Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/178

114 own place, and be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the first, and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel; and I will subdue all thine enemies. Moreover I tell thee that the will build thee an house. And it shall come to pass, when thy days be fulfilled that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me an house, and I will establish his throne for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee: but I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for ever. According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. Then David the king went in, and sat before the ; and he said, Who am I, O God, and what is my

waste them] Sam. afflict them.

10. build thee an house] Sam. make thee an house, the house meant being a dynasty, and not a building.

11. that thou must go to be with] Sam. and thou shalt sleep with, the usual euphemism for "to die."

12. me an house] Sam. an house for my name.

13. my son] Here Sam. adds, If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men: this the Chronicler omits in order that not even a suggestion of the coming evil days might at this stage rest on David and his line.

from him that was before thee] Sam. from Saul whom I put away before thee. The reading in Chron. is to be preferred.

14. I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever] Sam. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee (but read before me). The reading in Sam. is no doubt the original. The change made in Chron. neatly expresses the Chronicler's conviction that the kingdom of Israel was not a human but a Divineinstitution, its true ruler being God Himself.

in mine house] Num. xii. 7; cp. 1 Tim. iii. 15.

16. went in] i.e. into the tent which he had pitched for the Ark; xvi. 1.

sat before the ] So LXX. and 2 Sam. vii. 18. The Targ. rightly paraphrases, "and tarried in prayer before Jehovah."