2 Samuel 12 · a question people ask
What did David mean by "I will go to him, but he will not return to me"?
David says it to his servants, who had asked why he rose and ate once the child was dead (12:21): "But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me" (12:23). The verse doesn't say more about where David will go. Christians read it in two main ways, and many hold both together. They agree on what David says plainly: the child can't be brought back (12:23), and David, who had fasted and wept (12:22), rose and worshiped (12:20).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
To the grave
Those who read it this way hear David saying that he too will die, as the child has. Jacob said of Joseph, "For I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning" (Genesis 37:35). Job says, "he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more" (Job 7:9) and "He will return no more to his house" (Job 7:10). Later in 2 Samuel a woman of Tekoa tells David, "For we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again" (14:14). On this reading David stops fasting because death has come, and he will one day go where the child has gone.
Genesis 37:35 · Job 7:9-10 · 2 Samuel 14:2-4 · 2 Samuel 14:14
To be with the child
Those who read it this way hear hope in David's words: he expects to be with his child again. They point to a psalm titled "A Poem by David" (Psalm 16:1): "For you will not leave my soul in Sheol" (Psalm 16:10), and "In your presence is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11). They note too that David went from the child's death into the LORD's house and worshiped (12:20).
Psalm 16:1 · Psalm 16:10-11 · 2 Samuel 12:20