2 Samuel 7

The king was living in his own house, and the LORD had given him peace from all the enemies around him.

1And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies;

NoteWhere the King James prints LORD in capital letters, it is standing in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written Yahweh, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud, saying "the Lord" instead. Plain "Lord" translates a different, ordinary Hebrew word meaning master.

2The king said to Nathan the prophet, "Look, I live in a house made of cedar wood, but the ark of God sits inside a tent."

2That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.

NoteThe ark of God was a chest of acacia wood plated with gold, holding the stone tablets of the law and carried on poles by priests. It was treated as the spot where God's presence met Israel, and since the days of Moses it had been kept under a tent. A "house of cedar" means a building faced with imported timber from Lebanon, costly, fragrant, resistant to rot, and the standard mark of a royal residence in that world.

3Nathan said to the king, "Go ahead and do everything you have in mind, because the LORD is with you."

3And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee.

4But that night the word of the LORD came to Nathan. God said:

4And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying,

5"Go and tell my servant David, this is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?

5Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?

NoteThe Hebrew puts the weight on the word "you": "Are you the one to build me a house?" It is a question, not a flat refusal. The later retelling of this scene in 1 Chronicles 17:4 makes it a plain negative, and readers have long disagreed over whether the question here is a no or a redirection to someone else.

6I have not lived in a house from the day I brought the people of Israel up out of Egypt until now. I have moved from place to place, living in a tent.

6Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.

NoteThe King James uses two words, "tent" and "tabernacle," for the same thing: the portable shrine Israel carried through the wilderness, a curtained wooden frame taken down and set up again at each stopping place. It had no fixed site.

7Everywhere I went with all the people of Israel, did I ever say a word to any of the tribes of Israel I commanded to shepherd my people Israel? Did I ask them, 'Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'

7In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar?

Note"Feed my people" translates a verb meaning to shepherd; across the ancient Near East, shepherding was the ordinary image for governing, and kings were routinely called shepherds of their people. Also note that the Hebrew here says "tribes of Israel," while the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 17:6 reads "judges of Israel." The two words look very similar in Hebrew, and translators divide over which was originally meant.

8So now tell my servant David, this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I took you from the sheep pen, from following the flock, to be the ruler over my people Israel.

8Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel:

Note"LORD of hosts" means the Lord of armies. The title pictures God at the head of massed forces (Israel's fighting men in some passages, heavenly armies in others) and was especially at home in war and in the worship connected with the ark.

9I have been with you everywhere you went. I have destroyed all your enemies in front of you. And I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth.

9And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.

10I will provide a place for my people Israel and plant them there, so they can live in a home of their own and not be pushed around anymore. Cruel people will not oppress them as they did before,

10Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime,

11back when I put judges in charge of my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. The LORD also tells you that he himself will build a house for you.

11And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.

NoteThis chapter turns on a pun the English cannot carry: one Hebrew word means all three of palace (verse 1), temple (verse 5), and dynasty, an unbroken line of ruling descendants, as here. David offers to build God a house of the second kind; God answers by promising David a house of the third. The judges were the military and legal leaders who held Israel together in the generations between Joshua and the first king; their stories make up the book of Judges.

12When your life is over and you are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up your descendant to follow you, your own child, and I will make his kingdom firm.

12And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

Note"Sleep with thy fathers" is a fixed idiom for dying and being laid in the ancestral tomb; it says nothing about the state of the dead. "Proceed out of thy bowels" is old English for coming out of a man's own body, the successor will be David's biological son, not an adopted heir or a distant relative.

13He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will make the throne of his kingdom secure forever.

13He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

NoteTo build a house "for my name" is ownership language: the name of the owner was attached to a building to mark whose it was and who could be met there. In Hebrew usage a person's name often stands in for the person.

14I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will correct him with the rod men use, and with blows.

14I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

Note"I will be his father, and he shall be my son" is formal legal wording, used in the ancient Near East both for adopting a child and for declaring the special standing of a king before his god. It states a relationship and its obligations, not a claim about parentage. "The rod of men" and "the stripes of the children of men" mean discipline delivered by ordinary human means (through people and events, the way any father or overlord would punish), rather than by some extraordinary act.

15But my faithful love will never be taken away from him, the way I took it from Saul, whom I removed to make room for you.

15But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.

Note"Mercy" here translates the Hebrew word hesed, the steady loyalty owed inside a binding relationship. It is nearer to faithfulness or committed devotion than to pity. The reference to Saul points back to 1 Samuel 15–16, where the kingship is withdrawn from Saul and given to David.

16Your house and your kingdom will last forever before me. Your throne will be secure forever."

16And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

NoteThe standard Hebrew text reads "before you," which would mean David sees his house secured; a number of manuscripts, the ancient Greek translation, and the parallel in 1 Chronicles 17:14 read "before me." The rendering follows the second reading, but the difference is a single letter and remains disputed.

17Nathan told David everything, exactly as it was said, exactly as he had seen it in the vision.

17According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.

18Then King David went in and sat down before the LORD. He said, "Who am I, Lord GOD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?

18Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD, and he said, Who am I, O Lord GOD? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?

Note"Lord GOD," with GOD in capitals, renders a Hebrew pair: "my Lord" followed by the divine name. To sit "before the LORD" means David went into the tent where the ark stood. Sitting was an unusual posture for prayer, which was normally offered standing, kneeling, or face down.

19And even this was a small thing in your eyes, Lord GOD. You have also spoken about my family far into the future. Is this how you deal with a human being, Lord GOD?

19And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord GOD; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD?

NoteThe closing sentence is one of the most obscure in the Hebrew Bible. Word for word it runs "and this is the law of the man." It has been taken as a question ("is this how you deal with a human being?"), as a statement ("this is instruction for humanity"), and as a text damaged in copying; the parallel in 1 Chronicles 17:17 reads differently again. No translation of it is certain.

20What more can David say to you? You know your servant, Lord GOD.

20And what can David say more unto thee? for thou, Lord GOD, knowest thy servant.

21You have done all these great things because of your promise and because it is what you yourself wanted, and you have let your servant know about them.

21For thy word’s sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them.

22So you are great, Lord God. There is no one like you, and there is no God except you, just as we have heard with our own ears.

22Wherefore thou art great, O LORD God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

23And what nation on earth is like your people Israel? God went out to buy them back to be his own people, and to make a name for himself. You did great and awe-inspiring things for your land and in front of your people, whom you rescued for yourself out of Egypt, out of the hands of other nations and their gods.

23And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?

Note"Redeem" means to buy back. In Israelite law it was a family duty: paying the price to recover a relative sold into slavery, or land lost through debt. Applied to the exodus from Egypt, it casts Israel as property bought back by its rightful owner. The Hebrew of this verse is unusually rough (it slides between "you" and "them," and the verb attached to "God went" is plural), so translations differ considerably in how they smooth it out.

24You made Israel your own people forever, and you, LORD, became their God.

24For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, LORD, art become their God.

25And now, LORD God, keep the promise you made about your servant and his family forever. Do what you said you would do.

25And now, O LORD God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said.

26Then your name will be honored forever, and people will say, 'The LORD of Hosts is God over Israel.' And let the house of your servant David stand firm before you.

26And let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is the God over Israel: and let the house of thy servant David be established before thee.

27You, LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, told your servant plainly, 'I will build you a house.' That is why your servant has found the courage to pray this prayer to you.

27For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.

Note"Revealed" is literally "uncovered the ear of your servant," a Hebrew idiom for telling someone something directly and privately, the way you would pull back a headcloth to speak into a person's ear.

28And now, Lord GOD, you are God. Your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.

28And now, O Lord GOD, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant:

29So please be willing to bless my family, so that it may go on forever before you. You, Lord GOD, have spoken it, and with your blessing my family will be blessed forever."

29Therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue for ever before thee: for thou, O Lord GOD, hast spoken it: and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.