2 Samuel7chapter 7

2 Samuel 7:4

“And it came to pass that night,.... The same night following the day in which David and Nathan had had the above conversation, that neither of them might continue long in their error and mistake, and especially lest David, in his great zeal and warm affection, should take an hasty and improper step: that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan; the word of prophecy, as the Targum; before he was not under a prophetic influence, but spoke in his own words, and had not the word of God; but now it came to him: saying; as follows.”

2 Samuel 7:5

“That Christ should be the house and temple of God, and that the old temple should cease, and the new one should begin. In the second book of Kings [Samuel]: "And the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, 'Go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord, You shall not build me a house to dwell in; but it shall be, when your days are fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, that I will raise up your seed after you, which shall come from your body, and I will prepare his kingdom.”

2 Samuel 7:6

“Whereas I have not dwelt in any house,.... Fixed, stated, habitation: since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day; a space of five or six hundred years, though he might before: but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle; moving from place to place while in the wilderness, and since in the land of Canaan, first at Gilgal, then at Shiloh, afterwards at Nob, and now at Gibeon.”

2 Samuel 7:6

“Have walked - Implying the frequent moving of the tabernacle, in the times of the Judges, as opposed to a settled resting in one place. The word tent, refers especially to the outward covering of skins, etc.: the tabernacle denotes the framework of beards and bars. Observe the constant reference to the Exodus and to the details as given in the books of Moses.”

2 Samuel 7:7

“The tribes of Israel - The duplicate passage reads judges (see margin and compare 2Sa 7:11). But a comparison with such passages as Psa 78:67-68; 1Ki 8:16; and 1Ch 28:4, favors the reading “tribes,” and the phrase is a condensed one, the meaning of which is, that whatever tribe had in times past supplied the ruler of Israel, whether Ephraim in the days of Joshua, or Benjamin in the time of Saul, or Judah in that of David, God had never required any of these tribes to build a house in one of their cities.”

2 Samuel 7:7

“That worship only is acceptable which is instituted; why should David therefore design what God never ordained? Let him wait for a warrant, and then let him do it.”

2 Samuel 7:8-9

“He had raised him from a very mean and low condition: He took him from the sheep-cote. It is good for those who have come to great preferment to be often reminded of their small beginnings, that they may always be humble and thankful.”

2 Samuel 7:11

“The Lord - will make thee a house - Thou hast in thy heart to make me a house; I have it in my heart to make thee a house: thy family shall be built up, and shall prosper in the throne of Israel; and thy spiritual posterity shall remain for ever. God is the author of all our holy purposes, as well as of our good works, he first excites them; and if we be workers together with him, he will crown and reward them as though they were our own, though he is their sole author.”

2 Samuel 7:12-13

“However, the tribe of Judah did not fail until he came for whom it was reserved, who did not himself sit upon a material throne, for the kingdom of Judea had now been transferred to Herod, the son of Antipater, the Ascalonite, and to his sons, who divided Judea into four provinces when Pilate was governor and Tiberius held the power over the whole Roman province. But his indestructible kingdom he calls the throne of David on which the Lord sat. He himself is "the expectation of nations," not of the least part of the world.”

2 Samuel 7:12

“But by a special ordinance and promise of God, his successor was to be a son born after this time; and the departure from the established usage of the East in fixing the succession, can be accounted for on no other known ground, except the fulfilment of the divine promise.”

2 Samuel 7:12

“I will set - I will set up in thy throne, thy posterity, first Solomon, and then others successively, and at last the Messiah. So the following words may be understood, part of his posterity in general, part of Solomon, and part of Christ only, according to the different nature of the several passages.”

2 Samuel 7:13

“He shall build an house ... - For the fulfillment of this in the person of Solomon, see 1Ki 8:16-20. For its application to Christ, see Joh 1:12; Eph 1:20-22; 1Ti 3:15; Heb 3:6; etc.; and Zec 6:12-”

2 Samuel 7:13

“He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever--This declaration referred, in its primary application, to Solomon, and to the temporal kingdom of David's family. But in a larger and sublimer sense, it was meant of David's Son of another nature (Heb 1:8). [See on 1Ch 17:14.] 2Sa 7:18-29. DAVID'S PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING.”

2 Samuel 7:13

“For my name - That is, for my service, and glory. For ever - This is not meant of Solomon, for his kingdom was not forever. But it is to be understood of David's posterity, in general, and with special respect to Christ, in whose person the kingdom was to be lodged forever.”

2 Samuel 7:14

“I will be his father, and he shall be my son,.... That is, I will be as kind unto him, and careful of him, as a father of a son; or he shall be, and appear to be my son, by adopting grace, as no doubt Solomon was, notwithstanding all his failings.”

2 Samuel 7:14

“If he commit iniquity - Depart from the holy commandment delivered to him; I will chasten him with the rod of men-he shall have affliction, but his government shall not be utterly subverted. But this has a higher meaning. See the observations at the end, 2Sa 7:25 (note).”

2 Samuel 7:15

“My mercy shall not depart ... - Hence, Isaiah’s saying, the sure mercies of David Isa 55:3, i. e. unfailing, lasting mercies: mercies which are like streams of water that never dry up Isa 33:16; Jer 15:18. This is explained in 2Sa 7:16, where the word established is the same word as is rendered sure in Isaiah.”

2 Samuel 7:15

“My mercy - That is, Or, my kindness, that is, the kingdom which I have mercifully promised to thee and thine. From Saul - In regard of his posterity, for the kingdom was continued to his person during life.”

2 Samuel 7:15

“This is that covenant of royalty celebrated ( Ps. lxxxix. 3 , &c.) as typical of the covenant of redemption and grace. Others of them relate to Christ, who is often called David and the Son of David, that Son of David to whom these promises pointed and in whom they had their full accomplishment.”

2 Samuel 7:16

“David's house and kingdom have long since come to an end; it is only the Messiah's kingdom that is everlasting, and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. The supposition of committing iniquity cannot indeed be applied to the Messiah himself, but it is applicable (and very comfortable) to his spiritual seed.”

2 Samuel 7:17

“According to all these words, and according to all this vision,.... All the words of this prophecy, just as they were delivered to Nathan, were exactly expressed by him; he did not vary from them in the least, but with the greatest faithfulness related them: so did Nathan speak unto David; though in the part which related to the history of the house of God, it was contrary to the advice which he had given; but he was not ashamed to retract his sense, when he was made acquainted with the mind of God.”

2 Samuel 7:18

“Then went King David in,.... Into the tabernacle where the ark was, which he had prepared for it, 2Sa 6:17, and sat before the Lord; before the ark, the symbol of his presence, and prayed, and gave thanks, as follows: from whence it appears that a sitting posture was sometimes used in prayer, of which we have other instances, Exo 17:11. It is said (y) that Pythagoras, and also Numa, ordered that worshippers should sit.”

2 Samuel 7:18-22

“DAVID was overwhelmed with the mercy of God! Nathan's message was too much for him. He felt emotions in his bosom which he could not express. Like a wise man, he went at once, while under the impulse of gratitude, into the place of nearness to God.”

2 Samuel 7:19

“Is this the manner of man - Compare 1Ch 17:17. Our passage may be thus understood: But this is the law (or prerogative) of a great man to found dynasties which are to last into the far future. David expresses his astonishment that he, of such humble birth, and one so little in his own eyes, should not only be raised to the throne, but be assured of the perpetuity of the succession in his descendants, as if he were a man of high degree.”

2 Samuel 7:19

“A great while - For many future ages, and indeed to all eternity. Is this, &c. - Do men use to deal so kindly with their inferiors, as thou hast done with me? No: this is the prerogative of divine grace.”

2 Samuel 7:21

“Thy word's sake - That thou mightest fulfil thy promises made to me, and thereby demonstrate thy faithfulness. Own heart - Or thy own mere liberality and good pleasure, without any desert of mine. So far was David, though a very gracious man, from thinking his actions meritorious.”

2 Samuel 7:21

“All was, (1.) For his word's sake, that is, for the sake of Christ the eternal Word; it is all owing to his merit. Or, "That thou mayest magnify thy word of promise above all thy name, in making it the stay and store-house of thy people." (2.) According to thy own heart, thy gracious counsels and designs, ex mero motu--of thy own good pleasure.”

2 Samuel 7:23

“And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel,.... For the knowledge and worship of the true God among them, for laws and or given them, and for blessings of goodness bestowed upon them: whom God went to redeem for a people to himself; the words are plural, "whom the gods went to redeem"; the Targum is,"they that were sent from the Lord,''meaning Moses and Aaron, of whom Jarchi interprets them, of the first of which it is said, "I have made thee a god unto Pharaoh", Exo 7:1; but Kimchi and R.”

2 Samuel 7:23-24

“Whom those that were sent of God went to redeem; so the Chaldee, meaning, I suppose, Moses and Aaron. The redemption of Israel, as described here, was typical of our redemption by Christ in that, [1.] They were redeemed from the nations and their gods; so are we from all iniquity and all conformity to this present world.”

2 Samuel 7:24

“For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever,.... So long as they were obedient to him, and observed his laws and statutes, and abode by his worship and ordinances, otherwise he would write a "loammi" on them, as he has, see Hos 1:9, and thou, Lord, art become their God; their covenant God, they having avouched him to be their God, and he having avouched them to be his people, Deu 26:17.”

2 Samuel 7:24

“It was, [1.] Mutual: "They to be a people to thee, and thou to be a God to them; all their interests consecrated to thee, and all thy attributes engaged for them." [2.] Immutable: "Thou hast confirmed them." He that makes the covenant makes it sure and will make it good.”

2 Samuel 7:25

“And do as thou hast said - David well knew that all the promises made to himself and family were conditional; and therefore he prays that they may be fulfilled. His posterity did not walk with God, and therefore they were driven from the throne. It was taken from them by the neighboring nations, and it is now in the hands of the Mohammedans; all the promises have failed to David and his natural posterity, and to Christ and his spiritual seed alone are they fulfilled.”

2 Samuel 7:25

“NATHAN had been giving to David, on God’s behalf, sundry exceeding great and precious promises. David expresses his gratitude to God for having so promised, and he says, “Now, O Lord God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said.’ It is a prayer to God. Those words naturally flowed from his lips: after hearing such precious promises, he was anxious for their fulfilment.”

2 Samuel 7:26

"Whether I be magnified or no, let thy name be magnified. " And he reckons that nothing magnifies God's name more than this, to say, with suitable affections, The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel. This bespeaks the God of Israel gloriously great, that he is the Lord of hosts; and this bespeaks the Lord of hosts gloriously good, that he is God over Israel.

2 Samuel 7:27

“Therefore hath thy servant found in his heart ... - The promises of God are the true guide to the prayers of His people. We may dare to ask anything, how great soever it may be, which God has promised to give. In this and the two following verses David expresses the same wonder at the riches of God’s grace, and the same expectation founded on that grace, which Paul does. in such passages as Eph 1:5-7; Eph 2:7, etc. marginal references.”

2 Samuel 7:27

“It is a very blessed thing for a child of God to be anxious to glorify his Heavenly Father, whether his wish is realized or not. The strong desire to magnify God is acceptable to Him and is an indication of spiritual health. It is certain, in the long run, to bring blessing to our own souls and I have frequently noticed that when we earnestly desire to do something special for the Lord, He generally does something for us very much of the same kind. David wished to build a house for God.”

2 Samuel 7:27

“This prayer, &c. - That prayer that is found in the tongue only will not please God. It must be found in the heart. That must be lifted up and poured out before God.”

2 Samuel 7:28

“And now, O Lord God, thou art that God,.... Who is the Lord of hosts, and the God of Israel, that has promised and is able to perform, and is faithful to his promise: and thy words be true; are truly, punctually, and faithfully performed, never fail: and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant; concerning building and establishing his house. David repeats this promise as being greatly affected with it, and fully assured of the performance of it.”

2 Samuel 7:29

“When Christ for ever sat down on the right hand of God ( Heb. x. 12 ), and received all possible assurance that his seed and throne shall be as the days of heaven, this prayer of David the son of Jesse for his seed was abundantly answered, that it might continue before God for ever. The perpetuity of the Messiah's kingdom is the desire and faith of all good people.”