# Day 116

# A Death and a Birth

2 Samuel 12:13–24

Nathan’s rebuke shocked and saddened David. “I’ve sinned against the Lord,” he said.

“The Lord forgives you,” Nathan replied. “You won’t die. But Bathsheba’s child will die because of what you did.”

The baby was sick for six days. David wouldn’t eat or sleep. All he did was pray to God for the child. On the seventh day, Bathsheba’s baby died. When the king learned about the death, he washed and dressed. “While my child was still alive I didn’t eat; I only wept,” David said. “ ‘Who knows,’ I thought, ‘maybe God will save the child.’ But now he is dead; why should I cry? Can I bring him back again? I will go to be with him someday. But he will never return to me.”

Bathsheba and David had another baby boy. David named him Solomon. Nathan the prophet named him Jedidiah, which means “loved by God.”

Nathan had predicted that suffering would come to David because of Uriah. Soon this began to happen. Many of David’s sons grew up wild and wicked. One was David’s oldest son, Absalom, a handsome man with beautiful long hair.

Questions: Will David be with his baby again someday? What does the name Jedidiah mean?