2 Samuel 12:16-18

New Catholic Bible

¹⁶ David, therefore, pleaded with God for the child. He maintained a strict fast, and throughout the night he would lie on the ground. ¹⁷ The elders of his household stood around him, urging him to rise from the ground. However, he refused to do so, nor would he take food with them.

¹⁸ On the seventh day the child died, and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said: “While the child was alive, we spoke to him, but he refused to listen to us. How then can we inform him that the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”