Introduction

Because the David story ascends the height of human aspiration and plumbs the depths of human anguish, it has outlived the political circumstances from which it came. The prophet Nathan’s final prediction was to come true. David and Bathsheba’s son, conceived out of wedlock, died in infancy. It is clear that the child was very precious to David. It became sick, and ...

David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in and lay all night upon the ground.

- 2 Samuel 12:16

It is obvious that the boy’s death was a punishment for David. According to the idea of the lex talionis (law of exact retaliation, Exodus 21:23; Leviticus 24:19-21; Deuteronomy 19:21), David should have died. Instead, divine judgment fell upon the child, according to the ideas of tha…