2 Samuel 12:9
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.
Study Note
Study Note
Nathan's rebuke to David after the Bathsheba-Uriah affair articulates the sin's ultimate theological character: 'why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight?' The verb 'despised' (bazah) indicates not ignorance but contemptuous disregard — David knew the law and knowingly violated it. The charge of 'killing Uriah with the sword of the Ammonites' makes David complicit in a politically engineered murder, not merely guilty of arranging battle dispositions. David's response in Psalm 51 — 'against you, you only, have I sinned' (51:4) — picks up Nathan's framing: the ultimate offense is against God, even when the human harm is concrete and devastating. The passage is foundational for Christian theology of sin as the violation of the divine-human relationship, not merely social rules.
Other Translations
Wherefore hast thou despised the word of Jehovah, to do that which is evil in his sight? thou hast smitten 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.
`Wherefore hast thou despised the word of Jehovah, to do the evil thing in His eyes? Uriah the Hittite thou hast smitten by the sword, and his wife thou hast taken to thee for a wife, and him thou hast slain by the sword of the Bene-Ammon.
Why then have you had no respect for the word of the Lord, doing what is evil in his eyes? You have put Uriah the Hittite to death with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife; you have put him to death with the sword of the children of Ammon.
Cross References
Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, …
If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, …
Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; …
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of …
He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the …
Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil …
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.