1. When David was settled in his palace, he summoned Nathan the prophet. “Look,” David said, “I am living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of the lord’s Covenant is out there under a tent!”
2. Nathan replied to David, “Do whatever you have in mind, for God is with you.”
3. But that same night God said to Nathan,
4. “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the lord has declared: You are not the one to build a house for me to live in.
5. I have never lived in a house, from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day. My home has always been a tent, moving from one place to another in a Tabernacle.
6. Yet no matter where I have gone with the Israelites, I have never once complained to Israel’s leaders, the shepherds of my people. I have never asked them, “Why haven’t you built me a beautiful cedar house?”’
7. “Now go and say to my servant David, ‘This is what the lord of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I took you from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel.