2 Samuel 7:11-16

7:11 and during the time when I appointed judges to lead my people Israel. Instead, I will give you relief ¹  from all your enemies. The Lord declares ²  to you that he himself ³  will build a dynastic house ⁴  for you. 7:12 When the time comes for you to die, ⁵  I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, ⁶  and I will establish his kingdom. 7:13 He will build a house for my name, and I will make his dynasty permanent. ⁷  7:14 I will become his father and he will become my son. When he sins, I will correct him with the rod of men and with wounds inflicted by human beings. 7:15 But my loyal love will not be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 7:16 Your house and your kingdom will stand before me ⁸  permanently; your dynasty ⁹  will be permanent.’”

2 Samuel 7:25

7:25 So now, O Lord God, make this promise you have made about your servant and his family a permanent reality. ¹⁰  Do as you promised, ¹¹ 

2 Samuel 7:1

The Lord Establishes a Covenant with David

7:1 The king settled into his palace, ¹²  for the Lord gave him relief ¹³  from all his enemies on all sides. ¹⁴ 

2 Samuel 17:11-15

17:11 My advice therefore is this: Let all Israel from Dan to Beer Sheba – in number like the sand by the sea! – be mustered to you, and you lead them personally into battle. 17:12 We will come against him wherever he happens to be found. We will descend on him like the dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of the men who are with him will be spared alive – not one of them! 17:13 If he regroups in a city, all Israel will take up ropes to that city and drag it down to the valley, so that not a single pebble will be left there!”

17:14 Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Arkite sounds better than the advice of Ahithophel.” Now the Lord had decided ¹⁵  to frustrate the sound advice of Ahithophel, so that the Lord could bring disaster on Absalom.

17:15 Then Hushai reported to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, “Here is what Ahithophel has advised Absalom and the leaders ¹⁶  of Israel to do, and here is what I have advised.

2 Samuel 22:9-11

22:9 Smoke ascended from ¹⁷  his nose; ¹⁸ 

fire devoured as it came from his mouth; ¹⁹ 

he hurled down fiery coals. ²⁰ 

22:10 He made the sky sink ²¹  as he descended;

a thick cloud was under his feet.

22:11 He mounted ²²  a winged angel ²³  and flew;

he glided ²⁴  on the wings of the wind. ²⁵ 

2 Samuel 1:5-7

1:5 David said to the young man ²⁶  who was telling him this, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” ²⁷  1:6 The young man who was telling him this ²⁸  said, “I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and came across Saul leaning on his spear for support. The chariots and leaders of the horsemen were in hot pursuit of him. 1:7 When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me. I answered, ‘Here I am!’

Psalms 89:29-37

89:29 I will give him an eternal dynasty, ²⁹ 

and make his throne as enduring as the skies above. ³⁰ 

89:30 If his sons reject my law

and disobey my regulations,

89:31 if they break ³¹  my rules

and do not keep my commandments,

89:32 I will punish their rebellion by beating them with a club, ³² 

their sin by inflicting them with bruises. ³³ 

89:33 But I will not remove ³⁴  my loyal love from him,

nor be unfaithful to my promise. ³⁵ 

89:34 I will not break ³⁶  my covenant

or go back on what I promised. ³⁷ 

89:35 Once and for all I have vowed by my own holiness,

I will never deceive ³⁸  David.

89:36 His dynasty will last forever. ³⁹ 

His throne will endure before me, like the sun, ⁴⁰ 

89:37 it will remain stable, like the moon, ⁴¹ 

his throne will endure like the skies.” ⁴²  (Selah)

Psalms 132:11-12

132:11 The Lord made a reliable promise to David; ⁴³ 

he will not go back on his word. ⁴⁴ 

He said, ⁴⁵  “I will place one of your descendants ⁴⁶  on your throne.

132:12 If your sons keep my covenant

and the rules I teach them,

their sons will also sit on your throne forever.”

[7:11]  ¹ tn Or “rest.”

[7:11]  ² tn In the Hebrew text the verb is apparently perfect with vav consecutive, which would normally suggest a future sense (“he will declare”; so the LXX, ἀπαγγελεῖ [apangelei]). But the context seems instead to call for a present or past nuance (“he declares” or “he has declared”). The synoptic passage in 1 Chr 17:10 has וָאַגִּד (va’aggid, “and I declared”). The construction used in 2 Sam 7:11 highlights this important statement.

[7:11]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord.”

[7:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “house,” but used here in a metaphorical sense, referring to a royal dynasty. Here the Lord’s use of the word plays off the literal sense that David had in mind as he contemplated building a temple for the Lord. To reflect this in the English translation the adjective “dynastic” has been supplied.

[7:12]  ⁵ tn Heb, “when your days are full and you lie down with your ancestors.”

[7:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “your seed after you who comes out from your insides.”

[7:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I will establish the throne of his kingdom permanently.”

[7:16]  ⁸ tc Heb “before you.” A few medieval Hebrew mss read instead “before me,” which makes better sense contextually. (See also the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta.) The MT reading is probably the result of dittography (note the כ [kaf] at the beginning of the next form), with the extra כ then being interpreted as a pronominal suffix.

[7:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “throne.”

[7:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and now, O Lord God, the word which you spoke concerning your servant and concerning his house, establish permanently.”

[7:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “as you have spoken.”

[7:1]  ¹² tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[7:1]  ¹³ tn Or “rest.”

[7:1]  ¹⁴ tn The translation understands the disjunctive clause in v. 1b as circumstantial-causal.

[17:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “commanded.”

[17:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “elders.”

[22:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “within” or “[from] within.” For a discussion of the use of the preposition בְּ (bet) here, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 163-64.

[22:9]  ¹⁸ tn Or “in his anger.” The noun אַף (’af) can carry the abstract meaning “anger,” but the parallelism (note “from his mouth”) suggests the more concrete meaning “nose” here (most English versions, “nostrils”). See also v. 16, “the powerful breath of your nose.”

[22:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “fire from his mouth devoured.” In this poetic narrative the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the two perfect verbal forms in the verse.

[22:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “coals burned from him.” Perhaps the psalmist pictures God’s fiery breath igniting coals (see Job 41:21), which he then hurls as weapons (see Ps 120:4).

[22:10]  ²¹ tn The verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “[to cause to] bend; [to cause to] bow down” (see HALOT 693 s.v. נָטָה). For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “He bowed the heavens”; NAB “He inclined the heavens”). Here the Lord causes the sky, pictured as a dome or vault, to bend or sink down as he descends in the storm.

[22:11]  ²² tn Or “rode upon.”

[22:11]  ²³ tn Heb “a cherub” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “the cherubim” (plural); TEV “his winged creature”; CEV “flying creatures.”

[22:11]  ²⁴ tc The translation follows very many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וַיֵּדֶא (vayyÿde’, “and he glided”; cf. NIV “soared”; NCV “raced”) rather than MT וַיֵּרָא (vayyera’, “and he appeared,” so NASB, CEV). See as well the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, Vulgate, and the parallel version in Ps 18:10, which preserves the original reading (see the note there).

[22:11]  ²⁵ sn The wings of the wind. Verse 10 may depict the Lord mounting a cherub, which is in turn propelled by the wind current. Another option is that two different vehicles (a cherub and the wind) are envisioned. A third option is that the wind is personified as a cherub. For a discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels to the imagery in v. 10, see M. Weinfeld, “‘Rider of the Clouds’ and ‘Gatherer of the Clouds’,” JANESCU 5 (1973): 422-24.

[1:5]  ²⁶ tn In v. 2 he is called simply a “man.” The word used here in v. 5 (so also in vv. 6, 13, 15), though usually referring to a young man or servant, may in this context designate a “fighting” man, i.e., a soldier.

[1:5]  ²⁷ tc Instead of the MT “who was recounting this to him, ‘How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?’” the Syriac Peshitta reads “declare to me how Saul and his son Jonathan died.”

[1:6]  ²⁸ tc The Syriac Peshitta and one ms of the LXX lack the words “who was telling him this” of the MT.

[89:29]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and I will set in place forever his offspring.”

[89:29]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and his throne like the days of the heavens.”

[89:31]  ³¹ tn Or “desecrate.”

[89:32]  ³² tn Heb “I will punish with a club their rebellion.”

[89:32]  ³³ tn Heb “with blows their sin.”

[89:33]  ³⁴ tn Heb “break”; “make ineffectual.” Some prefer to emend אָפִיר (’afir; the Hiphil of פָּרַר, parar, “to break”) to אָסִיר (’asir; the Hiphil of סוּר, sur, “to turn aside”), a verb that appears in 2 Sam 7:15.

[89:33]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and I will not deal falsely with my faithfulness.”

[89:34]  ³⁶ tn Or “desecrate.”

[89:34]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and what proceeds out of my lips I will not alter.”

[89:35]  ³⁸ tn Or “lie to.”

[89:36]  ³⁹ tn Heb “his offspring forever will be.”

[89:36]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and his throne like the sun before me.”

[89:37]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “like the moon it will be established forever.”

[89:37]  ⁴² tn Heb “and a witness in the sky, secure.” Scholars have offered a variety of opinions as to the identity of the “witness” referred to here, none of which is very convincing. It is preferable to join וְעֵד (vÿ’ed) to עוֹלָם (’olam) in the preceding line and translate the commonly attested phrase עוֹלָם וְעֵד (“forever”). In this case one may translate the second line, “[it] will be secure like the skies.” Another option (the one reflected in the present translation) is to take עד as a rare noun meaning “throne” or “dais.” This noun is attested in Ugaritic; see, for example, CTA 16 vi 22-23, where ksi (= כִּסֵּא, kisse’, “throne”) and ’d (= עד, “dais”) appear as synonyms in the poetic parallelism (see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 91). Emending בַּשַּׁחַק (bashakhaq, “in the heavens”) to כַּשַׁחַק (kashakhaq, “like the heavens”) – bet/kaf (כ/ב) confusion is widely attested – one can then read “[his] throne like the heavens [is] firm/stable.” Verse 29 refers to the enduring nature of the heavens, while Job 37:18 speaks of God spreading out the heavens (שְׁחָקִים, shÿkhaqim) and compares their strength to a bronze mirror. Ps 89:29 uses the term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim, “skies”) which frequently appears in parallelism to שְׁחָקִים.

[132:11]  ⁴³ tn Heb “the Lord swore an oath to David [in] truth.”

[132:11]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “he will not turn back from it.”

[132:11]  ⁴⁵ tn The words “he said” are supplied in the translation to clarify that what follows are the Lord’s words.

[132:11]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the fruit of your body.”