12:11. Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before thy eyes and give them to thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
I will raise, etc… All these evils, inasmuch as they were punishments, came upon David by a just judgment of God, for his sin, and therefore God says, I will raise, etc.; but inasmuch as they were sins, on the part of Absalom and his associates, God was not the author of them, but only permitted them.
12:12. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing in the sight of all Israel, and in the sight of the sun.
12:13. And David said to Nathan: I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David: The Lord also hath taken away thy sin: thou shalt not die.
12:14. Nevertheless, because thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, for this thing, the child that is born to thee, shall surely die.
12:15. And Nathan returned to his house. The Lord also struck the child which the wife of Urias had borne to David, and his life was despaired of.
12:16. And David besought the Lord for the child: and David kept a fast, and going in by himself lay upon the ground.
12:17. And the ancients of his house came, to make him rise from the ground: but he would not, neither did he eat meat with them.
12:18. And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died: and the servants of David feared to tell him, that the child was dead. For they said: Behold when the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he would not hearken to our voice: how much more will he afflict himself if we tell him that the child is dead?
12:19. But when David saw his servants whispering, he understood that the child was dead: and he said to his servants: Is the child dead? They answered him He is dead.