God’s Covenant with David^(A)

17 Now ^(B)it came to pass, when David was dwelling in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under tent curtains.”

³ But it happened that night that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, ⁴ “Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “You shall ^(A)not build Me a house to dwell in.

¹¹ And it shall be, when your days are ^(A)fulfilled, when you must ^[a]go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your ^(B)seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. ^12 (C)He shall build Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. ^13 (D)I will be his Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy away from him, ^(E)as I took it from him who was before you. ¹⁴ And ^(F)I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”

¹⁸ Therefore, the ^(A)angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

²¹ So David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David. And he went out from the threshing floor, and bowed before David with his face to the ground. ²² Then David said to Ornan, ^[a]“Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. You shall grant it to me at the full price, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”

²³ But Ornan said to David, “Take it to yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. Look, I also give you the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing implements for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I give it all.”

²⁴ Then King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.” ²⁵ So ^(A)David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. ²⁶ And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord; and ^(B)He answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering.

²⁷ So the Lord commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.