2 Samuel 7:8-17

7:8 “So now, say this to my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from your work as a shepherd ¹  to make you leader of my people Israel. 7:9 I was with you wherever you went, and I defeated ²  all your enemies before you. Now I will make you as famous as the great men of the earth. ³  7:10 I will establish a place for my people Israel and settle ⁴  them there; they will live there and not be disturbed ⁵  any more. Violent men ⁶  will not oppress them again, as they did in the beginning 7:11 and during the time when I appointed judges to lead my people Israel. Instead, I will give you relief ⁷  from all your enemies. The Lord declares ⁸  to you that he himself ⁹  will build a dynastic house ¹⁰  for you. 7:12 When the time comes for you to die, ¹¹  I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, ¹²  and I will establish his kingdom. 7:13 He will build a house for my name, and I will make his dynasty permanent. ¹³  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 ¹⁴  permanently; your dynasty ¹⁵  will be permanent.’” 7:17 Nathan told David all these words that were revealed to him. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 89:28

89:28 I will always extend my loyal love to him,

and my covenant with him is secure. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 89:35-37

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

I will never deceive ¹⁸  David.

89:36 His dynasty will last forever. ¹⁹ 

His throne will endure before me, like the sun, ²⁰ 

89:37 it will remain stable, like the moon, ²¹ 

his throne will endure like the skies.” ²²  (Selah)

Jeremiah 33:20-21

33:20 “I, Lord, make the following promise: ²³  ‘I have made a covenant with the day ²⁴  and with the night that they will always come at their proper times. Only if you people ²⁵  could break that covenant 33:21 could my covenant with my servant David and my covenant with the Levites ever be broken. So David will by all means always have a descendant to occupy his throne as king and the Levites will by all means always have priests who will minister before me. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 33:26

33:26 Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob. Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, ²⁷  I will restore them ²⁸  and show mercy to them.”

Ezekiel 37:24-25

37:24 “‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow ²⁹  my regulations and carefully observe my statutes. ³⁰  37:25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever.

Acts 13:34

13:34 But regarding the fact that he has raised Jesus ³¹  from the dead, never ³²  again to be ³³  in a state of decay, God ³⁴  has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you ³⁵  the holy and trustworthy promises ³⁶  made to David.’ ³⁷ 

[7:8]  ¹ tn Heb “and from after the sheep.”

[7:9]  ² tn Heb “cut off.”

[7:9]  ³ tn Heb “and I will make for you a great name like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.”

[7:10]  ³ tn Heb “plant.”

[7:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “shaken.”

[7:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “the sons of violence.”

[7:11]  ⁴ tn Or “rest.”

[7:11]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.”

[7:11]  ⁷ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “and I will establish the throne of his kingdom permanently.”

[7:16]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “throne.”

[7:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “according to all these words and according to all this revelation, so Nathan said to David.”

[89:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “forever I will keep for him my loyal love and will make my covenant secure for him.”

[89:35]  ¹⁰ tn Or “lie to.”

[89:36]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his offspring forever will be.”

[89:36]  ¹² tn Heb “and his throne like the sun before me.”

[89:37]  ¹² tn Heb “like the moon it will be established forever.”

[89:37]  ¹³ 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.

[33:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord.” However, the Lord is speaking so the first person introduction has again been adopted. The content of the verse shows that it is a promise to David (vv. 21-22) and the Levites based on a contrary to fact condition (v. 20). See further the translator’s note at the end of the next verse for explanation of the English structure adopted here.

[33:20]  ¹⁴ tn The word יוֹמָם (yomam) is normally an adverb meaning “daytime, by day, daily.” However, here and in v. 25 and in Jer 15:9 it means “day, daytime” (cf. BDB 401 s.v. יוֹמָם 1).

[33:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “you.” The pronoun is plural as in 32:36, 43; 33:10.

[33:21]  ¹⁴ tn The very complex and elliptical syntax of the original Hebrew of vv. 20-21 has been broken down to better conform with contemporary English style. The text reads somewhat literally (after the addition of a couple of phrases which have been left out by ellipsis): “Thus says the Lord, ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that there is not to be daytime and night in their proper time then also my covenant can be broken with my servant David so that there is not to him a son reigning upon his throne [and also my covenant can be broken] with the Levites [so there are not] priests who minister to me.” The two phrases in brackets are elliptical, the first serving double duty for the prepositional phrase “with the Levites” as well as “with David” and the second serving double duty with the noun “priests” which parallels “a son.” The noun “priests” is not serving here as appositional because that phrase is always “the priests, the Levites,” never “the Levites, the priests.”

[33:26]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is probably intensive here as it has been on a number of occasions in the book of Jeremiah (see BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for the category).

[33:26]  ¹⁶ tn Or “I will make them prosperous once again,” or “I will bring them back from captivity.”

[37:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “walk [in].”

[37:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and my statutes they will guard and they will do them.”

[13:34]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:34]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn The translation “to be in again” for ὑποστρέφω (Jupostrefw) is given in L&N 13.24.

[13:34]  ²⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:34]  ²¹ tn The pronoun “you” is plural here. The promises of David are offered to the people.

[13:34]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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.