The court prophet of David's reign, and the man who twice changes its direction. He delivers the dynastic promise of 2 Samuel 7 ('your throne shall be established forever'), then confronts David over Bathsheba and Uriah with the parable of the poor man's lamb and the four words 'you are the man' (2 Samuel 12:7). In 1 Kings 1 he is the strategist of Solomon's accession — briefing Bathsheba, arriving on cue, and framing his own speech as a question that asserts nothing he could be held to.