2 Samuel 7

King David was living in his palace, and God caused the enemy people groups that surrounded the Israelites to stop attacking them.

So one day David said to the prophet Nathan, “Consider that I live in a palace that King Hiram’s craftsmen built for me from cedar wood. But the sacred chest is only in a tent {rather than a splendid temple}!” \*

Then Nathan told King David, “God will help you, so you may do what you want to do.”

But that night, God {appeared to} Nathan and told him,

“Go and give my servant David this message from me. He is not the one who will build a temple to hold the sacred chest on which I am invisibly present. \*

I have not been especially present in any building from the time when I brought the Israelites here from Egypt until now. Instead, I have been present in my sacred tent, moving from one place to another with the people.

I went with the Israelites wherever they traveled, but I never told any of the leaders whom I appointed to rule them that they should have built a temple for me out of cedar wood. \*

So give my servant David this message from me, God, the commander of the heavenly armies. Although he worked out in the fields caring for his father’s sheep, I appointed him to become the king of my Israelite people.

Remind him that I have protected him wherever he has gone. I have enabled him to defeat all the enemies who attacked him. Now I will make him very famous. He will become as famous as the greatest people who have ever lived on earth. \*

When my Israelite people were slaves in Egypt, violent people oppressed them. They also oppressed them in this land during the time when I was appointing judges to lead them. But this will not happen anymore. I have made a place where my people can live, and I will enable them to keep living there. They will no longer be afraid. I will make all their enemies stop attacking them. Tell David that I promise that I, God, will enable his descendants to rule as kings. \*

Tell David that after he has lived out his life and died, I will appoint one of his own sons to be king. One of his wives will give birth to this son in the future. I will make sure that he remains the king.

Assure David that that son of his will build a temple for me. No one will ever replace him as the king.

It will be as if I am his father and he is my son. When he does something wrong, I will punish him the way human fathers properly punish their sons. \*

But I will never stop showing kindness to David and his descendants the way I stopped showing kindness to Saul. I made him no longer the king so that David could become the king.

So assure David that his descendants will continually rule the kingdom of Israel after him. No other family will ever replace them as the royal family.”

Nathan went and told David everything that God had told him when he appeared to him. \*

{When he heard Nathan’s message,} King David went into the sacred tent and sat in God’s presence. He prayed, “God, my master, I am not a very important person, and I do not come from a very important family. So I do not deserve any of the things that you have done for me already.

And yet, God my Lord, you are telling me that you want to do even more for me. After all, you have now told me that my descendants will reign over Israel long into the future! And you have said that you will require people to obey them as their kings.

God my Lord, I am not able to say anything further to you. But you know me so well that you know what I would say if I could say it. \*

You are going to do a wonderful thing {and make my descendants kings after me}. You are going to do this because you promised to make me a king, and because it is what you really want to do. It was also wonderful for you to tell me about this now.

This shows how great you are, God my Lord. We have never heard of any other God besides you. The gods that the people of other nations worship are nothing like you.

No other nation in the world is like us, your Israelite people. None of the gods that other people groups worship rescued them so that those people would belong to them. You rescued us from being slaves in Egypt. You also rescued us from enemy nations {here in Canaan} that thought their gods would enable them to defeat us. You did miracles to enable us to settle in this land. Because of the powerful things you have done, people throughout the world now respect you. \*

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

God, my God, you have promised to do wonderful things for me and my descendants. So please do make those things you said happen always.

When that happens, you will become famous forever. People will exclaim, ‘God, the commander of the heavenly armies, is the God who rules Israel!’ And you will make sure that a descendant of mine will always rule the Israelites. \*

I am confident that you will do this, because you, God, have chosen us Israelites to be your people. You have revealed to me that you will make some of my descendants kings. For that reason, I have been bold enough to pray like this to you.

So now, God my Lord, because you are God, we can trust that you will do what you promise. You have promised to do these good things to me.

So now I pray that it will please you to do good things for my descendants. Please enable them to keep ruling your Israelite people. God my Lord, you have promised these things, and so I know that you will always keep doing good things for my descendants.” \*