Nathan's Parable

Text and Content

The parable appears in 2 Samuel 12:1-4. Nathan tells King David a story about two men who lived in the same city.

• The rich man: He had a great many flocks and herds.
• The poor man: He had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. The lamb grew up together with his children; it ate of his food, drank from his cup, and lay in his bosom, and it was as precious to him as a daughter.

When a traveler came to the rich man, he spared his own animals and instead took the poor man's lamb to prepare a meal for his guest. Hearing this, David burned with anger and pronounced judgment: the man who had done this deserved to die, and he must restore the lamb fourfold (12:5-6). Nathan then said, "Thou art the man" (12:7), and delivered God's judgment: the sword would never depart from David's house, and evil would rise up against him out of his own household (12:10-12). When David confessed, "I have sinned against the LORD," Nathan declared that God had put away his sin and that David would not die, but that the child born to him by Bathsheba would die (12:13-14).

Background

In 2 Samuel 11, David lay with Bathsheba, the wife of his servant Uriah. When Bathsheba became pregnant, David tried to conceal the matter, and when his plan failed, he had Uriah placed in the fiercest part of the battle so that he would be killed. The rich man with many flocks represents the king, who had many wives, while the poor man whose only lamb was taken represents Uriah.

The phrase David used for the man who "shall surely die" reads literally in the Hebrew as "a son of death." The fourfold restitution corresponds to the provision in Exodus 22:1 requiring a man who steals a sheep to repay four sheep.

Significance in Scripture

The parable is structured so that the hearer first passes judgment as though on someone else's affair, and the verdict then turns back on himself. Scholars sometimes call this form a "juridical parable." That even the king stands under God's law, and that a prophet may confront a king's sin, is frequently noted as a distinctive feature of Israel's prophetic tradition. The superscription of Psalm 51 identifies it as a psalm David composed in the aftermath of this event. When Solomon was later born, he was given the name Jedidiah through Nathan (12:25). The genealogy in Matthew 1:6 recalls the episode: "David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias."

Some of Jesus' parables likewise lead hearers to form their own judgment and then turn that judgment back on them. Representative examples are the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen and the story of the two debtors in Luke 7:40-43.

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• Forgiveness and chastisement: Interpreters differ over why the child still dies even though David's sin has been forgiven. Many distinguish between the forgiveness of sin and the discipline or consequences that follow it. Some also explain the outcome in connection with the occasion David gave for God's name to be blasphemed (12:14).
• Fourfold restitution: Jewish tradition and some Christian interpreters connect David's verdict of "fourfold" with the tragedies that later befell David's children, such as the death of the infant and the deaths of Amnon and Absalom. The text itself, however, does not make this connection explicitly.
• Bathsheba's position: In the parable Bathsheba is portrayed as the stolen lamb, and for this reason some interpreters read the responsibility as resting chiefly with David. Views differ on the extent of Bathsheba's own responsibility, based on the account in 2 Samuel 11.
• Wordplay interpretation: Some connect the description of the lamb as being "like a daughter" with Bathsheba, whose name contains the word for "daughter," though this reading is held only by some interpreters.

In the Korean Church

The words "Thou art the man" are frequently quoted in sermons on repentance and self-examination. The scene is also cited as an example when discussing the church's prophetic role in confronting the sin of those in power.