2 Samuel 12:9 (YLT)

Passage

`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.

Nearby Context

2 Samuel 12:7 And Nathan saith unto David, `Thou <FI>art<Fi> the man! Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, I anointed thee for king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;

2 Samuel 12:8 and I give to thee the house of thy lord, and the wives of thy lord, into thy bosom, and I give to thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if little, then I add to thee such and such <FI>things<Fi> .

2 Samuel 12:9 `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.

2 Samuel 12:10 `And now, the sword doth not turn aside from thy house unto the age, because thou hast despised Me, and dost take the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be to thee for a wife;

2 Samuel 12:11 thus said Jehovah, Lo, I am raising up against thee evil, out of thy house, and have taken thy wives before thine eyes, and given to thy neighbour, and he hath lain with thy wives before the eyes of this sun;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "wherefore", "hast", "thou", "despised", "word", "jehovah", "evil", and "eyes". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "wherefore" and "hast", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 8's "and I give to thee the house..." into verse 10's "And now the sword doth not turn...", so "wherefore" and "hast" 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 "wherefore" and "hast" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.