1:1 King David was very old; 23 even when they covered him with blankets, 24 he could not get warm.
1 tn Heb “walk in my ways.”
2 tn Or “keeping.”
3 tn Heb “walked.”
4 tn Heb “I will lengthen your days.”
5 tn The words “I am taking the kingdom from him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
6 tc This is the reading of the MT; the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate read “he has.”
7 tn Heb “walked in my ways.”
8 tn Heb “by doing what is right in my eyes, my rules and my regulations, like David his father.”
9 tn Heb “and I will give it to you, ten tribes.”
10 tn Heb “give.”
11 tn Heb “so there might be a lamp for David my servant all the days before me in Jerusalem.” The metaphorical “lamp” symbolizes the Davidic dynasty. Because this imagery is unfamiliar to the modern reader, the translation “so my servant David’s dynasty may continue to serve me” has been used.
12 tn Heb “so there might be a lamp for David my servant all the days before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there.”
13 tn Heb “take.”
14 tn Heb “If you obey.” In the Hebrew text v. 38 is actually one long conditional sentence, which has been broken into two parts in the translation for stylistic purposes.
15 tn Heb “walk in my ways.”
16 tn Heb “do what is right in my eyes.”
17 tn Heb “I will build for you a permanent house, like I built for David.”
18 tn The words “he did this” are added for stylistic reasons.
19 tn Heb “what was right in the eyes of the
20 tn Heb “and had not turned aside from all which he commanded him.”
21 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
22 sn Abishalom (also in v. 10) is a variant of the name Absalom (cf. 2 Chr 11:20). The more common form is used by TEV, NLT.
23 tn Heb “was old, coming into the days” (i.e., advancing in years).
24 tn Or “garments.”
25 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
26 sn The expression raised up refers here to making someone king. There is a wordplay here: “raising up” refers to bringing someone onto the scene of history, but it echoes with the parallel to Jesus’ resurrection.
27 tn Grk “about whom.” The relative pronoun (“whom”) was replaced by the pronoun “him” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek. The verb εἶπεν (eipen) has not been translated (literally “he said testifying”) because it is redundant when combined with the participle μαρτυρήσας (marturhsa", “testifying”). Instead the construction of verb plus participle has been translated as a single English verb (“testified”).
28 sn A quotation from Ps 89:20.
29 sn A quotation from 1 Sam 13:14.
30 tn Or “who will perform all my will,” “who will carry out all my wishes.”
31 tn The participle ὑπηρετήσας (Juphrethsa") is taken temporally.
32 tn The verb κοιμάω (koimaw) literally means “sleep,” but it is often used in the Bible as a euphemism for the death of a believer.
33 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “was gathered to his fathers” (a Semitic idiom).
34 tn Grk “saw,” but the literal translation of the phrase “saw decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “looked at decay,” while here “saw decay” is really figurative for “experienced decay.” This remark explains why David cannot fulfill the promise.