2 Samuelchapter 7
29 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 2 Samuel Overview.
This chapter is the charter of the kingdom of David, and the rest of the Bible keeps returning to it. Its first hearers lived under kings who took their right to rule from this promise. Every king of the region was expected to build a house for his god once his wars were won. The chapter turns on one word that carries two meanings. Listen for how the prophet's first answer changes overnight, and for the word house each time it appears. Then listen to the king's prayer, which asks for nothing the LORD has not already said.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who had never had a royal line that God had promised to keep
- What
- David's wish to build a temple, the LORD's promise through Nathan to build David a house and a throne that will last forever, and David's prayer of thanks.
- Where
- David's cedar palace in Jerusalem, with the ark still under a tent curtain nearby.
- When
- About 1000 BC, in the rest from enemies the chapter's first verse names, placed by the sequence of the reign.
- Why
- To set down the LORD's promise that a son of David would always have a claim to the throne, the promise the prophets and the apostles build on.
Historical context
2 Samuel names no author, and Samuel himself is dead before the book opens. The oldest internal lead is 1 Chronicles 29:29, which names the histories of Samuel the seer, Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer behind the acts of David. Nathan, one of the three prophets 1 Chronicles 29:29 names, is the speaker of this chapter. The time is the rest from every enemy that verse 1 records, about 1000 BC, placed by the sequence of the reign rather than stated in the text. The place is David's cedar palace in Jerusalem, with the ark still under a tent curtain nearby. A first hearer knew that building a temple for the national god was a first duty of a successful king, recorded by the kings of Assyria, Babylon and the Phoenician cities. The usual pattern was to win the wars and then house the god in stone to prove the god had backed the king, so David proposes the expected thing. He also knew that treaties came in two shapes, a contract with conditions whose terms had to be kept, and a royal grant given outright to a loyal servant's descendants. What Nathan brings is the second kind, so individual sons may be disciplined while the house itself stands outside renegotiation. The whole answer turns on one word, since David proposes a house meaning a building and God answers with a house meaning a family line that does not end.
Significance
To the first hearers this was the charter of the kingdom. Saul's line lasted one generation, and this promise says a son of David will sit on the throne and the throne will stand forever. It set an expectation that outlived every actual king, so that when the last of them was carried to Babylon the promise was still on the books. That is why the prophets keep looking for a son of David still to come, and why the New Testament opens by filing his descent.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is read in one rite and not in the other, and it is the one place in 2 Samuel where that happens. The Ashkenazi reading of the Haftarah carries on into this chapter, and the Sephardi reading stops at the end of chapter 6. The site's table records the difference and takes it from Sefaria's parashah index, from J. H. Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Soncino, 1937, and from The Stone Edition Chumash, Mesorah, 1993. A reader told that this chapter is read in the synagogue is being told a half of the practice unless the rite is named with it.
The chapter also stands behind a line said in the room every week a Haftarah is read. On the promise of a great name, the Metsudah edition's note beside Rashi refers the phrase to the blessing that ends with the shield of David. The note says that David's name closes one of the blessings recited after the Haftarah, as the patriarchs close the first blessing of the Amidah (Rashi on II Samuel 7:9:1, citing Pesachim 117b).
How it is read
The corpus for this chapter holds twenty-four commentary entries and forty rabbinic locators. Fourteen entries carry English text under a licence that permits quotation, and all fourteen are Rashi in the Metsudah translation, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY, cited below by ref alone. Radak stands at four further places and Metzudat David at six, with no English version, so those ten are cited and never quoted.
Rashi opens the chapter as a piece of legal reasoning. David, granted rest from his enemies, takes the condition of the law in Deuteronomy to have been met, and concludes that the time to build has come (Rashi on II Samuel 7:1:1). On why the answer came to Nathan that same night, Rashi brings two amoraim. Rabbi Chanina son of Papa has God say the man is quick and may hire workers before the word reaches him. Rabbi Simon has him say the man is a vow maker who will swear off food and drink until the work is done. Either way the haste is to spare David a loss (Rashi on II Samuel 7:4:1). The tradition reads the oracle as a kindness rather than a rebuke.
Where the promise runs to the son, the classical commentary reads it of Solomon. Rashi takes the rod of men in the promise to mean Hadad and Rezon, the two adversaries named in the book of Kings (Rashi on II Samuel 7:14:1). He reads David's astonishment about the house of his servant as being about his son reigning after him (Rashi on II Samuel 7:19:1). That is where this chapter parts from the Christian reading, which takes the throne established for ever as fulfilled in Jesus, and the difference is real rather than a matter of emphasis. The site argues the question in full at The Davidic Covenant, and sets out how it handles Jewish sources at Reading rabbinic sources as a Christian. No verdict on the Jewish reading is stated here.
What the rabbis say
Forty locators stand on this chapter in the corpus, thirty-six from the Midrash and four from the Talmud, every one of them a locator without text. The promise of the seed and the house draws Devarim Rabbah 5:3, Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 2:1:18 and Jerusalem Talmud Moed Katan 3:7:19, and the words about chastening draw Bereshit Rabbah 20:11 and Bereshit Rabbah 24:6. The kingdom established for ever draws Kohelet Rabbah 3:14:1 and Midrash Tehillim 108:2. David's prayer, where he sits before the ark and asks who he is, draws Bereshit Rabbah 45:10, Bereshit Rabbah 55:6 and Devarim Rabbah 2:7. The last verse of the prayer draws Berakhot 50a:4 and Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 7:15. The place appointed for the people draws Berakhot 7b:23, the question put to Nathan draws Pesikta Rabbati 2:1, and the oracle as a whole draws Midrash Shmuel 26:6 and Vayikra Rabbah 1:4.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Samuel 7:1:1, 7:4:1, 7:9:1, 7:14:1 and 7:19:1, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Radak, Radak on II Samuel 7:2:1, 7:12:1, 7:16:1 and 7:22:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Samuel 7:3:1, 7:5:1, 7:13:1, 7:15:1, 7:17:1 and 7:24:1, cited only; The annual cycle, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the portion Shmini and its Haftarah in Ashkenazi use, built from Sefaria's parashah index, J. H. Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Soncino, 1937, and The Stone Edition Chumash, Mesorah, 1993, 1937; The Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter, Devarim Rabbah 5:3 and 2:7; Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 2:1:18; Bereshit Rabbah 20:11, 24:6, 45:10 and 55:6; Kohelet Rabbah 3:14:1; Berakhot 7b:23 and 50a:4; Midrash Shmuel 26:6; Vayikra Rabbah 1:4, as the corpus records them.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A king in cedar, an ark in curtains
2 Samuel 7:1-2
when the king sat in his house: David is settled in a house of cedar while the ark of God still sits within curtains, and the mismatch troubles him before anyone else raises it. The Lord has just given him rest from every enemy, the first stretch of his reign quiet enough to notice what remains unbuilt. That contrast, a king housed and a God still camping, drives the whole chapter that follows.
2 Samuel 7:1
“And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house,.... Which Hiram's servants had built for him, having no occasion to go out to war: and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies; both at home and abroad; though this rest and peace did not last long; for the next chapter gives an account of each of the people he was engaged in war with, 2Sa 8:1.”
Nathan the prophet appears here for the first time. Barnes notes that he later confronts David at 2 Samuel 12:1 and wrote a history of David's reign, cited at 1 Chronicles 29:29. Clarke describes the tent of the ark as covered with skins, after Exodus 26:14, and the house of cedar as beamed and panelled in cedar.
2 Samuel 7:2
“I dwell in a house of cedar - That is, a house whose principal beams, ceiling, and wainscot, were cedar. Dwelleth within curtains - Having no other residence but the tabernacle, which was a place covered with the skins of beasts, Exo 26:14.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
2 Samuel 7:2
“That the king said unto Nathan the prophet,.... This is the first time this prophet is made mention of, but often afterwards, yet who he was, and from whence he came, is not known; he appears to be a man of great piety and prudence, as well as endowed with a prophetic spirit, and was very familiar with David, and perhaps dwelt in his palace; being a man on all accounts fit for conversation with princes, to whom David imparted what he had been meditating upon in his heart.”
2 Samuel 7:2
“Yes, but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. David told him, that by him he might know the mind of God. It was certainly a good work, but it was uncertain whether it was the will of God that David should have the doing of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Go, do all that is in thine heart: Nathan answers David the same day, on his own judgment rather than a word received, telling him to go and do all that is in his heart. The next verse corrects him overnight. A true prophet's best instinct is not the same thing as a word from the Lord, and the chapter shows Nathan learning that before Israel does.
2 Samuel 7:3
“Nathan said to the king - In this case he gave his judgment as a pious and prudent man, not as a prophet; for the prophets were not always under a Divine afflatus; it was only at select times they were thus honored. For the Lord is with thee - Thou hast his blessing in all that thou doest, and this pious design of thine will most certainly meet with his approbation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 7:3
“The spirit of prophecy doth not always illuminate the minds of the prophets; because, as it is written of the Holy Ghost that he breatheth where he will, so we are also to know that he doth breathe likewise for what cause, and when he pleaseth. And hereof it cometh, that when king David demanded of Nathan whether he might build a temple for the honour of God, the prophet Nathan gave his consent; and yet afterward utterly forbad it.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Dialogues, Book 2, Chapter 21patristic
Nathan's night word: Jehovah will build you a house
2 Samuel 7:4-7
the word of the Lord came unto Nathan: That same night the word of the Lord overturns Nathan's daytime answer. God has asked for no house since bringing Israel out of Egypt; he has walked in a tent and a tabernacle through the whole span from the wilderness to Shiloh to this day. The question why build ye not me an house of cedar is not a complaint against Israel's judges; it says plainly that the ark's years under curtains were never a lack David needed to fix.
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.”
The question carries the force of a refusal, as Clarke reads it, and 1 Chronicles 17:4 says it plainly. Henry holds that David had other work to do first, the wars that would widen the land of Israel. Cyprian read the promised house as Christ himself.
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.”
Cyprian · written before 258 · Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 1.15patristic
The Hebrew pairs a tent with a dwelling, and Barnes takes the tent as its covering of skins and the dwelling as its frame of boards and bars. Gill counts five or six hundred years since Egypt. Henry holds that God dwelt with Israel as surely in a tent as in a house.
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
Behind leaders the Hebrew here reads tribes, and 1 Chronicles 17:6 reads judges, two words a single letter apart. Clarke takes judges as the true reading, and Barnes keeps tribes, meaning whichever tribe had given Israel its ruler. Henry holds that worship waits for God's warrant.
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 7:8-9
from the sheepcote, from following the sheep: Before the oracle turns to David's future it retells his past: taken from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, made ruler over Israel, given a great name like the great men of the earth. It is the shepherd-boy reversal of chapter 16 spoken back in God's own mouth. Commentators have long set made thee a great name beside Genesis 12:2's promise to Abraham, a name built by promise rather than by conquest.
2 Samuel 7:8
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The verse looks back before it looks ahead. The LORD had been with David on every campaign and cut off his enemies, and now he promises him a name among the greatest in the land. Matthew Henry counts a great name a gift to be thankful for, and he sets a good name above it.
appoint a place for my people Israel: The promise widens from the king to the whole people, a place appointed, a planting that will not be uprooted, an end to the affliction that marked the years of the judges as beforetime. The verse looks back over the unrest running through Judges and the wars of 1 Samuel and forward to a settled peace David's own reign has only begun to taste. The house God is about to promise David rests on a people already promised rest of their own.
2 Samuel 7:10
“Moreover I will appoint ... - It should be: And I have appointed a place, etc., and have planted them, etc. This was already done by the consolidation of David’s kingdom. The contrast between this and 2Sa 7:11 is that of the troubled, unsettled times of the Judges and the frequent servitudes of Israel in those times, with the settled prosperity and independence of the kingdom of David and Solomon.”
3 more voices on this verse
2 Samuel 7:10
“Appoint - That is, I will make room for them, whereas hitherto they have been much distressed by their enemies. Or, I will establish a place for them, that is, I will establish them in their place or land.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 7:10
“I will appoint a place - I have appointed a place, and have planted them. See the observations at the end, 2Sa 7:25 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 7:10
“A good king cannot think himself happy unless his kingdom be so. The promises that follow relate to his family and posterity; these therefore, which speak of the settlement of Israel, intend the happiness of his own reign. Two things are promised:-- 1.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
he will make thee an house: David asked to build the Lord a house; the Lord answers that he will build David one, and the whole chapter turns on that single reversal of subject and object. Abigail had already spoken this vocabulary a decade earlier, promising David the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house (1 Sam 25:28), and 2:35 promised the same sure house to the priest who would walk before the Lord's anointed. The exact phrase a sure house occurs a third time at 1 Kings 11:38, offered to Jeroboam and there forfeited; David's house, given here, is not.
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 7:12-13
set up thy seed after thee: The house becomes a seed, a kingdom, and a throne established for ever, promises that reach past David's own lifetime to whoever follows him. The nearest fulfillment is Solomon, who will build the house for my name that David himself wanted to build. Hebrews 1:5 and Luke 1:32-33 carry the same throne of his father David forward to Christ, so the verse holds both the son who reigns next and the greater son the New Testament names.
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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
2 Samuel 7:12
“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.”
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · LETTER 236patristic
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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Connections2 Samuel 7:16, Acts 2:30, covenant davidic, Genesis 22:18, Numbers 24:17, Psalms 89:3
The son who builds the house for the Name of the LORD is Solomon, and Barnes points to 1 Kings 8:16-20. Clarke finds the reason in 1 Chronicles 22:8: David had shed much blood. Gill reads forever as a long time, and Wesley reads the throne forever with special respect to Christ.
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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 7:14-15
his father, and he shall be my son: The father-son language binds the throne to a relationship rather than a bare contract, and it allows for a son who commits iniquity and is chastened, which points first to Solomon's own failures. Hebrews 1:5 quotes this verse of Christ directly, the sinless son the human throne could only foreshadow. The mercy that will not depart, unlike Saul's, is the difference the chapter is built to mark: Saul lost the kingdom outright, David's house is disciplined but never discarded.
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).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
Cross references
2 Samuel 7:14
- Quoted in2 Corinthians 6:18And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
'I will be a Father unto you' (Davidic adoption promise applied to the church)
ConnectionsHebrews 1:5
Loving devotion translates hesed, the covenant love of the LORD. Albert Barnes ties the line to Isaiah 55:3, the loving devotion promised to David, a mercy that never fails. John Wesley reads the removal from Saul as the loss of his line, and Saul himself kept the throne for life.
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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
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
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 7:16-17
thy kingdom shall be established for ever: The formula repeats itself three times across two verses, house, kingdom, throne, each closing on for ever, and Nathan carries every word of it back to David exactly as he received it. The vision corrects the prophet's own same-day answer at verse 3, a rare moment where Scripture shows a true prophet revising himself under a fresh word. What David hears is not adjusted encouragement but a covenant sealed in the Lord's own repetition.
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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The message came to Nathan as a night vision. Matthew Henry holds that God kept every promise of it to David and his line in due time. Henry sets the covenant on that footing, with failures on man's side and none on God's.
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.”
Who am I, O Lord Jehovah?: David sits down before God
2 Samuel 7:18-19
Who am I, O Lord God?: David's prayer opens on a question rather than a request, the shepherd who became king asking what he is that any of this should reach him. He calls the promise a small thing in God's sight next to what has already been given, and is this the manner of man turns the astonishment outward; no man speaks to another man's descendants this way. The older writers read this opening as the pattern for receiving a promise this size, wonder answered before petition is even offered.
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 7:18
“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.”
The Hebrew reads literally, this is the law of man. Barnes takes it as the right of a great man to found a lasting house, now given to a servant of humble birth, and Clarke asks whether it points to the promise made to Adam in Genesis 3:15. Henry reports a reading of one who is both man and Lord GOD.
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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
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 7:20-21
for thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant: David has no answer left but that God already knows him, and he traces the whole oracle back to God's own word and God's own heart rather than to anything he has done to earn it. According to thine own heart echoes the word already spoken over David at 1 Samuel 13:14, a man sought after God's own heart, now hearing a promise that flows from that same heart. The prayer keeps circling back to God as the sole cause, which is the point the chapter has been making since verse 11.
2 Samuel 7:20
“Thou, Lord, knowest thy servant, knowest what will make me happy, and what thou hast promised is enough to do so." The promise of Christ includes all. If that man, the Lord God, be ours, what can we ask or think of more? The promises of the covenant of grace are framed by him that knows us, and therefore knows how to adapt them to every branch of our necessity.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
2 Samuel 7:20
“What can David say more - How can I express my endless obligation to thee?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 7:20
“David say - Either in a way of gratitude and praise, words cannot express my obligations to thee, nor my sense of these obligations: Or in a way of prayer.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Henry reads for the sake of Your word two ways: for Christ, the eternal Word, or for the word of promise God had spoken. Wesley takes Your own heart as God's free goodness.
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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 7:22-24
there is none like thee: David's praise widens from his own house to the nature of God himself, none like thee, no other God beside thee, confirmed by what Israel has heard with its own ears since Sinai. He asks what one nation in the earth is like thy people, tying the personal covenant of this chapter back to the national redemption from Egypt named in the same breath. God's greatness and Israel's calling are made one argument, so that David's own house is defended by appeal to the whole story already told.
The verb in whom God went out to redeem is plural in the Hebrew, as Gill notes. The Targum reads it of those the LORD sent, Moses and Aaron, and Henry follows it. Barnes reads the nations and gods as Canaan's peoples and idols.
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 7:23
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Henry names two marks of this covenant: it binds God and His people alike, and it stands forever. Gill links it to Deuteronomy 26:17-18, where Israel and the LORD each declare the other their own, and he sets Hosea 1:9 beside it as a warning. Wesley sees it established by promise and by deed.
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 7:25-27
do as thou hast said: David asks God to do exactly what he has just promised, and no more, turning the oracle back into a plea rather than treating it as already settled business. He asks it so that the Lord of hosts, the title David gave its battle sense at Goliath's death in 1 Samuel 17:45, may be magnified as God over Israel by the house's own establishing. The prayer for Israel's public honor stands beside the prayer for David's house, binding the king's ambition to God's name rather than his own.
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew Henry hears David asking that the name of God be magnified, whether or no his own is. Henry reads the two titles as a pair: the LORD of Hosts shows the greatness of God, and God over Israel shows His goodness. David's own house comes second in the verse.
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.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Henry notes that the Hebrew says David found his heart to offer this prayer. He holds that David dared ask this only on the promise. Spurgeon sets it beside verse 2: the heart that once planned a house for God now finds the courage to pray.
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2869: “Prayer Found in the Heart” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
2 Samuel 7:28-29
thou art that God: The prayer closes where it began, on who God is rather than what David wants, thou art that God and thy words be true, before the last request is even spoken. The blessing he asks for the house of thy servant answers Nathan's word about a house for David and repeats it back, continue for ever, blessed for ever, twice over in one closing verse. David's whole prayer stands as the shape faith takes when a promise this large is finally spoken: not calculation but repeated, believing request.
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.”
Matthew Henry reads the prayer as fully answered in Christ, who sat down at the right hand of God, citing Hebrews 10:12. He adds that the best inheritance a man leaves his family is the blessing of God. Augustine read the lasting house as a temple made of people.
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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative carrying a prophetic oracle and a royal prayer, the hinge of both books of Samuel, as chapter classes it.
A The king dwells in a house of cedar; the ark dwells in curtains
2 Samuel 7:1-2
B Shalt thou build me a house to dwell in?
2 Samuel 7:5-7
X The LORD will establish a house for you
2 Samuel 7:11
B′ Thy seed shall build a house for my name
2 Samuel 7:12-13
A′ Thy house and thy kingdom made sure for ever; thy throne established for ever
2 Samuel 7:16
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Nathan's oracle turns the house three ways | The oracle opens on a king in a house of cedar beside an ark in curtains and closes on a house and a kingdom made sure forever. The centre is the reversal at verse 11, where the LORD says he will establish a house for David. The pairing is the site's own published structure for the chapter.This site's published dossier for 2 Samuel, src/components/book/dossier-content/2-samuel.ts, its chiasms section, "Nathan's oracle turns the house three ways (7:1-17)". | 2 Samuel 7:1, 2 Samuel 7:11, 2 Samuel 7:16 |
| House, meaning three different things | The one word carries a palace at verse 1, a temple at verse 5 and a dynasty at verse 11, and the whole covenant turns on the shift. Adam Clarke reads the house-for-house reversal at verse 11 as the chapter's hinge. The site's published exposition traces the same vocabulary back to Abigail's sure house at 1 Samuel 25:28 and to the priest's sure house at 1 Samuel 2:35.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 2 Samuel 7:11. | 2 Samuel 7:1, 2 Samuel 7:5, 2 Samuel 7:11, 2 Samuel 7:13 |
| House, kingdom, throne, each closing on forever | The formula repeats three times across verses 13 and 16, and each limb ends on the same word. The site's published exposition reads Nathan carrying every word of it back to David exactly as he received it, which corrects the prophet's own same-day answer at verse 3. | 2 Samuel 7:13, 2 Samuel 7:16 |
| Who am I, and what is my house | David's prayer opens on a question rather than a request and keeps circling back to God as the sole cause. The older writers read the opening as the pattern for receiving a promise of this size, wonder answered before petition is offered. The prayer closes at verse 28 where it began, on who God is.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Samuel 7:18. | 2 Samuel 7:18, 2 Samuel 7:28 |
Is the covenant conditional or unconditional
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
The site's published dossier carries this as one of the seven contested points of the book, with the door at /featured/the-davidic-covenant. The dossier sets the texts out first. Verse 14 says a son who commits iniquity will be chastened with the rod of men. Verse 15 says the LORD's loving devotion will not depart from him. Verse 16 says the throne is established forever. Psalm 89:34 reads the covenant as unbreakable. Psalm 132:12 attaches a clause about the children keeping the covenant. Both psalms stand in the same book, so a reading has to hold both.
The dossier names two positions. The first holds the covenant unconditional in its grant and conditional in each generation's enjoyment of it. It distinguishes the oath God swore to David from the terms under which a particular descendant occupies the throne. It reads the exile as discipline that suspended the occupancy without cancelling the oath. That reading is held across the dispensational and covenantal traditions alike. The second holds the covenant fully conditional, forfeited by the house of David and transferred. The dossier records it as the reading behind the older supersessionist treatments of the monarchy, and this site's documented posture rejects it. The page states no verdict and sends the reader to the feature page.
The New Testament's use of this chapter
The site's judgment file for this chapter records eight New Testament places worked by the kept commentary. They are Hebrews 1:5, Hebrews 1:8, Hebrews 3:6, Hebrews 10:12, John 1:12, Ephesians 1:5 to 7, Ephesians 2:7 and Zechariah 6:12.
Hebrews 1:5 quotes verse 14 of Christ directly, reading the father and son language of a sinless son rather than of the son who is chastened. Luke 1:32 and 1:33 carry the throne of his father David forward to the child Gabriel announces. The site's published exposition reads the near and far pattern across verses 12 to 16, where Solomon answers the nearest horizon and the New Testament answers the one past it.
The dossier states the same thing about the far horizon in one line, that Solomon answers the near horizon of the word and the far horizon is answered by nobody in the book.
The near and the far
Solomon is the son who builds the house for God's name, and the chastening clause of verse 14 fits a son who can sin. The son of Hebrews 1:5 cannot. The site's dossier carries the same distinction under its theology entry titled Chastening inside a covenant that holds. Saul is the stated contrast there, since a Davidic king can be disciplined severely and still hold the promise.
The kept commentary on this chapter also carries the difference between the mercy taken from Saul and the mercy that will not depart from David's house. That difference is the chapter's own argument, and the book spends its second act proving it on David.
How the fathers read the oracle
Cyprian quotes verses 4 and 5 in the Testimonies against the Jews. His heading says that Christ should be the house and temple of God, and that the old temple should cease and the new one begin. Tertullian in Against Marcion reads the sure mercies of David as Christ's, since Christ sprang from David. Basil of Caesarea uses the chapter in Letter 236 on the tribe of Judah not failing until the one for whom it was reserved came. Justin Martyr and Aphrahat the Persian Sage both take the son language of verse 14 into the argument over the title Son of God. Augustine of Hippo quotes David's prayer in City of God 17.12.
Gregory the Dialogist reads verse 3 rather than the oracle. In the Dialogues he uses Nathan's same-day answer to show that the spirit of prophecy does not always illuminate the mind of the prophet, since the Spirit breathes where and when he wills.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The form and classifications
This site's published book guide, src/components/book/guides/2-samuel/Book2SamuelGuide.tsx, act "The Triumphs: a United Kingdom", beat at chapter 7; This site's published book sections table, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, the entry "2 Samuel": "history" and This site's published judgment file for the chapter, data/commentary/2-samuel-7-judgment.json, which calls the chapter the hinge of both books and records the highest keep rate of the three chapters it compares.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Augustine of Hippo, City of God 17.12; Calvin, Sermons on 2 Samuel; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1412: Where True Prayer is Found; Cyprian, Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 1.15; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. G. Blaikie, The Second Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).