Literalizing a Prophetic Metaphor:
In 2 Samuel 12, Nathan’s story of the 99 ewes is an explicit parable designed to expose David’s sin of taking Uriah's only wife. The Quran presents this metaphorical parable as an actual physical legal dispute brought by two men climbing into David’s private chamber, stripping the narrative of its original psychological and moral context.
Sanitizing History for 'Iṣmah:
Islamic theology's commitment to prophetic sinlessness ('iṣmah) requires removing David's adultery with Bathsheba and the orchestrated death of Uriah. By reducing a major moral failure into a minor procedural oversight in judgment, the text rewrites established biblical history to fit a later theological framework.
Surah 38:21–25 recounts two disputants climbing into David's private sanctuary to ask him to resolve a conflict over livestock, prompting David to recognize a divine test and seek forgiveness.
Surah 38:23:
Indeed, this is my brother; he has ninety-nine ewes, and I have so much as one ewe; so he said, 'Entrust it to me,' and he overpowered me in speech.
The Surah details an incident where two disputants climb over the wall into David’s private prayer chamber, terrifying him. One man claims he has only one ewe, while his brother has 99 ewes and has pressured him to give up his only one. David instantly judges in favor of the man with one ewe, realizing immediately after that God was testing him. He falls prostrate, repents, and is forgiven.
In the Hebrew Bible, this is not a real legal dispute between two intruders. (2 Samuel 12). It is a prophetic parable delivered to David by the Prophet Nathan. David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged for her husband, Uriah the Hittite, to be killed in battle. David had many wives (the 99 ewes), while Uriah had only one beloved wife (the single ewe). Nathan used the parable to trick David into condemning his own actions.
The Quran takes a brilliant, devastating psychological parable from the Bible and presents it as a literal, physical property dispute where two guys randomly scale a palace wall to complain about livestock.
Because Islamic theology insists that all prophets are completely free from major sins (Ismah), the text systematically strips away Nathan, Bathsheba, the adultery, and the murder.
By transforming David's profound moral failure and agonizing repentance into a minor error in judicial protocol, the Quran sanitizes ancient history to fit its own later theological dogmas.