2 Samuel 7:3-5

7:3 Nathan replied to the king, “You should go ¹  and do whatever you have in mind, ²  for the Lord is with you.” 7:4 That night the Lord told Nathan, ³  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?

2 Samuel 7:1

The Lord Establishes a Covenant with David

7:1 The king settled into his palace, ⁴  for the Lord gave him relief ⁵  from all his enemies on all sides. ⁶ 

2 Samuel 17:2-4

17:2 When I catch up with ⁷  him he will be exhausted and worn out. ⁸  I will rout him, and the entire army that is with him will flee. I will kill only the king 17:3 and will bring the entire army back to you. In exchange for the life of the man you are seeking, you will get back everyone. ⁹  The entire army will return unharmed.” ¹⁰ 

17:4 This seemed like a good idea to Absalom and to all the leaders ¹¹  of Israel.

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

² tn Heb “all that is in your heart.”

³ tn Heb “the word of the Lord was [i.e., came] to Nathan.”

⁴ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

⁵ tn Or “rest.”

⁶ tn The translation understands the disjunctive clause in v. 1b as circumstantial-causal.

⁷ tn Heb “and I will come upon him.”

⁸ tn Heb “exhausted and slack of hands.”

⁹ tc Heb “like the returning of all, the man whom you are seeking.” The LXX reads differently: “And I will return all the people to you the way a bride returns to her husband, except for the life of the one man whom you are seeking.” The other early versions also struggled with this verse. Modern translations are divided as well: the NAB, NRSV, REB, and NLT follow the LXX, while the NASB and NIV follow the Hebrew text.

¹⁰ tn Heb “all of the people will be safe.”

¹¹ tn Heb “elders.”