And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died: and the servants of David feared to tell him, that the child was dead. For they said: Behold when the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he would not hearken to our voice: how much more will he afflict himself if we tell him that the child is dead?
2 Samuel 12:16 And David besought the Lord for the child: and David kept a fast, and going in by himself lay upon the ground.
2 Samuel 12:17 And the ancients of his house came, to make him rise from the ground: but he would not, neither did he eat meat with them.
2 Samuel 12:18 And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died: and the servants of David feared to tell him, that the child was dead. For they said: Behold when the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he would not hearken to our voice: how much more will he afflict himself if we tell him that the child is dead?
2 Samuel 12:19 But when David saw his servants whispering, he understood that the child was dead: and he said to his servants: Is the child dead? They answered him He is dead.
2 Samuel 12:20 Then David arose from the ground, and washed and anointed himself: and when he had changed his apparel, he went into the house of the Lord: and worshipped, and then he came into his own house, and he called for bread, and ate.
The verse centers on "came", "pass", "seventh", "child", "died", "servants", "david", and "feared". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "came" and "pass", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 17's "And the ancients of his house came..." into verse 19's "But when David saw his servants whispering...", so "came" and "pass" 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 "came" and "pass" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.