Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Samuel 7

Had given him rest. —No intimation is given of how long this may have been after the events narrated in the last chapter; but it is evident that this narrative is placed here, not because it followed chronologically, but because it is closely related in subject, and the historian, after telling of the removal of the ark, wished to record in that connection David’s further purposes in the same direction.

It must have been after the successful close of David’s principal foreign wars—rest round about from all his enemies—and the future in 2 Samuel 7:10 does not necessarily imply that it was before the birth of Solomon; yet it is more likely to have been in a time of quiet prosperity, before the troubles of his latter years.

Nathan. —This is the first mention of him, but he was already a confidential counsellor of the king, and became prominent later in this reign and at the beginning of Solomon's reign (2 Samuel 12:1; 1 Kings 1:10; 1 Kings 1:12; 1 Kings 1:34; 1 Kings 1:38). Nathan “the prophet” and Gad “the seer” wrote parts of the history of this and the succeeding reign (1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29).

Within curtains. —This is the word used in Exodus 26:1, 36 for the covering of the tabernacle. The ark was not now within that, but in a similar temporary structure. David’s heart is moved by a comparison of his own royal residence with the inferior provision for the ark. Compare the opposite state of things among the returned exiles in Haggai 1:10.

Go, do all that is in thine heart. —Nathan naturally considered that it must be right for David to execute his pious purpose; but he spoke only according to his own sense of right, and not by Divine direction.

That night. —The night following Nathan’s conversation with David, when the prophet’s mind would have been full of what he had heard, and thus prepared for the Divine communication. That communication is distinctly marked as coming from a source external to the prophet himself, by its being in direct opposition to his own view already expressed.

Are you to build? —The question implies the negative, as it is expressed in 1 Chronicles 17:5, and as it is here translated in the Septuagint and Syriac.

After David was told that he would not be allowed to build a temple for God as he desired, he was promised that God would make a sure house for him and would accept the building of the temple from his son.

David is called “my servant,” an expression used only for those eminent and faithful in the service of God, such as Moses and Joshua. This shows—as, in fact, the whole message does—that the prohibition conveyed nothing of Divine displeasure, but no reason for it is expressed here.

But in David’s parting charge to Solomon (1 Chronicles 22:8), and to the heads of the nation (1 Chronicles 28:3), he says, “the word of the Lord came to him,” giving as the reason, because thou hast shed much blood on the earth, and hast been a man of war. Those wars had been necessary under the circumstances in which he was placed and had never been disapproved by God; still, the mere fact that he had been a man of blood unfitted him for this sacred office.

Two reasons for the prohibition are found by nearly all commentators in this message itself:

• That God must first build a house for David before he could properly build a temple for God.
• That the kingdom was not yet sufficiently established and peaceful for a temple to be built.

But neither of these is assigned as a reason in the Divine word, and it is better to keep only to what is assigned, however these other facts may convince us of the fitness and propriety of the postponement of David’s purpose.