Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
David, rebuked by Nathan, repents; God strikes his infant son, verse 15, whose life David begs by weeping and fasting, but in vain; wherefore David begets Solomon from Bathsheba, beloved of God. Finally, verse 27, David conquers Rabbah, and cruelly slaughters its citizens.
Vulgate Text: 2 Kings 12:1-31
1. The Lord therefore sent Nathan to David; who when he had come to him, said to him: There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2. The rich man had very many sheep and oxen. 3. But the poor man had nothing at all, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and had nourished, and which had grown up with him together with his children, eating of his bread, and drinking of his cup, and sleeping in his bosom; and it was to him as a daughter. 4. But when a certain stranger came to the rich man, he spared to take of his own sheep and oxen, to provide a feast for the stranger who had come to him, but took the poor man's ewe, and prepared food for the man who had come to him. 5. And David, greatly angered with indignation against that man, said to Nathan: As the Lord lives, the man who did this is a son of death. 6. He shall restore the ewe fourfold, because he did this thing, and had no pity. 7. And Nathan said to David: You are that man; thus says the Lord God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul, 8. and I gave you the house of your lord, and the wives of your lord into your bosom, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if these things are small, I will add to you much greater. 9. Why therefore have you despised the word of the Lord, to do evil in My sight? You struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and took his wife as your wife. 10. For this reason the sword shall not depart from your house forever. 11. Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing in the sight of all Israel, and in the sight of the sun. 13. And David said to Nathan: I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David: The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. 14. Nevertheless, because you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the son who is born to you shall surely die. 15. And Nathan returned to his house. And the Lord struck the child that the wife of Uriah bore to David, and it was past hope. 16. And David begged the Lord on behalf of the child; and David fasted and went in and lay upon the ground. 17. And the elders of his house came and urged him to rise from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. 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, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he would not listen to our voice; how much more will he afflict himself if we tell him the boy is dead? 19. When David saw his servants whispering, he understood that the child was dead; and he said to his servants: Is the boy dead? They answered him: He is dead. 20. Then David rose from the ground, and washed and anointed himself; and when he had changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped; and he came to his own house, and asked that bread be set before him, and he ate. 21. And his servants said to him: What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child was dead, you rose up and ate bread. 22. He said: While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said: Who knows whether the Lord may give him to me, and the child may live? 23. But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him rather; but he will not return to me. 24. And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon, and the Lord loved him. 25. And He sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and called his name Beloved of the Lord. 26. Joab therefore fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and was about to take the royal city. 27. And Joab sent messengers to David, saying: I have fought against Rabbah, and the city of waters is about to be taken. 28. Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and besiege the city and take it; lest when I have destroyed the city, the victory be attributed to my name. 29. David therefore gathered all the people together and went against Rabbah; and when he had fought, he took it. 30. And he took the crown of their king from his head; the weight of it was a talent of gold, set with most precious gems; and it was placed upon David's head. He also carried off a very great amount of plunder from the city. 31. And he brought out its people and sawed them, and drove iron chariots over them, and divided them with knives, and made them pass through the brick kiln: thus he did to all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the army returned to Jerusalem.
Verse 1: Nathan Sent to David
1. THE LORD THEREFORE SENT NATHAN TO DAVID. -- See how blind David had become through sin. For during the nine months in which Bathsheba carried and bore in her womb the child conceived from him, as if forgetful of God and of himself, he did not consider what great crimes of adultery and murder he had committed, but carelessly indulged in pleasures with Bathsheba. Therefore God, having compassion on him, sent Nathan to him, who would show him the gravity of his crimes.
The Parable of the Rich Man and the Poor Man
TWO MEN WERE IN A CITY. -- Nathan wisely begins the rebuke not openly, but by roundabout means, to awaken the king's mind, lulled asleep by love affairs and made proud, from the sleep of sins. He therefore proposes to him an apt parable, through which he gracefully shows him the enormity of his crime, lest, if he did so plainly, the king would become enraged and scorn the correction. Now this is the meaning: "Two men" are David and Uriah; the one rich, the other poor; David had many sheep, that is, wives; Uriah had only one, namely Bathsheba: David took her from him through adultery. So Abulensis.
Verse 5: A Son of Death
5. THE MAN WHO DID THIS IS A SON OF DEATH -- that is to say, he is guilty of death. For the word "son," among the Hebrews when joined with the genitive of punishment or reward, means the same as guilty or worthy.
6. HE SHALL RESTORE THE EWE FOURFOLD. -- For this restitution is imposed upon a thief of a sheep, Exodus XXII, 1.
Verse 8: The Wives of Saul
8. AND I GAVE YOU THE HOUSE OF YOUR LORD, AND THE WIVES OF YOUR LORD INTO YOUR BOSOM. -- For "wives" the Hebrew has nashim, which signifies not only wives, but any women. The women, that is the daughters of Saul, were Merab and Michal, whom God gave to David as wives. This signifies not so much the act as the right and power: namely that David, succeeding Saul in the kingdom, had the right to the maidservants and wives of Saul. So Lyranus, Abulensis, and others.
Verse 10: The Sword Shall Not Depart
10. FOR THIS REASON THE SWORD SHALL NOT DEPART FROM YOUR HOUSE FOREVER -- not absolutely, but relatively, namely in respect to the house of David and of Israel: As long as your royal line endures, I will cause the sword to always hang over you and your house. You killed Uriah with the sword of the Ammonites, therefore as punishment not one, but many of your sons and descendants shall be killed by the sword. And so it happened: for of David's sons four were killed, namely this infant, Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah. So Abulensis, Salianus, and others.
Verse 11: Evil from His Own House
11. BEHOLD, I WILL RAISE UP EVIL AGAINST YOU FROM YOUR OWN HOUSE -- namely that Absalom your son will persecute you. For, as St. Chrysostom says on Psalm 50: "Whence is the source of the sin, thence is the blow of punishment."
12. BUT I WILL DO, etc., IN THE SIGHT OF THE SUN. -- For Absalom publicly upon the terrace before all Israel violated the wives of his father, chapter XVI, 22; thus the terrace of punishment corresponded by fitting retribution to the terrace of adultery. Therefore there is no covering for adultery, but God brings it to light and exposes it.
Verse 13: David's Repentance
13. AND DAVID SAID TO NATHAN: I HAVE SINNED AGAINST THE LORD. -- This word, "I have sinned," is brief; but it proceeded from the innermost depths of his heart, and was filled with a profound sense of humility, compunction, repentance, reverence, and charity, as is clear from Psalm 50, which he then composed.
St. Ambrose, Apology 1 of David, chapter II: "That king, so great and powerful, did not allow the consciousness of his crime to remain with him for even a brief moment: but by premature confession and immense grief he rendered his sin to the Lord. David sinned, as kings are accustomed to do: but he did penance, he wept, he groaned, which kings are not accustomed to do. He confessed his guilt, he begged for pardon, prostrate on the ground he bewailed his misery, he fasted, he prayed, he transmitted the testimony of his confession to perpetual ages. What private citizens are ashamed to do, the king was not ashamed to confess."
St. Augustine: "Hear David crying out, and cry out with him; hear him groaning, and groan with him; hear him weeping, and weep with him." St. Chrysostom on Psalm VI: "Do not consider that he fell, so as to become sluggish; but rather how many tears he afterwards poured out, how much penance, joining nights to days, sending forth fountains of tears."
AND NATHAN SAID TO DAVID: THE LORD ALSO HAS TAKEN AWAY YOUR SIN. -- Hence it is clear how great was the intensity of grief in David, since when he said "I have sinned," God immediately forgave his sin. Hence it is clear that perfect contrition, which proceeds from the love of God above all things, destroys all sins however grave.
Wherefore St. Ambrose, rebuking the Emperor Theodosius for having killed so many thousands of Thessalonians, when Theodosius said that David too had sinned, replied: "You who followed the one who erred, follow the one who repented." And indeed he did follow.
YOU SHALL NOT DIE. -- Hence it seems that God, through Nathan, had also passed the sentence of death upon David himself, but on account of his extraordinary penitence, He mitigated this punishment, pardoning him his life.
Verse 14: The Sin of Scandal
14. NEVERTHELESS, BECAUSE YOU HAVE GIVEN OCCASION TO THE ENEMIES OF THE LORD TO BLASPHEME. -- Learn here how grave the sin of scandal is, especially when the faithful give the unfaithful occasion to blaspheme God. Hear Salvian: "He was begging for the life of his little one with so many supplications, and thus asking and beseeching he could not obtain. From which it can be understood that there is absolutely no crime of greater wickedness than giving the Gentiles cause for blasphemy."
THE SON WHO IS BORN TO YOU SHALL SURELY DIE. -- This was a punishment tempered with mercy. For it was for the good of the infant, inasmuch as dying in innocence he was saved; and also for David himself, as it were obliterating and burying his adultery by the death of the infant. For God took away the son begotten from adultery, and in his place gave another legitimate and far superior son, namely Solomon.
Verse 23: David's Composure at the Child's Death
23. BUT NOW THAT HE IS DEAD, WHY SHOULD I FAST? -- For I cannot recall him from death, nor free him from the pains of Purgatory, since having died in innocence he suffers none; it is different with Absalom, whose death David mourned inconsolably, because he had died in the sin of parricide, and was therefore condemned to hell. So St. Jerome.
Verse 24: The Birth of Solomon
24. AND DAVID COMFORTED BATHSHEBA. -- The Hebrews relate that Bathsheba, fearing that other children might likewise die, had resolved to abstain from David's company, but David removed this fear from her, promising from God that the first child would be healthy and most happy.
AND HE CALLED HIS NAME SOLOMON -- that is, peaceful, because David, now reconciled to God through repentance, had received peace and pardon for his sin; whence as a sign of peace God had given him this son, who throughout the entire time of his reign was to be peaceful, and therefore a type of Christ, who is "our peace."
Verse 25: Jedidiah, Beloved of the Lord
25. AND HE SENT BY THE HAND OF NATHAN THE PROPHET, AND CALLED HIS NAME BELOVED OF THE LORD. -- In Hebrew Jedidiah. St. Jerome notes that in the Old Testament four received their name from God before they were born, namely Ishmael, Isaac, Solomon, and Josiah.
AND THE LORD LOVED HIM -- God anticipated him with His grace and gifts, because He destined him to be the successor of David, the builder of the temple, and a type of Christ.
Chronology of David's Reign
David in the 49th year of his age, which was the 19th of his reign, sinned with Bathsheba in the summer; from her in the following year in spring a son was born: when, after a few days, the child died, Bathsheba immediately conceived Solomon from David, whom after nine months she bore in the 51st year of David, which was the 21st of his reign. In the same year in which Solomon was born, God in punishment for David's adultery permitted his daughter Tamar to be violated by her brother Amnon. Two years after this violation, Amnon was killed by Absalom. Absalom then fled to the king of Geshur for three years. David died in the 70th year of his age, the 40th of his reign; Solomon succeeded him in his 20th year, reigned 40 years, and died in his 60th year.
Verse 26: The Conquest of Rabbah
26. HE WAS CONQUERING THE ROYAL CITY. -- Rabbah, or Philadelphia.
27. AND THE CITY OF WATERS IS ABOUT TO BE TAKEN. -- Cajetan and Serarius think that the city of Rabbah had two parts, one interior, the other exterior, which was called "the city of Waters," which Joab had taken; but he had reserved the interior one for David to take.
Verse 30: The Crown of Melchom
30. AND HE TOOK THE DIADEM OF THEIR KING -- in Hebrew Melchom, that is, of their idol or god. Hear 1 Chronicles XX, 2: "David took the crown of Melchom from its head, and found in it a talent weight of gold and most precious gems, and from it he made a diadem for himself," that is from part of it; for the whole weight of gold David could not have worn on his head. For the Hebrew talent contained 125 pounds. David therefore spent part of the talent on his crown, and distributed the rest.
Allegorically Angelomus says: "David took the crown from the head of the king of the hostile people, since our Redeemer, taking away the kingdom from the opposing power, prepared for Himself a noble ornament. But what is better understood as the crown of David than the assembly of the Catholic people? which nobly encircles our head, the king, namely Christ, with a believing heart, and, living worthily, fittingly crowns Him?"
Verse 31: The Punishment of the Ammonites
31. THE PEOPLE ALSO HE BROUGHT AND SAWED, AND DROVE OVER THEM IRON CHARIOTS -- which were equipped with iron and toothed wheels for threshing grain. 1 Chronicles XX, 3 says: "And he made threshing sledges, drags, and iron chariots pass over them, so that they were cut to pieces and crushed."
AND MADE THEM PASS THROUGH THE BRICK KILN. -- Vatablus says: he cast them into a brick furnace, in which bricks are baked, so that they would be burned in it. Sanchez thinks David did these things before his repentance, at which time David was unlike himself. But others think David did these things after his repentance, and excuse him from the sin of cruelty, because he had to punish with these atrocious torments the atrocious injuries inflicted on his ambassadors against all the law of nations.