2 Samuel 12:12 (ASV)

Passage

For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.

Nearby Context

2 Samuel 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house, because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

2 Samuel 12:11 Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house; and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.

2 Samuel 12:12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.

2 Samuel 12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against Jehovah. And Nathan said unto David, Jehovah also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

2 Samuel 12:14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thou", "didst", "secretly", "before", and "israel". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thou" and "didst", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "Thus saith Jehovah Behold I will raise..." into verse 13's "And David said unto Nathan I have...", so "thou" and "didst" belong inside that flow. In 2 Samuel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "thou" and "didst" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.