1. Now it happened as David dwelt in his house that he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am dwelling in a house of cedar while the ark of the Lord is under curtains.”
2. So Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”
3. But it happened on that same night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying,
4. Go and tell David My servant: Thus says the Lord: You will not build a house for Me to dwell in,
5. for I have not dwelt in a house since the day when I brought Israel up even until this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from tabernacle to tabernacle.
6. Wherever I have gone in all Israel, have I ever spoken a word to the any of the judges of Israel that I commanded to shepherd My people, saying, Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?
7. And now say this to My servant David: Thus says the Lord of Hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following after the flock, to be ruler over My people Israel,
8. and I have been with you wherever you went, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Also I will make your name like the names of the greatest on earth.
9. And I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and I will plant them there where they will dwell securely and tremble no more, so that the sons of wickedness will not oppress them just as before