Then
the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said
to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other
poor. The rich man
had
exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had
nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and
nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It
ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom;
and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich
man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to
prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took
the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to
him.
So
David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to
Nathan, “As the Lord lives,
the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore
fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had
no pity.” Then
Nathan said to David, “You are the
man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you
king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave
you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your
keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that
had been too
little, I also would have given you much more! Why
have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His
sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have
taken his wife to
be your
wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.
(2Samuel12,1-9).