Prophet Nathan

Nathan was the court prophet of King David. When David wished to build a house for the Ark, Nathan first approved, then that night received God's word: David would not build the Temple, his son would, and God would instead build David a "house", a dynasty that would endure forever (2 Samuel 7), the foundation of the later hope in a Messiah from David's line. After David's adultery with Bathsheba and the death of Uriah, Nathan told him the parable of a rich man who took a poor man's only ewe lamb; when David burned with anger, Nathan answered "You are the man!" (2 Samuel 12:7), and David confessed, "I have sinned against the LORD." In David's old age, when Adonijah proclaimed himself king, Nathan and Bathsheba persuaded David to keep his oath, and Nathan and the priest Zadok anointed Solomon at the Gihon spring (1 Kings 1).

Psalm 51, David's great psalm of repentance, is headed "when Nathan the prophet came to him". Chronicles cites lost "records of Nathan the prophet" for David's and Solomon's reigns (1 Chronicles 29:29, 2 Chronicles 9:29), and Handel's anthem "Zadok the Priest", sung at British coronations since 1727, retells his anointing of Solomon.