caused her to be unfaithful to her lawful husband. Then, in order to conceal his sin and to marry Bethsabee, he wrote to the general of the army to put Urias in the front of the next battle, so that he would surely be slain. Joab, the general, did as his Lord and master commanded. Urias fell in battle, and David took Bethsabee for his wife. Then came the prophet Nathan [1] to him, and told him how a rich man with many sheep had robbed a poor man of his one ewe-lamb in order to entertain a guest, and when David in great indignation at such heartless conduct inquired after the name of the man, saying “He shall die”, the prophet answered: “Thou art the man.” David was thunderstruck by this retort, and confessed his fault and asked pardon of the Lord. He then composed the seven penitential Psalms, which ever since have been the consolation of all truly penitent sinners.
The Lord, seeing the sorrow of David, ordered Nathan to tell him that his sin was forgiven, but that nevertheless he must undergo many temporal punishments[2], and that the child that was about to be born to him should die. David, humbling himself before God, willingly accepted this and many other punishments inflicted upon him, and added, on his own part, the most severe penance in expiation of his sin.
The most terrible chastisement inflicted on David was the ingratitude of his son Absalom. Now Absalom was endowed with rare beauty of person, so that from the top of his head to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him. His hair was long and beautiful. And David gave Absalom a princely retinue of chariots and horsemen, and a guard of young men to accompany him everywhere.
Absalom was wont to rise early in the morning and stand at the gate of the palace, and when any man presented himself to ask justice of the king, he kindly inquired what complaint he had to make, and on hearing it always replied: “Thy words seem good and just to me; but there is no one appointed by the king to hear thy cause.” In this manner he made friends for himself among the people by wrongfully blaming his father.
