David Plans to Build a Temple

7 Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, ² that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains.” ³ Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your mind, for the Lord is with you.”

⁴ But in the same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, ⁵ “Go and say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Are you the one who should build Me a house to dwell in? ⁶ For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; but I have been moving about in a tent, even in a ^[a]tabernacle. ⁷ Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’”’

God’s Covenant with David

⁸ “Now therefore, thus you shall say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people Israel. ⁹ 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 great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. ¹⁰ I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the ^[b]wicked afflict them any more as formerly, ¹¹ even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. ¹² When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your ^[c]descendant after you, who will come forth from ^[d]you, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, ¹⁵ but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom shall endure before ^[e]Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’” ¹⁷ In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

David’s Prayer

¹⁸ Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord, and he said, “Who am I, O Lord ^[f]God, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far? ¹⁹ And yet this was insignificant in Your eyes, O Lord God, for You have spoken also of the house of Your servant concerning the distant future. And this is the ^[g]custom of man, O Lord God. ²⁰ Again what more can David say to You? For You know Your servant, O Lord God! ²¹ For the sake of Your word, and according to Your own heart, You have done all this greatness to let Your servant know. ²² For this reason You are great, O Lord God; for there is none like You, and there is no God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ²³ And what one nation on the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people and to make a name for Himself, and to do a great thing for You and awesome things for Your land, before Your people whom You have redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from nations and their gods? ²⁴ For You have established for Yourself Your people Israel as Your own people forever, and You, O Lord, have become their God. ²⁵ Now therefore, O Lord God, the word that You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house, confirm it forever, and do as You have spoken, ²⁶ that Your name may be magnified forever, by saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel’; and may the house of Your servant David be established before You. ²⁷ For You, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have ^[h]made a revelation to Your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house’; therefore Your servant has found ^[i]courage to pray this prayer to You. ²⁸ Now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are truth, and You have ^[j]promised this good thing to Your servant. ²⁹ Now therefore, may it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue forever before You. For You, O Lord God, have spoken; and with Your blessing may the house of Your servant be blessed forever.”

War against Jerusalem

7 Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not ^[a]conquer it. ² When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans ^[b]have camped in Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake ^[c]with the wind.

³ Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son ^[d]Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the ^[e]fuller’s field, ⁴ and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. ⁵ Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying, ⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and ^[f]terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in ^[g]its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” ⁷ thus says the Lord ^[h]God: “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. ⁸ For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people), ⁹ and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall not ^[i]last.”’”

The Child Immanuel

¹⁰ Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹ “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ^[j]make it deep as Sheol or high as ^[k]heaven.” ¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” ¹³ Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a ^[l]virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name ^[m]Immanuel. ¹⁵ He will eat curds and honey ^[n]at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. ¹⁶ For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

Trials to Come for Judah

¹⁷ The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria.”

¹⁸ In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the ^[o]remotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹ They will all come and settle on the steep ^[p]ravines, on the ledges of the cliffs, on all the thorn bushes and on all the ^[q]watering places.

²⁰ In that day the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from regions beyond the ^[r]Euphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

²¹ Now in that day a man may keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep; ²² and because of the abundance of the milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will eat curds and honey.

²³ And it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns. ²⁴ People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns. ²⁵ As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for ^[s]pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.