2 Samuel 7:1-6

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? 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 

[7:1]  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.”

[7:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “in a tent and in a dwelling.” The expression is a hendiadys, using two terms to express one idea.