2 Samuel 12:1

¹Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. ²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. ³For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. ⁴Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. ⁵Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin. ⁶Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. ⁷Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. ⁸Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. ⁹Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. ¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. ¹¹Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. ¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. ¹³Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners will be converted to you. ¹⁴Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. ¹⁵Lord, open my lips. My mouth will declare your praise. ¹⁶For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. ¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart. ¹⁸Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. ¹⁹Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.

³⁵A certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow by the LORD’s word, “Please strike me!” The man refused to strike him.

³⁶Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the LORD’s voice, behold, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion will kill you.” As soon as he had departed from him, a lion found him and killed him.

³⁷Then he found another man, and said, “Please strike me.” The man struck him and wounded him.

³⁸So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with his headband over his eyes. ³⁹As the king passed by, he cried to the king, and he said, “Your servant went out into the middle of the battle; and behold, a man came over and brought a man to me, and said, ‘Guard this man! If by any means he is missing, then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent^[+] of silver.’ ⁴⁰As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be. You yourself have decided it.”

⁴¹He hurried, and took the headband away from his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized that he was one of the prophets.

³But the LORD’s ^[+] angel said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and tell them, ‘Is it because there is no God ^[+] in Israel that you go to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?

¹When the king lived in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies all around, ²the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but God’s ark dwells within curtains.”

³Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.”

⁴That same night, the LORD’s word came to Nathan, saying, ⁵“Go and tell my servant David, ‘The LORD says, “Should you build me a house for me to dwell in?

¹⁰When they had told David, saying, “Uriah didn’t go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?”

¹¹Uriah said to David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing!”

¹²David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next day. ¹³When David had called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. At evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but didn’t go down to his house. ¹⁴In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵He wrote in the letter, saying, “Send Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck and die.”

¹⁶When Joab kept watch on the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were. ¹⁷The men of the city went out and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of David’s servants; and Uriah the Hittite died also.

¹⁴For we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him.

¹⁷I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness and struck him. I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. ¹⁸I have seen his ways, and will heal him. I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.

²⁵Then David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle stronger against the city, and overthrow it.’ Encourage him.”

¹⁷Nathan spoke to David all these words, and according to all this vision.

⁵The king said to her, “What ails you?” She answered, “Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead.

⁶Your servant had two sons; and they both fought together in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other and killed him. ⁷Behold, the whole family has risen against your servant, and they say, ‘Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the heir also.’ Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth.”

⁸The king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give a command concerning you.”

⁹The woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord, O king, may the iniquity be on me, and on my father’s house; and may the king and his throne be guiltless.”

¹⁰The king said, “Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he will not bother you any more.”

¹¹Then she said, “Please let the king remember the LORD your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son.” He said, “As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the earth.”