God’s Covenant with David

17 Now when David settled in his house, David said to the prophet Nathan, ‘I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.’ ² Nathan said to David, ‘Do all that you have in mind, for God is with you.’

³ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying: ⁴ Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: You shall not build me a house to live in. ⁵ For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought out Israel to this very day, but I have lived in a tent and a tabernacle.^{[a] 6} Wherever I have moved about among all Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? ⁷ Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel; ⁸ and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies before you; and I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ⁹ I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall wear them down no more, as they did formerly, ¹⁰ from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies.

Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. ¹¹ When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne for ever. ¹³ I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, ¹⁴ but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom for ever, and his throne shall be established for ever. ¹⁵ In accordance with all these words and all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

David’s Prayer

¹⁶ Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, ‘Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? ¹⁷ And even this was a small thing in your sight, O God; you have also spoken of your servant’s house for a great while to come. You regard me as someone of high rank,^[b] O Lord God! ¹⁸ And what more can David say to you for honouring your servant? You know your servant. ¹⁹ For your servant’s sake, O Lord, and according to your own heart, you have done all these great deeds, making known all these great things. ²⁰ There is no one like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ²¹ Who is like your people Israel, one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making for yourself a name for great and terrible things, in driving out nations before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt? ²² And you made your people Israel to be your people for ever; and you, O Lord, became their God.

²³ ‘And now, O Lord, as for the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, let it be established for ever, and do as you have promised. ²⁴ Thus your name will be established and magnified for ever in the saying, “The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God”; and the house of your servant David will be established in your presence. ²⁵ For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him; therefore your servant has found it possible to pray before you. ²⁶ And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant; ²⁷ therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue for ever before you. For you, O Lord, have blessed and are blessed^[c] for ever.’