He came to him and said to him, 'There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. Oh David, you indict that cynical, selfish, greedy, power-driven, rich man as a pitiless wretch deserving of death. Restitution must be made.
Reparations are in order.
And after cataloging for David all the Divine gifts poured out in his behalf over the years, Nathan brings David up short, tells him that with all of his military muscle, all of his political triumphs, his staff, the sycophants and the bureaucrats, his august house, his fame, his adulation, the adoring crowds, the levers of power there is another accountability brooding over him and us, and in this case while killing, adultery and coveting may be the stuff of kings and counselors, of legislatures and commerce, of the streets and bedrooms of the commonwealth, it is definitely not the stuff of the ultimate Divine vision for human existence. David is off on his own in chapter 11, doing his own thing, covering his rear, conspiring to do as he pleases, willy-nilly, with human life. We see here a stunning, shocking, coherent moral vision. I have sinned. Clearly, David knows long before Nathan comes on the scene that he flounders in a moral swamp threatening everything he claims to stand for.