David, king of Israel, had committed egregious crimes. He had coveted the wife of his loyal servant Uriah the Hittite, taken her to his royal chambers, impregnated her and sent her beloved husband to his death. He had stopped at nothing to cover his tracks and to conceal his felonies. But even the high and mighty king could not escape the scrutiny of the Lord. ‘The Lord was displeased with what David had done’ and He hurled His word against him through Nathan the prophet:

And Nathan said to David, ‘That man is you! …Why then have you flouted the command of the Lord and done what displeases Him? You have put Uriah the Hittite to the sword; you took his wife and made her your wife and had him killed by the sword of the Ammonites. Therefore the sword shall never depart from your House.’ (2 Samuel 12:7-10)

New York, Pen and brush drawing, 1650-55, Metropolitan Museum of Art./Berlin, Pen and Brush drawing, 1650-55, Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen.

In his two renditions of Nathan before King David, Rembrandt has captured two distinct moments of the tale. In the first drawing David attentively listens to the parable of the poor man’s ewe, little knowing that he will be revealed as the true guilty party. In the second, Nathan’s facial expression indicates rebuke and David’s reveals shock and horror upon realizing that Nathan is really speaking about him.

With utmost ingenuity, Nathan does not directly confront David about his crime but resorts to the parable of the poor man’s ewe.

There were two men in the same city, one rich and one poor. The rich man had very large flocks and herds, but the poor man had only one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He tended it and it grew up together with him and his children: it used to share his morsel of bread, drink from his cup, and nestle in his bosom; it was like a daughter to him. One day, a traveler came to the rich man, but he was loathe to take anything from his own flocks or herds to prepare a meal for the guest who had come to him; so he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. (2 Samuel 12:1-4)

Nathan presents a legal case which is in actuality a veiled reproof of David. The prophet knows full well that as a seasoned judge David will issue his own verdict.

A careful reading of the parable makes it clear that it is not directly parallel to the crimes, which David has committed.  There is nothing reminiscent of David’s murder of Uriah, arguably the greater crime. The opaque character of the parable keeps the actual intent deliberately disguised until Nathan lowers the boom. Nathan’s subtle presentation manages to capture David’s full attention and lead him to self-awareness, confession and contrition.

By highlighting the brazenness of the rich man – and David – in taking what is not theirs merely to satisfy a whim, Nathan is pointing to what makes David’s crime so alarming. He has abused the power granted to him by God, the gift of kingship, to gratify his lust. This is far worse than if the crime had been committed by a commoner. Nathan is trying to bring David to understand that he has compromised not only his personal morality but the divinely granted kingship which is not only his but the entire nation’s as well.

David flew into a rage against the man, and said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He shall pay for the lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and showed no pity.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘That man is you!’ (2 Samuel 12:5-7)

The intensity of David’s rage directed toward the rich man seems disproportionate to his crime. J. P. Fokkelman elucidates:

David does not react as a good judge. His quickness, severity and intense indignation exhibit his plagued conscience and lack of equilibrium. The force which enables him to consummate the absolute act of murdering Uriah is the selfsame force which enables him to commit the absolute act of imposing the death penalty upon the rich man.

The great satisfaction which David hopes to gain by the condemnation of another is meant to fill the emptiness brought about in David’s soul by Uriah’s liquidation… It is not difficult to reprehend this David. It is tempting to elevate oneself by being indignant about so much evil, but then one is doing the same thing as David in regard to the rich man. Nathan takes a different approach. Before confronting David with his dark side he lets him see his good side.

In response David immediately confesses:  ‘I have sinned before God’. This comes from the depths of his soul. He does not grovel, as did his predecessor Saul. He accepts responsibility, cognizant of his deplorable transgressions. It is notable that David fully acknowledges that he has sinned ‘before God’ – not just against the innocents whose lives he has destroyed, but against God who raised him up from behind the flock to make him king.

David’s contrition is movingly felt in Rembrandt’s etching David at Prayer (Rijksprentenkabinet, 1652), in which David is not depicted as king, but rather a humble servant penitently beseeching God to save Bathsheba’s newborn baby. He will not be able to ward off punishment at this juncture, but, as the Rabbis pointed out, the experience will transform him into the master of repentance. The Book of Psalms attributed to David is the literary monument to this spiritual quest, this unrelenting attempt to restore his cherished relationship with God:

Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity, and purify me of my sin; for I recognize my transgressions, and am ever conscious of my sin. Against You alone have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight; so You are just in Your sentence, and right in Your judgment…Fashion a pure heart for me, O God; create in me a steadfast spirit. Do not cast me out of Your presence, or take Your holy spirit away from me. (Psalms 51:4-13)

That which David learned from his transgressions, and taught to all future generations was that with man can restore the bond which he has severed, for ‘God will not despise a contrite and crushed heart’ (Psalms 51:19).

1. Jan P Fokkelman, Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel, Volume I, King David , p. 76 ff.   (Van Gorcum, 1981).