2 Samuel 7 - Introduction
VII. The parallel account to this chapter is in 1 Chronicles 17, and the differences are very slight.... [ Continue Reading ]
VII. The parallel account to this chapter is in 1 Chronicles 17, and the differences are very slight.... [ Continue Reading ]
HAD GIVEN HIM REST. — No intimation is given of how long this may have been after the events narrated in the last chapter; but it is evident that this narrative is placed here, not because it followed chronologically, but because it is closely related in subject, and the historian, after telling of... [ Continue Reading ]
NATHAN. — This is the first mention of him, but he was already a confidential counsellor of the king, and became prominent later in this reign and in the opening of that of Solomon (2 Samuel 12; 1 Kings 1:10; 1 Kings 1:12; 1 Kings 1:34; 1 Kings 1:38). Nathan “the prophet” and Gad “the seer” wrote pa... [ Continue Reading ]
GO, DO ALL THAT IS IN THINE HEART. — Nathan naturally considered that it must be right for David to execute his pious purpose; but he spoke only according to his own sense of right, and not by Divine direction.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT NIGHT. — The night following Nathan’s conversation with David, when the prophet’s mind would have been full of what he had heard, and thus prepared for the Divine communication. That communication is distinctly marked as coming from a source external to the prophet himself, by its being in dire... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALT THOU BUILD? — The question implies the negative, as it is expressed in 1 Chronicles 17:5, and as it is here translated in the LXX. and Syriac. After David was told that he should not be allowed to build a temple for God as he desired, he is promised that God will make for him a sure house, and... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TRIBES. — In the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 17:6, the word is “judges,” the difference in Hebrew being only of a single similar letter. But a like use of “tribes” for the judges sprung from them may be found in Psalms 78:67; 1 Chronicles 28:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHEEPCOTE. — Better, _pasture. _... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL APPOINT... WILL PLANT. — There is no change of tense in the original; read, _have appointed,_... _have planted._ (11) AND AS SINCE THE TIME. — These words are connected with the last clause of the verse before. The Lord says that He had now given His people rest under David, not allowing “the... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH SHALL PROCEED. — The promise here given certainly has immediate reference to Solomon, and it is thought by many that the use of the future shows that he was not yet born. This may be the fact, and if so, the expression will give an important indication of the point in David’s reign to which th... [ Continue Reading ]
IF HE COMMIT INIQUITY. — The promise has plainly in view a human successor or successors of David upon his throne; and yet it also promises the establishment of David’s kingdom FOREVER by an emphatic threefold repetition (2 Samuel 7:13; 2 Samuel 7:16), which can only be fulfilled, and has always bee... [ Continue Reading ]
AS I TOOK IT FROM SAUL. — He and his house were utterly and permanently set aside; David’s descendants will be punished for their sins, yet shall never be forgotten, and shall, ultimately issue in one who shall conquer sin and death for ever.... [ Continue Reading ]
ESTABLISHED. — Two different Hebrew words are so translated in this verse. The first is the same word as that used in 2 Samuel 7:12, while the second is translated _sure_ in 1 Samuel 2:35; Isaiah 55:3, and would be better rendered here also _made sure._ BEFORE THEE. — The LXX. has unnecessarily chan... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS VISION. — A word applied to any Divine communication, and not merely to that given in _vision_ strictly so called. (See Isaiah 1:1.)... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN WENT KING DAVID IN, AND SAT. — As always at every important point in his life, David’s first care is to take that which he has in his mind before the Lord. The place to which he went must be the tent he had pitched for the ark. Here he sat to meditate in God’s presence upon the communication wh... [ Continue Reading ]
IS THIS THE MANNER OF MAN? — This clause is very obscure in the original, and little help in determining its meaning can be had from the ancient versions. The word translated “manner” is a very common one, and never has this sense elsewhere; its well established meaning is _law._ Neither is there an... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THAT WE HAVE HEARD WITH OUR EARS. — Such expressions are common enough in all languages not only for that which has been communicated orally, but for all that has been made known in any way; the same word is used with reference to written records in Deuteronomy 4:6; 2 Kings 17:14; 2 Kings 18:12;... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOM GOD WENT TO REDEEM. — The word here used for God in this its usual plural form is always construed with a singular verb when it refers to the true God. Here the verb is plural, because the thought is, “What nation is there whom its gods went to redeem?” FOR YOU. — These words, which can only r... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THY NAME BE MAGNIFIED. — David here, in the true spirit of the Lord’s prayer, puts in the forefront of his petition the “hallowed be thy name;” and this is the striking feature of all his life, into whatever sins he may at times have been betrayed, that his main object was to live to the glory o... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE HATH THY SERVANT. — The ground of the believer’s prayer must ever be the lovingkindness and promises of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
LET IT PLEASE THEE. — These words may be taken either in the optative, as in our Version, or better in the future, constituting a prophecy based upon the promise, “It will please thee.” Compare a similar possibility in the translation of the last clause of the _Te Deum,_ “Let me never,” or “I shall... [ Continue Reading ]