Why did you misquote II Samuel 12:8?

Question:

Hi,

I just read through some of your pages. This one I found particularly interesting: Didn't God support polygamy by offering David more wives?

Did you or whoever wrote this "answer" deliberately misquote this passage of the Bible to support a thesis? Every version of the Bible including the NKJV says "into your arms" or "into thy bosom" and yet you have typed "into your keeping" which has a completely different meaning.

If you take on this correction, according to your particular slant on this verse it would now mean God gave another man's wives into David's arms without him actually marrying them.

Answer:

The quoted version is the NKJV, which if you had clicked on the verse would have taken you to Logos' website and shown that it was copied accurately. The NASB95 gives a similar wording: "Nathan then said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel, 'It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon" (II Samuel 12:7-9 NASB).

"Bosom" is the literal Hebrew word, but it is used idiomatically to refer to protection and care, as in "Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.  In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom" (Luke 16:22-23). Or "Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that You should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child,' to the land which You swore to their fathers?" (Numbers 11:12). Marriage or sex is not necessarily implied.