ad loc. By permission of the author.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":54890,"alt":"","title":"Alter-Cover","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","width":1200,"height":693,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-768x444.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1024x591.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":693,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":693,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1200x693.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":693,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-727x420.jpg","home_baner-width":727,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"From 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Currently held in the Israel Museum, the statue pictured here was reportedly discovered near Amman (ancient Rabbat Ammon) and acquired by Israeli general, politician, and antiquities collector Moshe Dayan. The bust depicts a bearded individual, likely a king or deity, wearing an Egyptian-style crown. In 2 Samuel 12:26\u201331, David\u2019s commander Joab captures Rabbat-Ammon and brings David the crown of the Ammonite king among the spoils.<\/p>\r\n

image: courtesy of George Blumenthal<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":61114,"alt":"","title":"2samuel12_ammonite crown","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown.png","width":656,"height":1048,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown-188x300.png","medium-width":188,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown-641x1024.png","medium_large-width":641,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown-641x1024.png","large-width":641,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown.png","1536x1536-width":656,"1536x1536-height":1048,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown.png","2048x2048-width":656,"2048x2048-height":1048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown.png","post_full_size-width":656,"post_full_size-height":1048,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown-263x420.png","home_baner-width":263,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"from Rabbat - Ammon","tile_main_caption":"Ammonite Crown","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"From the collection of George Blumenthal","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":61114,"alt":"","title":"2samuel12_ammonite crown","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown.png","width":656,"height":1048,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown-188x300.png","medium-width":188,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown-641x1024.png","medium_large-width":641,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown-641x1024.png","large-width":641,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown.png","1536x1536-width":656,"1536x1536-height":1048,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown.png","2048x2048-width":656,"2048x2048-height":1048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown.png","post_full_size-width":656,"post_full_size-height":1048,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2samuel12_ammonite-crown-263x420.png","home_baner-width":263,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","date":"20260917","wall_id":"275"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"555","name":"Archaeology","old_id":"955"}]},{"order":17,"id":"59815","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"A Lesson on the Daily Chapter- II Samuel 12 ","post_title":"A Lesson on the Daily Chapter- II Samuel 12","slug":"a-lesson-on-the-daily-chapter-ii-samuel-12","old_id":"59815","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":40936,"post_title":"David Silber","slug":"david-silber-2","old_id":"40936","first_name":"David ","last_name":"Silber ","description":"Rabbi David Silber is the Founder and Dean of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. 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\u201cBiblical Models of Resistance\u201d<\/a><\/u> by Andy Shapiro Katz: Jewish examples of standing up to power.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThe Birds, the Bees and the Bible\u201d<\/a><\/u> by Bess Adler: The complexities of sexuality in Tanakh.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Go deeper into the chapter....","tile_main_caption":"Source Sheets - II Samuel 12","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Links to learning resources","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":42232,"alt":"","title":"sefaria-words-sunburst","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","width":608,"height":395,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst-300x195.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":195,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","medium_large-width":608,"medium_large-height":395,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","large-width":608,"large-height":395,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","1536x1536-width":608,"1536x1536-height":395,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","2048x2048-width":608,"2048x2048-height":395,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","post_full_size-width":608,"post_full_size-height":395,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","home_baner-width":608,"home_baner-height":395}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"Sefaria word sunburst visualization","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","date":"20260917","wall_id":"275"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":19,"id":"60334","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Points to Ponder - II Samuel 12 ","post_title":"Points to Ponder - II Samuel 12","slug":"points-to-ponder-ii-samuel-12","old_id":"60334","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38102,"post_title":"929-English","slug":"929-english","old_id":"38102","first_name":"","last_name":"929-English","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38333,"alt":"","title":"\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","width":1513,"height":860,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-300x171.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":171,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-768x437.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":437,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1024x582.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":582,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","1536x1536-width":1513,"1536x1536-height":860,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","2048x2048-width":1513,"2048x2048-height":860,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1200x682.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":682,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-739x420.png","home_baner-width":739,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"275","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"

    \r\n\t
  1. Not just theft<\/em>. The judgemental allegory that Nathan tells David doesn\u2019t speak just of theft and exploitation. It contrasts two types of relationships: love and devotion - in the relationship of the poor man and his lamb, versus selfishness and violence in the attitude of the rich man towards the poor man.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  2. Prophetic directness: A j\u2019accuse moment<\/em>. Nathan points the moral finger of accusation at David in an outburst of prophetic intensity: \u201cYou are the man!\u201d (verse 7).<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  3. Human directness: A mea culpa moment<\/em>. When confronted with that direct prophetic power, David responds with moral honesty, and a very human ability to admit his sin, with no reasons or excuses: \"I stand guilty before the LORD!\u201d (verse 13).<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  4. Damages X4.<\/em> In accordance with biblical criminal law (Exodus chs. 21, 37), David sets the compensation that the rich man is sentenced to pay (\u201cHe shall pay for the lamb four times over\u201d - verse 6). David will pay for his sin according to this measure, as he will lose four of his children in the coming chapters: the son born here, Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  5. Accepting the things one cannot change.\u00a0<\/em>That\u2019s how David explains to his servants the difference between his behavior when the boy was ill, and his behavior after he died: \u201c\u201cWhile the child was still alive, I fasted and wept because I thought: \u2018Who knows? The LORD may have pity on me, and the child may live.\u2019 But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?\u201d (verses 23-24).<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  6. Simply heartbreaking<\/em>. \u201cI shall go to him, but he will never come back to me\u201d (verse 24).<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>","post_main_content_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to ponder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"II Samuel 12","tile_main_caption":"Points to Ponder","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Insights and questions for personal reflection and group discussion","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to ponder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"12","chapter_main_number":"275","date":"20260917","wall_id":"275"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false}],"hide_acf":true,"home_image":false,"home_posts":false,"home_posts_title":"","posts_home":[],"static_cube_title":"","static_cube_brief":"","static_cube_color":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall\/60115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wall"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}