1 Chronicleschapter 17
27 verses · BSB1 Chronicles book hub →
Speaks with:2 Samuel 7×82 Chronicles 6×21 Chronicles 17×21 Kings 8×2Revelation 21×2Psalms 89×2
Summary
Chapter summary
David tells Nathan that he dwells in a house of cedar while the ark sits under curtains. And God answers by reversing the sentence. He has never asked for a house of cedar; instead, 'Jehovah will build thee a house.' The covenant is given: a seed from David's own sons, a throne established for ever, a Father-son relationship that will not be taken away as it was taken from Saul. David goes in and sits before Jehovah (the only posture in Scripture like it) and prays, 'Who am I, O Jehovah God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me thus far?' The promise the New Testament traces to Christ is planted here.
Context
History · Ezra — 1 Chronicles overview
- A. 1–6 David's house of cedar and God's tent of curtains
- B. 7–15 I will build you a house, and your throne shall stand forever
- C. 16–27 Who am I, O LORD? David sits down and prays
The outline
A.David's house of cedar and God's tent of curtainsvv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.I will build you a house, and your throne shall stand forevervv. 7 to 15
Read vv. 7 to 15 →C.Who am I, O LORD? David sits down and praysvv. 16 to 27
Read vv. 16 to 27 →
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 17The history
Kings in that world built temples for their gods, and they did it for a reason beyond piety: a king who housed the god legitimized his dynasty. Building the god's house and receiving the god's blessing on your own house were two halves of one transaction, and inscriptions from surrounding kingdoms say so openly. David proposes the ordinary thing.
God's answer turns the transaction inside out with a single word. 'House' in Hebrew covers a building, a household, and a dynasty. David offers to build God a house; God announces he will build David a house. The temple will come, but from the son, not the father.
Nathan is a court prophet — a man attached to the palace with the standing to bring the king a word he did not commission. His first answer is his own good instinct; his second is the word of the LORD that came to him that night. The chapter is honest that a true prophet's first opinion can be wrong.
One difference from the parallel account is worth naming rather than passing over. Samuel's version includes a clause about chastening the son with the rod of men if he commits iniquity; Chronicles leaves it out and keeps the promise that God's mercy will not be taken away as it was from Saul. The writer is not hiding the clause — his readers had Samuel — he is preaching the half his people needed.
What it meant to them
This is the load-bearing wall of the whole book. Every later chapter about a failing king is measured against it, and the reason the dynasty survives disaster after disaster is stated here in advance.
For men and women with a Persian governor and no throne, David's own response was the one available to them too: he 'sat before the LORD' — sat down, which is not a posture of petition — and simply said, do as you have said.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 17. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.