Bible Strands
2 Samuel 12:9
Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own. You have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Nathan the prophet confronts King David immediately after recounting God's past blessings in the preceding verse. The address occurs during a private prophetic judgment scene following David's adultery with Bathsheba and the arranged death of Uriah.
The words — The Hebrew בָּזִיתָ (ba.Zi.ta) translates literally to "you have despised" or "treated with contempt." It directly targets David's rejection of Yahweh's command in favor of his own desires.
The thread — The accusation echoes Nathan's earlier indictment of Saul for refusing to obey the LORD and acting evil in His sight (1 Samuel 15:19). It aligns with the stated principle that rebellion constitutes rejecting God's authority (1 Samuel 15:23).
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that moral failure originates in despising divine command rather than isolated actions. It requires the reader to recognize that personal sin directly violates God's sovereign authority and triggers judicial consequence.
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
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 15:19 So why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you rush upon the plunder and do evil in the sight of the LORD?”
- Psalms 90:8 You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
- 1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”
- Psalms 139:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
- Jeremiah 18:10 and if it does evil in My sight and does not listen to My voice, then I will relent of the good I had intended for it.
- Amos 2:4 This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Judah, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they reject the Law of the LORD and fail to keep His statutes; they are led astray by the lies in which their fathers walked.
- Genesis 9:5 And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man:
- Exodus 20:13 You shall not murder.
- Numbers 15:30 But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes the LORD. That person shall be cut off from among his people.
- 2 Samuel 11:4 Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home.