2 Samuel 7:6

6 For I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt until this day, but I have moved about with a tent as My dwelling.

2 Samuel 7:6 Meaning and Commentary

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. "Tent" and "tabernacle" are distinguished, though they were but one building and habitation; the tent was the curtains of goats' hair, and the tabernacle the linen curtains, see ( Exodus 26:1 Exodus 26:6 Exodus 26:11-13 ) . In ( 1 Chronicles 17:5 ) it is "from tent to tent, and from [one] tabernacle [to another]"; which does not intend variety of tabernacles, but change of place.

2 Samuel 7:6 In-Context

4 But that night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying,

5 “Go and tell My servant David that this is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build for Me a house to dwell in?

6 For I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt until this day, but I have moved about with a tent as My dwelling.

7 In all My journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever asked any of the leaders I appointed to shepherd My people Israel, ‘Why haven’t you built Me a house of cedar?’

8 Now then, you are to tell My servant David that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I took you from the pasture, from following the flock, to be the ruler over My people Israel.