Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Chronicles 17
⁴ “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD has declared: You are not the one to build a house for me to live in.
⁵ I have never lived in a house, from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day. My home has always been a tent, moving from one place to another in a Tabernacle.
⁶ Yet no matter where I have gone with the Israelites, I have never once complained to Israel’s leaders, the shepherds of my people. I have never asked them, “Why haven’t you built me a beautiful cedar house?”’
⁷ “Now go and say to my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I took you from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel.
⁸ I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before your eyes. Now I will make your name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on the earth!
⁹ And I will provide a homeland for my people Israel, planting them in a secure place where they will never be disturbed. Evil nations won’t oppress them as they’ve done in the past,
¹⁰ starting from the time I appointed judges to rule my people Israel. And I will defeat all your enemies. “‘Furthermore, I declare that the LORD will build a house for you—a dynasty of kings!
¹¹ For when you die and join your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, one of your sons, and I will make his kingdom strong.
¹² He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for me. And I will secure his throne forever.
¹³ I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my favor from him as I took it from the one who ruled before you.
¹⁴ I will confirm him as king over my house and my kingdom for all time, and his throne will be secure forever.’”