2 Samuel 7:15-16

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 ¹  permanently; your dynasty ²  will be permanent.’”

Isaiah 54:10

54:10 Even if the mountains are removed

and the hills displaced,

my devotion will not be removed from you,

nor will my covenant of friendship ³  be displaced,”

says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 55:3

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ⁴ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ⁵  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ⁶ 

Acts 13:32-34

13:32 And we proclaim to you the good news about the promise to our ancestors, ⁷  13:33 that this promise ⁸  God has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising ⁹  Jesus, as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son; ¹⁰  today I have fathered you.’ ¹¹  13:34 But regarding the fact that he has raised Jesus ¹²  from the dead, never ¹³  again to be ¹⁴  in a state of decay, God ¹⁵  has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you ¹⁶  the holy and trustworthy promises ¹⁷  made to David.’ ¹⁸ 

[7:16]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “throne.”

[54:10]  ³ tn Heb “peace” (so many English versions); NLT “of blessing.”

[55:3]  ⁴ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  ⁵ tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”

[13:32]  ⁷ tn Or “to our forefathers”; Grk “the fathers.”

[13:33]  ⁸ tn Grk “that this”; the referent (the promise mentioned in the previous verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:33]  ⁹ tn Or “by resurrecting.” The participle ἀναστήσας (anasthsa") is taken as instrumental here.

[13:33]  ¹⁰ sn You are my Son. The key to how the quotation is used is the naming of Jesus as “Son” to the Father. The language is that of kingship, as Ps 2 indicates. Here is the promise about what the ultimate Davidic heir would be.

[13:33]  ¹¹ tn Grk “I have begotten you.” The traditional translation for γεγέννηκα (gegennhka, “begotten”) is misleading to the modern English reader because it is no longer in common use. Today one speaks of “fathering” a child in much the same way speakers of English formerly spoke of “begetting a child.”

[13:34]  ¹² tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:34]  ¹³ tn Although μηκέτι (mhketi) can mean “no longer” or “no more,” the latter is more appropriate here, since to translate “no longer” in this context could give the reader the impression that Jesus did experience decay before his resurrection. Since the phrase “no more again to be” is somewhat awkward in English, the simpler phrase “never again to be” was used instead.

[13:34]  ¹⁴ tn The translation “to be in again” for ὑποστρέφω (Jupostrefw) is given in L&N 13.24.

[13:34]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:34]  ¹⁶ tn The pronoun “you” is plural here. The promises of David are offered to the people.

[13:34]  ¹⁷ tn Or “the trustworthy decrees made by God to David.” The phrase τὰ ὅσια Δαυὶδ τὰ πιστά (ta Josia Dauid ta pista) is “compressed,” that is, in a very compact or condensed form. It could be expanded in several different ways. BDAG 728 s.v. ὅσιος 3 understands it to refer to divine decrees: “I will grant you the sure decrees of God relating to David.” BDAG then states that this quotation from Isa 55:3 is intended to show that the following quotation from Ps 16:10 could not refer to David himself, but must refer to his messianic descendant (Jesus). L&N 33.290 render the phrase “I will give to you the divine promises made to David, promises that can be trusted,” although they also note that τὰ ὅσια in Acts 13:34 can mean “divine decrees” or “decrees made by God.” In contemporary English it is less awkward to translate πιστά as an adjective (“trustworthy”). The concept of “divine decrees,” not very understandable to the modern reader, has been replaced by “promises,” and since God is the implied speaker in the context, it is clear that these promises were made by God.

[13:34]  ¹⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 55:3. The point of this citation is to make clear that the promise of a Davidic line and blessings are made to the people as well.