2 Samuel 7 Introduction

Structure and Formatting

This chapter continues the story of what David did as the king of Israel. It describes how he wanted to build a temple (a “house”) for Yahweh, but Yahweh told him that he would build a dynasty (a “house”) for David by having his descendants succeed him as king.

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Multiple levels of quotation in Yahweh’s message to Nathan in [7:5–16](../07/05.md)

Yahweh speaks a message to the prophet Nathan in [verses 5–16](../07/05.md). Within this message, there are second-level, third-level, and fourth-level quotations. In other words, the entire message is something that Yahweh said and that the author is quoting, so it is a first-level quotation. But within it, Yahweh tells Nathan what he should say, so that is a quotation within a quotation, or a second-level quotation. Yahweh tells Nathan that he should tell David that Yahweh says something, and that is a third-level quotation. Within it, there is a further direct quotation, which is a fourth-level one. Your language may use quotation marks or some other punctuation or convention to indicate various levels of quotation. The ULT models one way to do that. You could also translate the whole message in such a way that there are not quotations within quotations. The UST models one way to do that.

David referring to himself in the third person in [7:19–29](../07/19.md)

As David responds to the message that Yahweh sent him through the prophet Nathan, he often speaks of himself in the third person as your servant to show humility. If it would be helpful in your language, you could translate this in a humble form in the first person throughout these verses.