2 Samuel 7

The king began to live in his palace. By now God had caused the enemy peoples to stop attacking Israel.

One day, David said to the prophet Nathan, "It is not right that I am here, living in a beautiful house made of cedar wood, but the chest that contains God's Ten Commandments is kept in a tent!"

Then Nathan said to the king, "God is helping you, so do about the sacred chest whatever you think is right."

But that night, God spoke to Nathan:

"Go and tell my servant David that this is what God says to him: He is not the one who will build a temple for me to live in.

I have not lived in any building from the day that I brought the Israelites up from Egypt until now. Instead, I have been living in my sacred tent, moving from one place to another with the people.

Wherever I went with the Israelites as they traveled, I never said to any of the leaders whom I appointed to lead them, 'Why have you not built me a temple made of cedar wood?'

So tell my servant David that God, commander of the angel armies, says that he took him from a pasture and from taking care of sheep and appointed him to become the ruler of my Israelite people.

Remind him I have been with him wherever he has gone. I have gotten rid of all of his enemies who attacked him. I will make him very famous, as well known as the names of all the greatest men who have ever lived on the earth.

Formerly, during the time that I appointed leaders for my Israelite people, many violent groups oppressed them. But this will not happen anymore. I have chosen a place where my people can live peacefully and where no one will disturb them anymore. I will make all their enemies stop attacking them. And I will defeat all their enemies. Tell David that I declare to him that I, God, will enable his descendants to rule after him.

When he dies and is buried, I will appoint one of his own sons to be king, and I will make him to be a very powerful king.

He is the one who will arrange for a temple to be built for me. I will make his rule over Israel to last forever.

I will be a Father to him, and he is a son to me. When he does something that is wrong, I will punish him as fathers punish their sons.

But I will never stop faithfully loving him as I stopped loving Saul, whom I removed from being king before David became king.

David's descendants will rule the kingdom of Israel forever. Their rule will never end."

So Nathan told David everything that God had told him.

When David heard Nathan's message, he went into the sacred tent and sat in God's presence and prayed this: "God my God, I am not worthy of all the things that you have done for me, and my family is not worthy either.

This was a small thing in your sight, God! You have spoken about what will happen to your servant's family for many years to come, and you have shown your servant his future generations, God!

What more can I, David, say to you for honoring me? You know all about your servant, God!

You have promised what you would do in the future, and you have promised to accomplish all of your purposes! You have done this great thing, and you have revealed it to your servant.

O God my God, you are great. There is no one like you. Only you are God, just as we have always heard.

And there is no other nation in the world like Israel. Israel is the only nation on the earth whose people you went out to rescue, as you rescued them from Egypt. Then you made them belong to yourself. And for doing all these things, you are now well known throughout the world. As your people advanced through this land, you drove out other peoples who were in Canaan, along with their gods.

You caused us Israelites to be your people forever, and you, God, have become our God!

And now, God my God, I pray that you will make sure that the things that you promised to your servant about his royal line—that those promises will be true and will be true forever, and that you will do all the things that you said you would do.

When that happens, you will become famous forever, and people will exclaim, 'God, the commander of angel armies, is the God who rules Israel.' And you will make sure that there will be descendants of mine who will rule forever.

God, the God whom we Israelite people worship, you have revealed to me that you will build your servant a royal line of descendants. For that reason, I have been brave enough to pray like this to you.

So now, O God, because you are God, we can trust that you will do what you promise. You have promised these good things to David your servant.

So now I ask you that if it pleases you, you will bless the royal line of your servant David so that it may continue to rule forever. God, you have promised this royal line, so I know that if you do these things, you will keep blessing the house of your servant forever."