 1 As David sat in his house, he said to Nathan the prophet, I live in a house of cedars but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under curtains. 2 Nathan said to David, Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you. 3 That same night the Word of God came to Nathan saying, 4 Go and tell David my servant, 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 that I brought up Israel until today, but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another. 6 Wherever I have walked with all Israel, did I speak a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedars? 7 Now you shall say this to my servant David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, so that you should be ruler over my people Israel. 8 I have been with you wherever you have walked, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a name like the name of the great men in the earth. 9 I will set a place for my people Israel and will plant them and they will live in their place and no longer be moved, nor will the wickedness waste them any more as at the beginning, 10 since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will subdue all your enemies and I declare to you that the Lord will build a house for you. 11 When your days have ended so that you must go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your descendants after you who will be from your sons. I will make his kingdom sure. 12 He will build a house for me and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be his father and he will be my son and I will not take my mercy away from him like I took it from him who was before you. 14 I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever. His throne will be established forever. 15 According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. 16 David the king came and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me here? 17 This was a small thing in your eyes, O God, for you have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come and have regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O Lord God. 18 What can David say more to you for the honor of your servant? For you know your servant. 19 O Lord, for your servant's sake, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness in making known all these great things. 20 O Lord, there is none like you, neither any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 21 What one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be His own people, to make you a name of greatness and awesomeness+ by driving out pagan nations from before your people whom you have redeemed out of Egypt? 22 You have chosen your people Israel for yourself, for a people forever. And you, Lord, became their God. 23 Now, O Lord, let the thing that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as you have said. 24 Let it even be established, so that your name may be magnified forever saying, The Lord of hosts is the God of Israel, a God to Israel. And let the house of David your servant be established before you. 25 For you, O my God, have told your servant that you will build him a house. Therefore your servant has found in his heart to pray before you. 26 Now, Lord, you are God, and have promised this goodness to your servant. 27 Now let it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may be before you forever. For you have blessed, O Lord, and it is blessed forever.
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