2 Samuel 7:16

7:16 Your house and your kingdom will stand before me ¹  permanently; your dynasty ²  will be permanent.’”

2 Samuel 7:19

7:19 And you didn’t stop there, O Lord God! You have also spoken about the future of your servant’s family. ³  Is this your usual way of dealing with men, ⁴  O Lord God?

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. ⁵  Do as you promised, ⁶ 

2 Samuel 7:27

7:27 for you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have told ⁷  your servant, ‘I will build you a dynastic house.’ ⁸  That is why your servant has had the courage ⁹  to pray this prayer to you.

[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.”

[7:19]  ³ tn Heb “and this was small in your eyes, O Lord God, so you spoke concerning the house of your servant for a distance.”

[7:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “and this [is] the law of man”; KJV “is this the manner of man, O Lord God?”; NAB “this too you have shown to man”; NRSV “May this be instruction for the people, O Lord God!” This part of the verse is very enigmatic; no completely satisfying solution has yet been suggested. The present translation tries to make sense of the MT by understanding the phrase as a question that underscores the uniqueness of God’s dealings with David as described here. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:17 reads differently (see the note there).

[7:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “and now, O Lord God, the word which you spoke concerning your servant and concerning his house, establish permanently.”

[7:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “as you have spoken.”

[7:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “have uncovered the ear of.”

[7:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “a house.” This maintains the wordplay from v. 11 (see the note on the word “house” there) and is continued in v. 29.

[7:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “has found his heart.”