2 Samuel 7:3-7

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? 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. ⁴  7:7 Wherever I moved among all the Israelites, I did not say ⁵  to any of the leaders ⁶  whom I appointed to care for ⁷  my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?”’

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.”

⁵ tn Heb “in a tent and in a dwelling.” The expression is a hendiadys, using two terms to express one idea.

⁷ tn Heb “Did I speak a word?” In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question.

⁸ tn Heb “tribes” (so KJV, NASB, NCV), but the parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:6 has “judges.”

⁹ tn Heb “whom I commanded to shepherd” (so NIV, NRSV).