David therefore besought God for the child— It may be thought surprising to see so wise a man as David fasting and mourning in this extraordinary manner for a child, who, being yet an infant, could not possibly have been endeared to him by any of those blandishments which so strongly fix the parental affections to their offspring; and who must moreover, if he should live, be a perpetual brand of infamy upon his parents. The true way of accounting for it is by ascribing it, as Le Clerc does, to David's excess of passion for Bath-sheba, which so strongly attached him to every offspring of hers, and made him forget every thing in this child but that motive of endearment. Besides this, there is something in human nature which prompts us to rate things after a manner seemingly unaccountable, and to estimate them, not according to their real worth, but according to the expence, or trouble, or even distress, that they have cost us.
Related Commentaries of 2 Samuel 12:16
2 Samuel 12:16
16 David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted,b and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.