2 Samuel 7:1-5

The Lord Establishes a Covenant with David

7:1 The king settled into his palace, ¹  for the Lord gave him relief ²  from all his enemies on all sides. ³  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 ⁴  and do whatever you have in mind, ⁵  for the Lord is with you.” 7:4 That night the Lord told Nathan, ⁶  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 24:11-13

24:11 When David got up the next morning, the Lord had already spoken ⁷  to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: 24:12 “Go, tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am offering you three forms of judgment. Pick one of them and I will carry it out against you.’”

24:13 Gad went to David and told him, “Shall seven ⁸  years of famine come upon your land? Or shall you flee for three months from your enemy with him in hot pursuit? Or shall there be three days of plague in your land? Now decide ⁹  what I should tell the one who sent me.”

2 Samuel 24:1

David Displeases the Lord by Taking a Census

24:1 The Lord’s anger again raged against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go count Israel and Judah.” ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 13:1

The Rape of Tamar

13:1 Now David’s son Absalom had a beautiful sister named Tamar. In the course of time David’s son Amnon fell madly in love with her. ¹¹ 

2 Samuel 18:1-2

The Death of Absalom

18:1 David assembled the army that was with him. He appointed leaders of thousands and leaders of hundreds. 18:2 David then sent out the army – a third under the leadership of Joab, a third under the leadership of Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under the leadership of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the troops, “I too will indeed march out with you.”

2 Samuel 1:3

1:3 David asked him, “Where are you coming from?” He replied, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.”

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

[7:1]  ² tn Or “rest.”

[7:1]  ³ tn The translation understands the disjunctive clause in v. 1b as circumstantial-causal.

[7:3]  ⁴ tc Several medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta lack this word.

[7:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “all that is in your heart.”

[7:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “the word of the Lord was [i.e., came] to Nathan.”

[24:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the word of the Lord came.”

[24:13]  ⁸ tc The LXX has here “three” rather than “seven,” and is followed by NAB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT. See 1 Chr 21:12.

[24:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “now know and see.”

[24:1]  ¹⁰ sn The parallel text in 1 Chr 21:1 says, “An adversary opposed Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had.” The Samuel version gives an underlying theological perspective, while the Chronicler simply describes what happened from a human perspective. The adversary in 1 Chr 21:1 is likely a human enemy, probably a nearby nation whose hostility against Israel pressured David into numbering the people so he could assess his military strength. See the note at 1 Chr 21:1.

[13:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Amnon the son of David loved her.” The following verse indicates the extreme nature of his infatuation, so the translation uses “madly in love” here.