Psalm 51, 2 Samuel 11-12:25 — Legacy Standard Bible

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

For the choir director. A Psalm of David. When ¹Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

^aBe gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;According to the abundance of ^bYour compassion ^cblot out my transgressions.²^aWash me thoroughly from my iniquityAnd ^bcleanse me from my sin.³For ¹I ^aknow my transgressions,And my sin is ever before me.⁴^aAgainst You, You only, I have sinnedAnd done what is ^bevil in Your sight,So that ^cYou ¹are justified ²when You speakAnd pure when You judge.⁵Behold, I was ^abrought forth in iniquity,And in sin my mother conceived me.⁶Behold, You delight in ^atruth in the ¹innermost being,And in the hidden part You will ^bmake me know wisdom.⁷¹Purify me ^awith hyssop, and I shall be clean;²Wash me, and I shall be ^bwhiter than snow.⁸¹Make me to hear ^ajoy and gladness,Let the ^bbones which You have crushed rejoice.⁹^aHide Your face from my sinsAnd blot out all my iniquities.¹⁰^aCreate ¹in me a ^bclean heart, O God,And renew ²a ^csteadfast spirit within me.¹¹^aDo not cast me away from Your presenceAnd do not take Your ^bHoly Spirit from me.¹²Restore to me the ^ajoy of Your salvationAnd sustain me with a ^bwilling spirit.¹³Then I will ^ateach transgressors Your ways,And sinners will ¹be ^bconverted to You.¹⁴Deliver me from ^abloodguiltiness, O God, ^bthe God of my salvation;Then my ^ctongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.¹⁵O Lord, ¹^,^aopen my lips,That my mouth may ^bdeclare Your praise.¹⁶For You ^ado not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;You are not pleased with burnt offering.¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a ^abroken spirit;A broken and a ¹contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.¹⁸^aBy Your favor do good to Zion;¹^,^bBuild the walls of Jerusalem.¹⁹Then You will delight in ¹^,^arighteous sacrifices,In ^bburnt offering and whole burnt offering;Then ²young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

David and Bathsheba

11^aNow it happened ¹^,^bin the spring, at the time when ²kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and ^cbesieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

²Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on ^athe roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. ³So David sent and ¹inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not ^aBathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of ^bUriah the Hittite?” ⁴Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and ^ahe lay with her; ^band when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. ⁵And the woman became pregnant; and she sent and told David, and said, “^aI am pregnant.”

⁶Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷When Uriah came to him, ^aDavid asked concerning the ¹state of Joab and the ²state of the people and the ³state of the war. ⁸Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and ^awash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and a present from the king went out after him. ⁹But Uriah lay down ^aat the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰Then they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” And David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” ¹¹And Uriah said to David, “^aThe ark and Israel and Judah are staying in ¹booths, and my lord Joab and ^bthe servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.” ¹²Then David said to Uriah, “^aStay here today also, and tomorrow I will send you out.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the ¹next. ¹³Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he ^amade him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed ^bwith his lord’s servants, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴Now it happened in the morning that David ^awrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵^aAnd he had written in the letter, saying, “¹Place Uriah in the front line of the ²fiercest battle and withdraw from him, ^bso that he may be struck down and die.” ¹⁶So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. ¹⁷And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David’s servants fell; and ^aUriah the Hittite also died. ¹⁸Then Joab sent and told David all the events of the war. ¹⁹And he commanded the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king, ²⁰and if it happens that the king’s wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you approach the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? ²¹‘Who ^astruck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so he died at Thebez? Why did you approach the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”

²²So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. ²³And the messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we ¹pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate. ²⁴“And the archers shot at your servants from the wall; so some of the king’s servants died, and your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.” ²⁵Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this thing be evil in your sight, for the sword devours one as well as another; make your battle against the city stronger and ¹tear it down’; and so strengthen him.”

²⁶Then the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband had died, so ^ashe lamented over her husband. ²⁷Then the time of mourning passed by, and David sent and gathered her to his house and ^ashe became his wife; then she bore him a son. But ^bthe thing that David had done was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

Yahweh Sends Nathan to David

12Then Yahweh sent ^aNathan to David. And ^bhe came to him and ¹said, “There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor.

²“The rich man had a great many flocks and herds.³“But the poor man had nothing except ^aone little ewe lambWhich he bought and nourished;And it grew up together with him and his children.It would eat his morsel of bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom,And was like a daughter to him.⁴“Now a visitor came to the rich man,And he ¹was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd,To prepare for the traveler who had come to him;Rather he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

⁵Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As Yahweh lives, surely the man who has done this ¹^,^adeserves to die. ⁶“And he must make restitution for the lamb ^afourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion.”

⁷Nathan then said to David, “^aYou are the man! Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘^bIt is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. ⁸‘I also gave you ^ayour master’s house and your master’s wives into your ¹care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! ⁹‘Why ^ahave you despised the word of Yahweh by doing evil in His sight? ^bYou have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, ^chave taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. ¹⁰‘So now, ^athe sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ ¹¹“Thus says Yahweh, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; ^aI will even take your wives from before your sight and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. ¹²‘Indeed ^ayou did it secretly, but ^bI will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’” ¹³Then David said to Nathan, “^aI have sinned against Yahweh.” And Nathan said to David, “Yahweh also has ¹^,^btaken away your sin; you shall not die. ¹⁴“However, because by this deed you have ^agiven occasion to the enemies of Yahweh to blaspheme, the son also that is born to you shall surely die.” ¹⁵And Nathan went to his house. David’s Child Dies Then Yahweh smote the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, so that he was very sick. ¹⁶David therefore sought God about the boy; and David ^afasted and went and ^bspent the night lying on the ground. ¹⁷^aAnd the elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them. ¹⁸Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to our voice. How then can we tell him that the child has died? He might do himself harm!” ¹⁹And David saw that his servants were whispering together, so David discerned that the child had died; so David said to his servants, “Has the child died?” And they said, “He has died.” ²⁰So David arose from the ground, ^awashed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he came into the house of Yahweh and ^bworshiped. Then he came to his own house, and he asked, and they set food before him, and he ate.

²¹Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? ¹While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” ²²Then he said, “While the child was still alive, ^aI fasted and wept; for I said, ‘^bWho knows, Yahweh may be gracious to me, that the child may live.’ ²³“But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? ^aI will go to him, but ^bhe will not return to me.”

Solomon Is Born

²⁴Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and ¹^,^ahe named him Solomon. Now Yahweh loved him ²⁵and sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he named him ¹Jedidiah for the sake of Yahweh.