1 Chronicles 17

1 And it cometh to pass as David sat in his house, that David saith unto Nathan the prophet, `Lo, I am dwelling in a house of cedars, and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah [is] under curtains;'

2 and Nathan saith unto David, `All that [is] in thy heart do, for God [is] with thee.'

3 And it cometh to pass on that night that a word of God is unto Nathan, saying,

4 `Go, and thou hast said unto David My servant, Thus said Jehovah, Thou dost not build for Me the house to dwell in:

5 for I have not dwelt in a house from the day that I brought up Israel till this day, and I am from tent unto tent: and from the tabernacle,

6 whithersoever I have walked up and down among all Israel, a word spake I, with one of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed My people, saying, Why have ye not built for Me a house of cedars?

7 `And now, thus dost thou say to My servant, to David, Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, I have taken thee from the habitation, from after the sheep, to be leader over My people Israel,

8 and I am with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and I cut off all thine enemies from thy presence, and have made for thee a name like the name of the great ones who [are] in the earth.

9 `And I have prepared a place for My people Israel, and planted it, and it hath dwelt in its place, and is not troubled any more, and the sons of perverseness add not to wear it out as at first,

10 yea, even from the days that I appointed judges over My people Israel. `And I have humbled all thine enemies, and I declare to thee that a house doth Jehovah build for thee,

11 and it hath come to pass, when thy days have been fulfilled to go with thy fathers, that I have raised up thy seed after thee, who is of thy sons, and I have established his kingdom,

12 he doth build for Me a house, and I have established his throne unto the age;

13 I am to him for a father, and he is to Me for a son, and My kindness I turn not aside from him as I turned it aside from him who was before thee,

14 and I have established him in My house, and in My kingdom unto the age, and his throne is established unto the age.'

15 According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so spake Nathan unto David.

16 And David the king cometh in and sitteth before Jehovah, and saith, `Who [am] I, O Jehovah God, and what my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto?

17 And this is small in Thine eyes, O God, and Thou speakest concerning the house of thy servant afar off, and hast seen me as a type of the man who is on high, O Jehovah God!

18 `What doth David add more unto Thee for the honour of Thy servant; and Thou Thy servant hast known.

19 O Jehovah, for Thy servant's sake, and according to Thine own heart Thou hast done all this greatness, to make known all these great things.

20 O Jehovah, there is none like Thee, and there is no god save Thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

21 `And who [is] as Thy people Israel, one nation in the earth whom God hath gone to ransom to Him for a people, to make for Thee a name great and fearful, to cast out from the presence of Thy people whom Thou hast ransomed out of Egypt -- nations?

22 Yea, Thou dost appoint Thy people Israel to Thee for a people unto the age, and Thou, O Jehovah, hast been to them for God.

23 `And now, O Jehovah, the word that Thou hast spoken concerning Thy servant, and concerning his house, let be stedfast unto the age, and do as Thou hast spoken;

24 and let it be stedfast, and Thy name is great unto the age, saying, Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, is God to Israel, and the house of Thy servant David is established before Thee;

25 for Thou, O my God, Thou hast uncovered the ear of Thy servant -- to build to him a house, therefore hath Thy servant found to pray before Thee.

26 `And now, Jehovah, Thou [art] God Himself, and Thou speakest concerning Thy servant this goodness;

27 and now, Thou hast been pleased to bless the house of Thy servant, to be to the age before Thee; for Thou, O Jehovah, hast blessed, and it is blessed to the age.'

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.

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