First Book of Chronicles 17

¹ Once David had settled into his house, he said to the prophet Nathan, ‘Here am I living in a house of cedar, while the ark of Yahweh’s covenant is still beneath the awning of a tent’.

² Nathan said to David, ‘Do all that is in your mind, for God is with you’.

³ But that very night the word of Yahweh came to Nathan,

⁴ ‘Go and tell my servant David, “Yahweh says this: You are not the man to build me a house to dwell in.

⁵ I have never stayed in a house from the day I brought Israel out until today, but went from tent to tent, from one shelter to another.

⁶ In all my journeying with the whole of Israel, did I say to any one of the judges of Israel, whom I had appointed as shepherds of my people: Why have you not built me a house of cedar?

⁷ This is what you must say to my servant David: Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader of my people Israel.

⁸ I have been with you on all your expeditions; I have cut off all your enemies before you. I will give you fame as great as the fame of the greatest on earth.

⁹ I will provide a place for my people Israel; I will plant them there and they shall live in that place and never be disturbed again; nor shall the wicked continue to destroy them, as they did

¹⁰ in the days when I appointed judges over my people Israel; I will subdue all their enemies. I will make you great; Yahweh will make you a House.

¹¹ And when your days are ended and you must go to your ancestors, I will preserve your offspring after you, a son of your own, and make his sovereignty secure.

¹² It is he who shall build a house for me and I will make his throne firm for ever.

¹³ I will be a father to him and he a son to me. I will not withdraw my favour from him, as I withdrew it from your predecessor.

¹⁴ I will preserve him for ever in my house and in my kingdom; and his throne shall be established for ever.”‘

¹⁵ Nathan related all these words to David and this whole revelation.

¹⁶ King David then went in and, seated before Yahweh, said: ‘Who am I, Yahweh God, and what is my House, that you have led me as far as this?

¹⁷ Yet in your eyes, O God, this is still not far enough, and you make your promises extend to your servant’s House into the distant future. You show me as it were a line of men, and it is Yahweh God, who promises it.

¹⁸ What more can David say to you for the honour you have given to your servant? You yourself have singled out your servant.

¹⁹ For your servant’s sake, this dog of yours, you have done such a great thing by revealing all this greatness to come.

²⁰ There is none like you, no God except you alone, that we have ever heard of.

²¹ Is there another people on the earth like your people Israel, with a God setting out to redeem it and make it his people, giving yourself a name for great and terrible things by driving nations out before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt?

²² You made your people Israel your own people for ever; and you, Yahweh, have become their God.

²³ Now, Yahweh, let the promise you have made to your servant and to his House be always kept, and do as you have said.

²⁴ May this promise hold good and your name be exalted for ever; may they say, “Yahweh Sabaoth is the God of Israel, he is God for Israel.” The House of your servant David will be made secure in your presence,

²⁵ since you yourself, my God, have made the revelation to your servant that you would build him a House; and so your servant has ventured to offer this prayer in your presence.

²⁶ Yes, Yahweh, you are God indeed, and you have made this kind promise to your servant.

²⁷ Be pleased, then, to bless the House of your servant, that it may continue for ever in your presence; for what you, Yahweh, have blessed is blessed for ever.’