Text -- 2 Samuel 7:1-8 (NET)

The Lord Establishes a Covenant with David

7:1 The king settled into his palace, for the Lord gave him relief from all his enemies on all sides. 7:2 The king said to Nathan the prophet, “Look! I am living in a palace made from cedar, while the ark of God sits in the middle of a tent.” 7:3 Nathan replied to the king, “You should go and do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.” 7:4 That night the Lord told Nathan, 7:5 “Go, tell my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord says: Do you really intend to build a house for me to live in? 7:6 I have not lived in a house from the time I brought the Israelites up from Egypt to the present day. Instead, I was traveling with them and living in a tent. 7:7 Wherever I moved among all the Israelites, I did not say to any of the leaders whom I appointed to care for my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?”’ 7:8 “So now, say this to my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from your work as a shepherd to make you leader of my people Israel.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Sa 7:1

¹ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

² tn Or “rest.”

³ tn The translation understands the disjunctive clause in v. 1b as circumstantial-causal.

NET Notes: 2Sa 7:3

¹ tc Several medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta lack this word.

² tn Heb “all that is in your heart.”

NET Notes: 2Sa 7:4

¹ tn Heb “the word of the Lord was [i.e., came] to Nathan.”

NET Notes: 2Sa 7:6

¹ tn Heb “in a tent and in a dwelling.” The expression is a hendiadys, using two terms to express one idea.

NET Notes: 2Sa 7:7

¹ tn Heb “Did I speak a word?” In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question.

² tn Heb “tribes” (so KJV, NASB, NCV), but the parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:6 has “judges.”

³ tn Heb “whom I commanded to shepherd” (so NIV, NRSV).

NET Notes: 2Sa 7:8

¹ tn Heb “and from after the sheep.”