FIRST CHRONICLES

1 Chronicles Chapter 17

1 ¶ Now after David was living in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD remains under a tent.

2 Then Nathan said to David, Do all that is in your heart; for God is with you.

3 And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,

4 Go and tell my servant David, Thus says the LORD, You shall not build a house for me to live in:

5 For I have not lived in a house from the day that I brought Israel up from Egypt to this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another.

6 In all the places where I have moved with Israel, did I say a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, Why have you not built a house of cedar for me?

7 So now you shall say this to my servant David, Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the sheepfold, even from following the sheep, that you should be ruler over my people Israel:

8 And I have been with you wherever you have walked, and have cut off all your enemies before you, and have made you a name like the name of the great men who are in the earth.

9 Also I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they live in their own place, and will no longer be troubled; nor shall the children of wickedness consume them any longer, as at first,

10 Since the time when I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all your enemies. Furthermore I tell you that the LORD will build you a house.

11 And it shall come to pass, when your days have expired and you must go to be with your fathers, that I will raise up your seed after you, one of your own sons; and I will establish his kingdom.

12 He will build me a house, and I will establish his throne for ever.

13 I will be his father, and he will be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him who was before you:

14 But I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever: and his throne will be established for evermore.

15 Nathan told David all these words, and everything he had seen.

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 so far?

17 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O God; for you have also spoken of your servant’s house for a long time 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 thus honoring your servant? for you know your servant.

19 O LORD, for your servant’s sake, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness, in making all these great things known.

20 O LORD, there is none like you, nor is there any God other than you, according to all that our ears have heard.

21 And what nation on the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his own people, to make a name for yourself by great and terrible deeds, by driving out nations before your people, whom you redeemed out of Egypt?

22 For you made your people Israel your own people forever; and you, LORD, became their God.

23 Therefore now, 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, that your name may be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God: 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 confidence to pray before you.

26 And now, LORD, you are God, and have promised this goodness to your servant:

27 Therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may be before you forever: for you bless, O LORD, and it shall be blessed forever.