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¹ It happened, when David lived in his house, that David said to Natan the prophet, Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD [dwells] under curtains. ² Natan said to David, Do all that is in your heart; for God is with you. ³ It happened the same night, that the word of God came to Natan, saying, ⁴ Go and tell David my servant, Thus says the LORD, You shall not build me a house to dwell in: ⁵ for I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up Yisra'el, to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from [one] tent [to another]. ⁶ In all places in which I have walked with all Yisra'el, spoke I a word with any of the judges of Yisra'el, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? ⁷ Now therefore thus shall you tell my servant David, Thus says the LORD of Hosts, I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Yisra'el: ⁸ and I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a name, like the name of the great ones who are in the eretz. ⁹ I will appoint a place for my people Yisra'el, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the first, ¹⁰ and [as] from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Yisra'el; and I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I tell you that the LORD will build you a house. ¹¹ It shall happen, when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who shall be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. ¹³ I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my lovingkindness away from him, as I took it from him that was before you; ¹⁴ but I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever. ¹⁵ According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Natan speak to David.

¹⁶ Then David the king went in, and sat before the LORD; and he said, Who am I, LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? ¹⁷ This was a small thing in your eyes, God; but you have 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, LORD God. ¹⁸ What can David [say] yet more to you concerning the honor which is done to your servant? for you know your servant. ¹⁹ LORD, for your servant's sake, and according to your own heart, have you worked all this greatness, to make known all [these] great things. ²⁰ LORD, there is none like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ²¹ What one nation in the eretz is like your people Yisra'el, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, to make you a name by great and awesome things, in driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeem out of Mitzrayim? ²² For your people Yisra'el did you make your own people forever; and you, LORD, became their God. ²³ Now, LORD, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as you have spoken. ²⁴ Let your name be established and magnified forever, saying, the LORD of Hosts is the God of Yisra'el, even a God to Yisra'el: and the house of David your servant is established before you. ²⁵ For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house: therefore has your servant found [in his heart] to pray before you. ²⁶ Now, LORD, you are God, and have promised this good thing to your servant: ²⁷ and now it has pleased you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you: for you, LORD, have blessed, and it is blessed forever.