John Gill Commentary 2 Samuel 12

And the Lord sent Nathan unto David
Quickly after the child was born begotten on Bathsheba, and when it was known and became the public talk of people, and the enemies of religion were full of it, and blasphemed on account of it, (2 Samuel 12:14); so that David was nine months or more without any true sense of his sin, his heart hardened, his graces dormant, the joys of salvation taken from him, and he without any communion with God, and having little concern about it.

Though perhaps he might have some pangs at times, which quickly went off. Though some think he exercised repentance in a private way before; acknowledged his sin to the Lord, and had a sense of pardon, and before this time penned the thirty second and the hundred thirtieth psalms on this occasion, (Psalms 32:1–11) (130:1-8).

But Nathan is sent to awaken and arouse him, to express a sense of his sin, and repentance for it in public, which he did by penning and publishing the fifty first psalm after Nathan had been with him, (Psalms 51:1–19).

For though the Lord may leave his people to fall into sin, and suffer them to continue therein some time, yet not always; they shall rise again through the assistance of his Spirit and grace, in the acts of repentance and faith, both in private and public.

and he came unto him, and said unto him:
He came as if he had a case to lay before him, and to have justice done, and he told the story as if it was a real fact, and so David understood it.

there were two men in one city:
Pointing at David and Uriah, who both lived in Jerusalem.

the one rich and the other poor;
David the rich man, king over all Israel; Uriah a subject, an officer in his army, comparatively poor.

The rich [man] had exceeding many flocks and herds . ] In which the wealth of men lay in those times and countries; these in the parable signify David's wives and concubines, which were many; he had six wives in Hebron, and he took more wives and concubines out of Jerusalem, when he was come from Hebron, (2 Samuel 3:2–5) (5:13) ; and besides his master's, or Saul's wives, given to him, (2 Samuel 12:8) .

But the poor [man] had nothing, save one little ewe lamb
Uriah had but one wife, who was much younger than he, called a lamb, an ewe lamb, a little one. Abarbinel thinks Uriah had been a widower; and had children by another wife, supposed in the parable, and was much older than Bathsheba:

which he had bought ;
for men in those times and countries did not receive portions with their wives, but gave dowries to them, and for them:

and nourished up ;
as his own flesh, as husbands should their wives, (Ephesians 5:29) ;

and it grew up together with him, and with his children ;
which Kimchi also supposes Uriah had by a former wife:

it did eat of his own meat, and drink of his own cup, and lay in his
bosom, and was unto him as a daughter ;
all which are expressive of the care, kindness, love, and tenderness of a loving husband, whose affections are endeared to his wife, making her partaker of all he has, and to share in whatever he eats and drinks, and in his dearest embraces;

And as there were instances of creatures, lambs and others, particularly tame or pet lambs, used in this way in a literal sense, to which the reference in the parable is, David had no suspicion of its being a parable. Bochart ^F17 has given many instances of creatures nourished and brought up in such a familiar manner.

FOOTNOTES:

• F17: Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 46. col. 521, 522.

And there came a traveller unto the rich man
By which some understand Satan, who came to David, and stirred up his lust by the temptations that offered; who is a walker, as the word used means, that goes about seeking whom he may devour, and is with good men only as a wayfaring man, who does not abide with them; and whose temptations, when they succeed with such, are as meat and drink to him, very entertaining but the Jews generally understand it of the evil imagination or concupiscence in man, the lustful appetite in David, that wandered after another man's wife, and wanted to be satiated with her:

and he spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd, to dress
for the wayfaring man that came to him ;
when his heart was inflamed with lust at the sight of Bathsheba, he did not go as he might, and take one of his wives and concubines, by which he might have satisfied and repressed his lust:

but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that came to
him ;
sent for Bathsheba and lay with her, for the gratification of his lust, she being a young beautiful woman, and more agreeable to his lustful appetite. The Jews, in their Talmud ^F18 , observe a gradation in these words that the evil imagination is represented first as a traveller that passes by a man, and does not lodge with him; then as a wayfaring man or host, that passes in and lodges with him; and at last as a man, as the master of the house that rules over him, and therefore called the man that came to him.

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: T. Bab. Succah, fol. 52. 2. Jarchi, Kimchi, & Abarbinel in loc.

And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man
That had done this, taking it for a real fact:

and he said to Nathan, [as] the Lord lives, the man that has done
this [thing] shall surely die ;

which he said in the transport of his wrath and fury; otherwise a thief, according to the law of Moses, was not to be put to death, but to make restitution; and if he was not able to make it, then to be sold, but he was not to die for it; but David thought the crime was so greatly aggravated by being done by a rich man, and by the loss the poor man sustained, it being his all, and the fact, in all its circumstances, so cruel and barbarous, that the guilty person ought to die:

how much more vehemently, and indeed with justice, would he have passed the sentence of death on him, or condemned him to it, had it been put in the parable, that the rich man not only took the poor man's ewe lamb, but killed the poor man himself? but this Nathan left out, that David might not take his meaning, as Abarbinel thinks, who then would have been upon his guard, and not have condemned himself; and hereby also Nathan had this advantage against him, that if this man deserved to die, who had only taken the poor man's ewe lamb, then how much more ought he to die, who had not only committed adultery with Bathsheba, but had slain Uriah?