14. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he sins, I will use other people to punish him. They will be my whips.
15. But I will never stop loving him. I will continue to be loyal to him. I took away my love and kindness from Saul. I pushed Saul away when I turned to you.
16. Your family of kings will continue—you can depend on that! For you, your kingdom will continue forever! Your throne will stand forever!’”
17. Nathan told David about that vision. He told David everything God had said.
18. Then King David went in and sat in front of the Lord. David said, “Lord GOD, why am I so important to you? Why is my family important? Why have you made me so important?
19. I am nothing but a servant, but Lord GOD, you have also said these kind things about my future family. Lord GOD, you don’t always talk like this to people, do you?
20. How can I continue talking to you? Lord GOD, you know that I am only a servant.
21. You will do all these wonderful things because you said you would do them and because you want to do them. And you decided to let me know about all these things.
22. Lord GOD, this is why you are so great! There is no one like you. There is no god except you! We know that because of what we ourselves have heard about what you did.
23. “And there is no nation on earth like your people, Israel. They are a special people. They were slaves, but you took them out of Egypt and made them free. You made them your people. You did great and wonderful things for the Israelites and for your land.
24. You made the people of Israel your very own people forever, and Lord, you became their God.
25. “Now, Lord God, you promised to do something for me, your servant, and for my family. Now please do what you promised—make my family a family of kings forever!