The Daily Audio Bible

God gives promises to David

7 The king was living in his palace. The Lord kept him safe from all his enemies everywhere. ² One day, the king said to Nathan the prophet, ‘I am living in a beautiful palace that is made of cedar wood. But God's Covenant Box still has a tent for its home!’

³ Nathan replied to the king, ‘Do what you think is right. The Lord will help you.’

⁴ But that night the Lord said to Nathan, ⁵ ‘Go and tell my servant David,

“The Lord says this: Do not think that you are the right man to build a house for me to live in. ⁶ From the time that I brought Israel's people out of Egypt until now, I have never lived in a house. While my people moved from place to place, I travelled with them. I lived in a tent as my home. ⁷ I have moved about to many different places with the Israelite people. I chose leaders to take care of Israel's tribes, like shepherds for them. But in all that time, I never said to any of the leaders, ‘You should have built a beautiful house of cedar wood for me.’

⁸ So tell my servant David that the Lord Almighty says this: I took you from the fields where you were taking care of sheep. I took you from there to become the ruler of my people Israel. ⁹ I have been with you everywhere that you have gone. I destroyed all your enemies that were attacking you. Now I will make you famous. Your name will be as great as the names of the earth's greatest men.

¹⁰ I have chosen a place where my people Israel will live. I have put them in that place, where they can be safe. They will not be afraid of trouble from any enemy. Wicked people will not hurt them any more. That happened in the past, ¹¹ from the time that I chose leaders to rule my people Israel. But now I will keep you safe from all your enemies.

I, the Lord, say to you, David: I will give you descendants who will rule as kings after you. That will be the royal house that I build for you! ¹² When you die, people will bury you in the grave of your ancestors. Then I will choose your descendant, one of your own sons, to become king. I will make his kingdom strong. ¹³ He is the man who will build a house for me. People will give honour to my name there. I will cause his descendants to rule as kings for ever. ¹⁴ I will be his father and he will be my son. When he does something wrong, I will punish him, so that he learns to do what is right. I will punish him in the way that human fathers punish their sons. ¹⁵ I removed my faithful love from Saul, and I removed him as king before you. But I will always continue to faithfully love your son. ¹⁶ The kingdom that your descendants rule will continue for ever. Someone from your family will always be king.” ’

¹⁷ Nathan told David the whole message that God had shown to him.

David prays

¹⁸ Then King David went into the Lord's tent.^[a] He sat down and he prayed to the Lord.

He said, ‘Almighty Lord, I am not a special person and my family is not special. You have helped me very much and I do not deserve it. ¹⁹ You have also made a promise about the descendants in my family, Almighty Lord. You have promised to help them in the future, as well as me. I am only a man but you have shown this to me, Almighty Lord.

²⁰ I am your servant, Almighty Lord, and you know me completely. There is nothing more that I can say. ²¹ Because of your covenant you have chosen to do all these great things. You have told me, your servant, what you promise to do. ²² Almighty Lord, you are very great. There is nobody like you. You alone are God. What we have heard about you is true! ²³ There is no other nation on earth like your people, Israel. We are the only nation that you have rescued so that we would belong to you. You did that to show that your name is great. You did great miracles to rescue your people from Egypt where they were slaves. Then you chased out other nations and their gods from the land that you were giving to your people. ²⁴ You chose Israel to be your own people for all time. You, Lord, became our God.

²⁵ Lord God, please do the things that you have promised to do for me, your servant, and for my family. Continue to do for ever what you have promised to do. ²⁶ Then people will always give honour to your great name. They will say, “The Lord Almighty is the God who rules over Israel!” And David's descendants will continue to serve you as kings.

²⁷ Lord Almighty, Israel's God, you have made this promise to me, your servant. You have said to me, “You will always have descendants who will rule. That is the house that I will build for you.” That is why I am not afraid to pray to you like this.

²⁸ Almighty Lord, you are the true God. We trust your promises. You have promised these good things to me, your servant. ²⁹ I pray that you will be pleased to bless my family and my descendants. Then we will serve you faithfully for ever. Almighty Lord, you have promised to do this. So I know that you will continue to bless my descendants for ever.’

David wins more fights^[b]

8 Some time later, David attacked the Philistines, and he won the fight against them. He now had power over them and over their towns.

² David also won a battle against the Moabites. He made the Moabite prisoners lie down on the ground. Then he used a piece of rope to measure them into groups. When he had measured two groups, he would tell his men to kill all those prisoners. When he measured the next group, he would let those prisoners stay alive. So the Moabites were now under David's authority and they began to pay taxes to him.

³ David also won a battle against Rehob's son, Hadadezer, king of Zobah. This happened when Hadadezer took his army to the Euphrates river to show that he had authority there. ⁴ David took from Hadadezer 1,700 men who drove chariots. He also caught 20,000 of Hadadezer's other soldiers. David kept 100 of the horses that pulled chariots. But he cut the legs of the other horses so that they could not run.

⁵ The Syrians from Damascus sent an army to help King Hadadezer of Zobah. But David killed 22,000 soldiers of the Syrian army. ⁶ David put groups of his soldiers in Damascus to be guards over the Syrian people. So the Syrians were now under David's authority and they paid taxes to him. The Lord helped David to win all the battles that he fought.

⁷ David took the gold shields that Hadadezer's officers had carried. He brought the shields to Jerusalem. ⁸ David also took a lot of bronze things from Tebah and Berothai, towns that had belonged to Hadadezer.

⁹ Toi, the king of Hamath, heard news that David had won the battle against the whole army of Hadadezer. ¹⁰ There had been a war between King Hadadezer and King Toi. So now Toi sent his son, Joram to say ‘hello’ to David. He wanted to thank David because he had won the battle against King Hadadezer. Joram brought gifts to David that were made of gold, silver and bronze.

¹¹ David took these gifts and he offered them to the Lord. He also offered to the Lord all the silver and gold things that he had taken from other nations. Those were all the nations that David had won against in battle. ¹² They included Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines and the Amalekites. He also offered to the Lord things that he had taken from Rehob's son, King Hadadezer of Zobah.

¹³ After that, David's army won a battle in the Valley of Salt against 18,000 Edomites. David became very famous because of that. ¹⁴ He put groups of his soldiers in every part of Edom's land, so that David had authority over all the Edomites. The Lord helped David to win all the battles that he fought.

David's officers

¹⁵ David ruled over all Israel. He did everything that was right and fair for all his people. ¹⁶ Zeruiah's son, Joab, was the leader of Israel's army. Ahilud's son, Jehoshaphat, wrote down the important things that happened. ¹⁷ Ahitub's son Zadok and Abiathar's son Ahimelech were priests. Seraiah was David's secretary. ¹⁸ Jehoiada's son Benaiah was the leader of David's personal guards.^[c] David's sons served as priests.^[d]

Jesus promises to send God's Spirit

¹⁵ Jesus then said, ‘If you love me, do what I have told you to do. ¹⁶ I will ask the Father to help you with this. He will send another Helper to be with you. That Helper will stay with you for ever. ¹⁷ He is God's Spirit and he shows you what is true. The people who belong to this world cannot receive him. That is because they cannot see him. They cannot know who he is. But you know him because he stays with you. And he will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not let you remain alone, like children without parents. I will come to you.

¹⁹ Soon, the people who belong to this world will not see me any more. But you will see me. Because I continue to live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day, you will know that I am in my Father. You will know that you are in me and I am in you. ²¹ Those people who obey my commands are the ones who really love me. They accept my words and they do what I say. My Father will love everyone who loves me. I also will love them and I will show myself to them.’

²² Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, ‘Lord, why will you show yourself only to us? Why will you not show yourself also to the people who belong to this world?’

²³ Jesus replied, ‘Everyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them. And my Father and I will come to them and we will make our home with them. ²⁴ Anyone who does not love me will not obey my message. These words that you hear are not my own. No, they come from the Father, who sent me. ²⁵ I have said these things to you while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Father will send the Holy Spirit to be with you. He will be your Helper. He will come in my name, and he will teach you all things.^[a] He will help you to remember everything that I have told you.

²⁷ I will go away but I will give you a gift of peace. It is mine to give and yours to keep. It is not like a gift that this world gives. Do not let yourselves be sad. Do not be afraid. ²⁸ You heard me say to you, “I will go away, but I will return to you.” If you loved me, you would be happy because of that. You would be happy because I will go to the Father. And he is greater than I am. ²⁹ I have told you this now, before it happens. So then, when it does happen, you will believe. ³⁰ I will not talk with you much more, because the ruler of this world will come soon. He has no power over me. ³¹ But the people who belong to this world must learn about me. They must know that I love the Father. I do everything that he tells me to do. I must show that to them. Now get up, we must go from here.’

HE

WAW