2 Samuel 7:1-7

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 10  my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?”’


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

tn Or “rest.”

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

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

tn Heb “all that is in your heart.”

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

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

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

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

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