Child Sacrifice in the Old Testament

[Tonus]

1. So God just struck David's child with a deadly illness for no reason?

He kinda did:

11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am bringing trouble against you. This trouble will come from your own family. I will take your wives from you and give them to someone who is very close to you. He will have sexual relations with your wives, and everyone will know it! 12 You had sexual relations with Bathsheba in secret, but I will punish you so that all the people of Israel can see it.’” 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan said to David, “The Lord will forgive you, even for this sin. You will not die. 14 But you did things that made the Lord’s enemies lose their respect for him, so your new baby son will die.”

God outright forgives David for most of what he did (ie, no sacrifice required), but takes the life of his newborn child as penance for the mockery that was brought upon his (god's) name. So it was not a sacrifice, in that the child is not offered up for David's sins. The child is killed to punish David for embarrassing god.

Personally, I think it could've been settled with a thunderous kick to David's kingly balls, but I have to admit that god's solution left a much deeper and longer-lasting mark. He's tough to outdo.