1 Chronicles 17

1 Now when David settled in his house, David said to the prophet Nathan, "I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent."
2 Nathan said to David, "Do all that you have in mind, for God is with you."
3 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:
4 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: You shall not build me a house to live in.
5 For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought out Israel to this very day, but I have lived in a tent and a tabernacle.
6 Wherever I have moved about among all Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar?
7 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel;
8 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies before you; and I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.
9 I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall wear them down no more, as they did formerly,
10 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house.
11 When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.
12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.
13 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you,
14 but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.
15 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
16 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?
17 And even this was a small thing in your sight, O God; you have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come. You regard me as someone of high rank, O Lord God!
18 And what more can David say to you for honoring your servant? You know your servant.
19 For your servant's sake, O Lord, and according to your own heart, you have done all these great deeds, making known all these great things.
20 There is no one like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
21 Who is like your people Israel, one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making for yourself a name for great and terrible things, in driving out nations before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt?
22 And you made your people Israel to be your people forever; and you, O Lord, became their God.
23 "And now, O Lord, as for the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, let it be established forever, and do as you have promised.
24 Thus your name will be established and magnified forever in the saying, "The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel's God'; and the house of your servant David will be established in your presence.
25 For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him; therefore your servant has found it possible to pray before you.
26 And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant;
27 therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord, have blessed and are blessed forever."

1 Chronicles 17 Commentary

Chapter 17

David's purposes; God's gracious promises.

( 2 Samuel 7 ) upon it. It is very observable that what in Samuel is said to be, "for thy word's sake," is here said to be, "for thy servant's sake," ver. ( 19 ) . Jesus Christ is both the Word of God, #Re. 19:13 |, and the Servant of God, ( Isaiah 42:1 ) ; and it is for his sake, upon account of his mediation, that the promises are made good to all believers; it is in him, that they are yea and amen. For His sake it is done, for his sake it is made known; to him we owe all this greatness, from him we are to expect all these great things. They are the unsearchable riches of Christ, which, if by faith we see in themselves, and see in the Lord Jesus, we cannot but magnify as the only true greatness, and speak honourably of them. For this blessedness may we look amidst the trials of life, and when we feel the hand of death upon us; and seek it for our children after us.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Gk 2 Sam 7.6: Heb [but I have been from tent to tent and from tabernacle]
  • [b]. Meaning of Heb uncertain
  • [c]. Or [and it is blessed]

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CHRONICLES 17

This chapter contains an account of David's intention to build an house for God, which, he signified to Nathan the prophet, who first encouraged him to it; but afterwards was sent by the Lord to him with an order to desist from it, assuring him, at the same time, that his son should build it, and that his own house and kingdom should be established for ever; for which David expressed great thankfulness, the whole of which is related in 2Sa 7:1-29 with some little variation, see the notes there; only one thing has since occurred, which I would just take notice of, that here, 1Ch 17:5 as there also, it is said by the Lord, that he had "not dwelt in an house since the day he brought up Israel out of Egypt"; which seems to suggest that he had dwelt in one before, as has been hinted on 2Sa 7:6 even while the people of Israel were in Egypt, though it is nowhere mentioned by Moses, or any other writer; yet it is not unreasonable to suppose it; for as the ancestors of the Israelites, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when only travellers from place to place, built altars for God wherever they came; so their posterity, it is highly probable, not only did the same, but when they found themselves settled in Egypt, in the land of Goshen, might build places of worship; and when we consider the wealth of Joseph, and his family, and indeed of all Israel, who enjoyed for many years great plenty, prosperity, and liberty, before their servitude, the vast numbers they increased to and the long continuance of them in Egypt, more than two hundred years; it will not seem strange that they should build houses for religious worship, and even one grand and splendid for public service, to which also they might be led by the example of the Egyptians; who, as Herodotus says {i}, were the first that erected altars, images, and temples to the gods, and who in the times of Joseph had one at On, where his father-in-law officiated as priest, Ge 41:45 or rather to this they might be directed by some hints and instructions of their father Jacob before his death, who it is certain had a notion of a Bethel, an house for the public worship of God, Ge 28:17,19,22, 35:1 and I find a learned man {k} of our own nation of this opinion, and which he founds upon this passage; and he supposes the house God dwelt in, in Egypt, was not a tent of goats' hair, as in the wilderness, but a structure of stones or bricks, a firm and stable house, such an one as Abraham built at Damascus when settled there; which continued to the times of Augustus Caesar, as related by Nicholas of Damascus {l}. See 2Sa 7:1-29.

{i} Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 4. {k} Dickinson. Physic. vet. & vera, c. 19. sect. 24. {l} Apud. Joseph. Antiqu. l. 1. c. 7. sect. 2. 18823-950102-2024-1Ch17.2

1 Chronicles 17 Commentaries

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