1 Chronicles 17

One day David was sitting in his own house. He said to Nathan the prophet, "Look, I live in a house made of cedar wood, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the sacred chest, is still sitting under a tent."

1Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD remaineth under curtains.

NoteCedar was imported from Lebanon and was the prestige building material of the ancient Near East, used for palaces and temples; a cedar house marks David as a settled king. The ark of the covenant was a gilded wooden chest containing the terms of the covenant, the binding agreement between God and Israel, and it had traveled in a portable tent since the wilderness years, never having a permanent building. Note also that where the King James prints LORD in capitals it is standing in for the personal name of Israel's God (YHWH), not the ordinary word 'lord' meaning master.

2Nathan said to David, "Do everything you have in mind, because God is with you."

2Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee.

3But that same night the word of God came to Nathan. God said,

3And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,

4"Go and tell my servant David that this is what the LORD says: You are not the one who will build me a house to live in.

4Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in:

Note'A house to dwell in' means a temple. Throughout the ancient Near East a god's temple was spoken of as that god's house, the place where the deity was understood to be present among the people.

5I have not lived in a house from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt until today. Instead I have moved from tent to tent, and from one dwelling place to another.

5For I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another.

NoteThe tabernacle was the portable tent-shrine that housed the ark while Israel moved from place to place. The King James 'from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another' renders a Hebrew phrase about a dwelling that keeps being taken down and set up again.

6In all my traveling with all Israel, did I ever say a word to any of the leaders I put in charge of caring for my people? Did I ever ask them, 'Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'

6Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why have ye not built me an house of cedars?

NoteThe judges were the military and legal leaders who ruled Israel in the period between the settlement of the land and the first kings, not judges in a courtroom sense. 'To feed my people' translates a Hebrew word meaning to shepherd: to pasture, guide and protect a flock. Shepherding was the standard image for ruling in this world, which is why the point lands on David, a former shepherd.

7So now tell my servant David that this is what the LORD of Armies says: I took you from the sheep pen, from following the flock, and made you ruler over my people Israel.

7Now therefore thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel:

Note'The LORD of hosts' (rendered here 'the LORD of Armies') translates Hebrew YHWH Tseva'ot. The 'hosts' are massed armies, variously understood as Israel's fighting forces, the heavenly beings pictured as God's army, or the stars. The title casts God as commander.

8I have been with you everywhere you went, and I have cut down all your enemies in front of you. I will make your name as great as the names of the greatest men on earth.

8And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that are in the earth.

9I will also choose a place for my people Israel and plant them there. They will live in their own place and will not be pushed around anymore. Wicked people will not wear them down as they did at the start,

9Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the beginning,

10and as they have done ever since the time I appointed judges over my people Israel. I will bring all your enemies under control. And I tell you plainly: the LORD will build you a house.

10And since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all thine enemies. Furthermore I tell thee that the LORD will build thee an house.

NoteThe word 'house' now turns on its second sense. David wanted to build God a house meaning a temple; God answers that he will build David a house meaning a dynasty, a family line of descendants holding the throne. The same Hebrew word carries both senses, and the whole speech plays on that.

11When your days are over and you go to join your ancestors in death, I will raise up one of your descendants to follow you, one of your own sons, and I will make his kingdom secure.

11And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom.

Note'Go to be with thy fathers' is the standard Hebrew idiom for dying. It comes from the practice of burying family members together in one tomb, so that the dead were literally laid alongside their ancestors.

12He will build a house for me, and I will make his throne secure forever.

12He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.

13I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me. I will never take my faithful love away from him, the way I took it from the man who ruled before you.

13I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee:

Note'Him that was before thee' is Saul, the king before David, from whom God's backing was withdrawn. 'Mercy' here translates hesed, a word for loyal, committed love, the steady faithfulness expected between parties bound by an agreement, rather than pity for someone in trouble.

14I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever, and his throne will stand firm forever."

14But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore.

NoteIn the parallel version of this speech in 2 Samuel 7:16 the promise reads 'thy house and thy kingdom', David's. Here it is God's house and God's kingdom, with David's descendant set over them. The difference is in the ancient texts themselves, not in the translation.

15Nathan told David all of these words and everything he had seen in this vision.

15According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.

16Then King David went in and sat down in front of the LORD. He said, "Who am I, LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?

16And David the king came and sat before the LORD, and said, Who am I, O LORD God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?

NoteSitting was not the usual posture for prayer, which was ordinarily done standing or bowed low. 'Before the LORD' means in front of the ark, in the tent David had set up for it. 'What is mine house' uses the same word for family or dynasty that runs through God's speech.

17And as if that were a small thing in your eyes, God, you have also spoken about my family far into the future. You have looked on me as though I were a man of high rank, LORD God.

17And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God; for thou hast also spoken of thy servant’s house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O LORD God.

NoteThis verse is unusually hard to construe in Hebrew and translators differ widely over the second half of it. The phrase behind 'hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree' is obscure; renderings range from 'you have looked on me as a man of high rank' to 'you have shown me the future generations of humanity.'

18What more can David say to you for the honor you have given your servant? You know your servant.

18What can David speak more to thee for the honour of thy servant? for thou knowest thy servant.

19LORD, for your servant's sake, and because it is what you yourself wanted, you have done this great thing and made all these great things known.

19O LORD, for thy servant’s sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all this greatness, in making known all these great things.

20LORD, there is no one like you, and there is no God except you, going by everything we have heard with our own ears.

20O LORD, there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

21And what other nation on earth is like your people Israel? God went out to buy them back to be his own people. You made a great and awesome name for yourself by driving out nations ahead of your people, whom you rescued from Egypt.

21And what one nation in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his own people, to make thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou hast redeemed out of Egypt?

Note'Redeem' is a commercial word: to buy something back, as one bought a relative out of slavery or reclaimed family land that had been sold off. Applied to the exodus, it casts God as the kinsman who paid to get his people out of Egypt. 'Terribleness' in 1611 English meant awe-inspiring, the quality that makes onlookers afraid of someone's power: it did not mean bad or of poor quality.

22You made your people Israel your very own people forever, and you, LORD, became their God.

22For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people for ever; and thou, LORD, becamest their God.

23So now, LORD, let the promise you have made about your servant and about his family stand firm forever. Do exactly what you have said.

23Therefore now, LORD, let the thing that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house be established for ever, and do as thou hast said.

24Let it stand firm, so that your name will be honored as great forever, and people will say, 'The LORD of Armies is the God of Israel, a God to Israel.' And let the house of your servant David stand firm before you.

24Let it even be established, that thy name may be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: and let the house of David thy servant be established before thee.

25You, my God, have told your servant that you will build him a house. That is why your servant has found the courage to pray this prayer to you.

25For thou, O my God, hast told thy servant that thou wilt build him an house: therefore thy servant hath found in his heart to pray before thee.

26And now, LORD, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.

26And now, LORD, thou art God, and hast promised this goodness unto thy servant:

27So now, you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue before you forever. For you, LORD, have blessed it, and it will be blessed forever."

27Now therefore let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may be before thee for ever: for thou blessest, O LORD, and it shall be blessed for ever.