2 Samuel 7:16

7:4-17 Blessings are promised to the family and posterity of David. These promises relate to Solomon, David's immediate successor, and the royal line of Judah. But they also relate to Christ, who is often called David and the Son of David. To him God gave all power in heaven and earth, with authority to execute judgment. He was to build the gospel temple, a house for God's name; the spiritual temple of true believers, to be a habitation of God through the Spirit. The establishing of his house, his throne, and his kingdom for ever, can be applied to no other than to Christ and his kingdom: David's house and kingdom long since came to an end. The committing iniquity cannot be applied to the Messiah himself, but to his spiritual seed; true believers have infirmities, for which they must expect to be corrected, though they are not cast off.

And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee,.... That is, both his family and his government should be perpetuated, or he should always have one of his family to sit upon his throne; the accomplishment of which, in the beginning of it, he saw with his eyes in his son Solomon, and with an eye of faith in his greater Son the Messiah, in whom only these words will have their complete fulfilment; and so Abarbinel says this vision or prophecy is explained by some of the days of the Messiah; and this house and kingdom, in 1 Chronicles 17:14 ; are called by the Lord "my" house, and "my" kingdom: thy throne shall be established for ever; which is a repetition of the same in other words for the confirmation of it.

(16) Established. —Two different Hebrew words are so translated in this verse. The first is the same word as that used in 2Samuel 7:12-13 , while the second is translated sure in 1Samuel 2:35 ; Isaiah 55:3 , and would be better rendered here also made sure. Before thee.—The LXX. has unnecessarily changed this to before me. The thought is, that David is now made the head of the line in which shall be fulfilled the primeval promise “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” This was originally given simply to the human race (Genesis 3:15); then restricted to the nation descended from Abraham (Genesis 22:18, &c); then limited to the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10, comp. Ezekiel 21:27), and now its fulfilment is promised in the family of David.

16 . thy kingdom shall be stablished ] Better, thy kingdom shall be made sure. Two different words are translated “shall be stablished” in this verse. The second corresponds to that in 2 Samuel 7:13 : the first is that rendered in 1 Samuel 2:35 , “a sure house, and in Isaiah 55:3 , “the sure mercies of David.” before thee ] The explanation that “David is regarded as seeing all his descendants pass before him in a vision,” is forced, and it is best to follow the LXX. in reading before me. This reading moreover seems to be required by 2 Samuel 7:26; 2 Samuel 7:29 . 2 Samuel 7:16

My mercy shall not depart ... - Hence, Isaiah's saying, the sure mercies of David Isaiah 55:3 , i. e. unfailing, lasting mercies: mercies which are like streams of water that never dry up Isaiah 33:16 ; Jeremiah 15:18 . This is explained in 2 Samuel 7:16 , where the word established is the same word as is rendered sure in Isaiah. Before thee - Before Me is probably the true reading in 2 Samuel 7:15-16 (if the rest of the text be sound), according to the analogy of Jeremiah 35:19; 1 Samuel 2:30, 1 Samuel 2:35; and many other places; whereas the idea contained in the reading, before thee, is unparalleled. But the reading in 1 Chronicles 17:13 is quite different: "As I took it from him that was before thee," meaning Saul, which gives a very good sense, and suggests that the text here may have been corrupted.

Before thee; thine eyes in some sort beholding it; for he lived to see his wise and godly son Solomon actually placed in the throne, with great reputation and general applause, 1 Kings 1:39,40 , which was in itself a good presage of the continuance of the kingdom in his family; and being considered, together with the infallible certainty of God’s promise to him and his for ever, of the accomplishment whereof this was an earnest, gave him good assurance thereof; especially considering that he had his eyes and thoughts upon the Messia, Psalm 90:1 , &c., whose day he saw by faith, as Abraham did, John 8:56 , and whom he knew that God would raise out of the fruit of his loins to sit on his throne , as is affirmed, Acts 2:30 , and that for ever: and so the eternity of his kingdom is rightly said to be before him. The LXX. and Syriac read before me , which is a usual phrase, which makes no great variation in the Hebrew text.

13. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever—This declaration referred, in its primary application, to Solomon, and to the temporal kingdom of David's family. But in a larger and sublimer sense, it was meant of David's Son of another nature (Heb 1:8). [See on [270]1Ch 17:14.]

"I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me; so that if he go astray, I shall chastise him with rods of men, and with strokes of the children of men (i.e., not 'with moderate punishment, such as parents are accustomed to inflict,' as Clericus explains it, but with such punishments as are inflicted upon all men who go astray, and from which even the seed of David is not to be excepted). But my mercy shall not depart from him, as I caused it to depart from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever." It is very obvious, from all the separate details of this promise, that it related primarily to Solomon, and had a certain fulfilment in him and his reign. On the death of David, his son Solomon ascended the throne, and God defended his kingdom against the machinations of Adonijah ( 1 Kings 2:12 ); so that Solomon was able to say, "The Lord hath fulfilled His word that He spoke; for I have risen up in the stead of my father David," etc. ( 1 Kings 8:20 ). Solomon built the temple, as the Lord said to David ( 1 Kings 6:1 ; 1 Kings 8:15 .). But in his old age Solomon sinned against the Lord by falling into idolatry; and as a punishment for this, after his death his kingdom was rent from his son, not indeed entirely, as one portion was still preserved to the family for David's sake ( 1 Kings 11:9 .).

Thus the Lord punished him with rods of men, but did not withdraw from him His grace. At the same time, however unmistakeable the allusions to Solomon are, the substance of the promise is not fully exhausted in him. The threefold repetition of the expression "for ever," the establishment of the kingdom and throne of David for ever, points incontrovertibly beyond the time of Solomon, and to the eternal continuance of the seed of David. The word seed denotes the posterity of a person, which may consist either in one son or in several children, or in a long line of successive generations. The idea of a number of persons living at the same time, is here precluded by the context of the promise, as only one of David's successors could sit upon the throne at a time. On the other hand, the idea of a number of descendants following one another, is evidently contained in the promise, that God would not withdraw His favour from the seed, even if it went astray, as He had done from Saul, since this implies that even in that case the throne should be transmitted from father to son. There is still more, however, involved in the expression "for ever." When the promise was given that the throne of the kingdom of David should continue "to eternity," an eternal duration was also promised to the seed that should occupy this throne, just as in 2 Samuel 7:16 the house and kingdom of David are spoken of as existing for ever, side by side.