Bible Strands
2 Samuel 12:15
After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Nathan departs to his house immediately after pronouncing judgment on David for his sin with Uriah’s wife, marking the precise moment before divine action begins.
The words — The text foregrounds וַ/יִּגֹּ֣ף (va/i.yi.Gof, "and he struck"), יְהוָ֗ה (Yah.weh, "Yahweh"), and הַ/יֶּ֜לֶד (hai./Ye.led, "the child"), structurally linking the divine agent directly to the infant victim.
The thread — This direct striking of a life echoes the LORD striking Nabal dead in 1 Samuel 25:38 and fulfills the theological claim in Deuteronomy 32:39 that God alone brings death and gives life.
Why it lands — The verse records the immediate execution of the prophetic warning, establishing God's unilateral authority over mortality before David’s subsequent fasting and pleading begin.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Nathan departed unto his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David, and it was very sick.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 25:38 About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal dead.
- Psalms 104:29 When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.
- Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
- 1 Samuel 26:10 David added, “As surely as the LORD lives, the LORD Himself will strike him down; either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.
- 2 Kings 15:5 And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.
- 2 Chronicles 13:20 Jeroboam did not again recover his power during the days of Abijah, and the LORD struck him down and he died.
- Acts 12:23 Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.