"When thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, that shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever" (2 Sam. 7:12-16).

Since the land promise and the guarantee of Israel's future permanent possession of it precede the prediction concerning the Davidic dynasty, throne, and kingdom, and since, as we see from the quotation above, they are to continue "for ever," we may be absolutely certain that this oracle reaches into the future and includes the time when Israel, after her confession, is established in her land permanently and peacefully enjoys the fruit of her labors. Inasmuch as she will never be moved from it when the prophecy is fulfilled and the dynasty, throne, and kingdom of David are to continue "for ever" (nothing in this context nor in any parallel passage limits the expression for ever), one must understand that this prediction sweeps out into the future to the end of all earthly affairs.¹

Special attention must be given to verses 14-16. That Solomon stands in the foreground of verse 14 is evident from the details of the preceding verse, which mentions David's seed that should proceed out of his loins. Upon the death of his father, Solomon ascended the throne. Against the machinations of Adonijah (I Kings 2:13f) the Lord protected him so that he was able to say, "The Lord hath established his word that he spake; for I am risen up in the room of David my father" (I Kings 8:20). He built the temple as the Lord had foretold (I Kings 6:1; 8:15ff). In his old age he fell into gross idolatry, importing the foreign gods worshiped by his wives and building sanctuaries for them in the environs of Jerusalem. After his death the punishment came in the form of the rending of the kingdom by the revolt of the ten northern tribes. Thus the Lord punished him with the rods of men but did not withdraw His grace from him.

Notwithstanding the unmistakable reference to Solomon in these verses, the promises sweep out far beyond the life and times of this monarch. As evidence of this fact, note the threefold repetition of forever, the eternal duration of the seed of David, and the promise of the establishment of the throne and kingdom forever, which predictions incontrovertibly point beyond the time of Solomon.

The word seed refers to one's posterity and may indicate a single son, several children, or a succession of generations. The thought of its referring to several persons of the same generation is precluded by the fact that only one of David's descendants could sit upon the throne at a given time. Furthermore the idea of a succession of descendants is contained in the promise that the Lord would not withdraw His favor from David's posterity as He had taken it from Saul. The Lord declared that in case any of his sons should commit iniquity He would punish the disobedience but would continue His favor, transmitting it from father to son.

In this connection it becomes necessary to reemphasize the force of forever. As seen in footnote, 1, forever is limited by the data supplied in the context. In some instances it signifies eternal duration whereas in other passages it indicates a limited time. In Psalm 89:29, a passage dealing with this very promise, the Lord declared concerning David that, "His seed also will I make to endure forever, And his throne as the days of heaven." The parallel structure of this verse defines the meaning of forever, namely, as the days of heaven. Therefore the original promise relative to the continuance of David's seed guarantees the perpetuity of his dynasty as long as day and night continue. Since the throne and kingdom along with the seed of David are, according to this promise, to continue forever, we may be certain that they will continue as long as time on this earth lasts. "His seed shall endure for ever, And his throne as the sun before me" (Ps. 89:36).

Dr. C. F. Keil, in his excellent commentary on II Samuel, thoroughly discussed the meaning of the promise relative to the perpetuity of the Davidic dynasty and throne. "No earthly kingdom, and no posterity of any single man, has eternal duration like the heaven and the earth; but the different families of men become extinct, as the different earthly kingdoms perish, and other families and kingdoms take their place. The posterity of David, therefore, could only last forever by running out in a person who lives for ever, i.e., by culminating in the Messiah, who lives for ever, and of whose kingdom there is no end." History verifies Dr. Keil's contention. For instance, look at the table of nations given in the Torah (Gen. 10). Nearly every one of these peoples has passed into oblivion. Even the few which have survived to the present have undergone many changes by the introduction of new blood, by political upheavals, by conquests, and by changes in general. These changes and modifications have been so very great in the few cases surviving that they can hardly be recognized as the descendants of their ancient progenitors. And even among those which by a great stretch of the imagination may lay claim to a shadowy and doubtful identity with the past, there is not a single nation in which the royal house has continued to the present in unbroken succession.

Israel though a nation is not to be numbered with other peoples (Num. 23:9). She is not amenable² to the inviolable laws governing other nations. Her history from the call of Abraham to the present has constituted the abiding miracle in the presence of the peoples of earth. Laws higher than those operating among the Gentiles have kept and preserved the Chosen People to the present hour. Had this nation not been protected by the special providence of the Almighty, it would be but a memory. But in order that all families of the earth may be blessed, God has preserved it to the present and will continue to do so as long as time lasts.

The God of Israel, the author of the special providences preserving the nation, promises, in the passage under review, the same protection to, preservation and perpetuity of the royal house of David. The fulfillment of this promise immediately becomes evident by comparing the history of the changing dynasties in Samaria with the unbroken succession of the Davidic house in Jerusalem. The same political storms and military gales that constantly wrecked the kingdom of Ephraim and brought about a change of dynasty beat with equal force against the little kingdom of Judah and the royal house of David, yet during all that time this divinely chosen dynasty remained intact. Even the collapse of Judah at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and the consequent Babylonian exile were not infractions of the inviolability of the covenant with David. They constituted chastisement for iniquity but not the withdrawal of favor from the reigning house. Zerubbabel who led the captives back from Babylon and supervised the restoration of the Davidic kingdom was a prince of the house of David, the rightful heir to the throne. Though restored to national life under Cyrus the Persian, Judah never again enjoyed political independence except for a very brief time under the leadership of the Maccabees. During the supremacy of Persia, Greece, and Rome, even to the destruction of the national life by Titus, Judah remained, in succession, a subject of each of these great powers. This foreign domination constituted the chastisement mentioned in the promise, yet the house of David continued even to the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 of the common era, as is evident from the genealogical tables. Therefore the covenant remains unbroken and continues intact.

Dr. Keil has shown us in the quotation above that the only way in which the house of David can continue forever is by its ending in a single person who lives forever. The only one in which the line can thus culminate is Messiah whose nature and person, as we have already seen, make His living forever possible. Hence we must conclude that, though Solomon stood in the foreground of this prophetic picture, Messiah in His glory and power appeared on the distant horizon. Between them, however, was seen the succession of Davidic princes who in an imperfect manner typified Him and above whom He towered in grandeur and excellence.

In the preceding section we learned that the covenant made by the Lord with David vouchsafed to him the perpetuity of his house and that this continuity is accomplished by the running out of the royal line in a person who lives forever, that is, "by culminating in the Messiah, who lives for ever, and of whose kingdom there is no end." In thus interpreting this passage I endeavored to ascertain only the facts of the context and their implications. It is now proper to test the conclusions reached by comparing them with the inspired interpretation given by the sacred historian in I Chronicles 17.

All of the facts preserved to us indicate that the chronicler wrote his history after the Babylonian captivity. (See II Chronicles 36:22,23.) Therefore approximately five hundred years intervened between the making of the covenant and the writing of Chronicles. Some of the details given in the original of II Samuel 7 are omitted from the Chronicles account. This phenomenon is to be expected. According to the laws of evidence, which may be examined in any standard work on the subject, the testimony of witnesses which agrees in the main but differs in details is of the highest order. The agreement is due to the sameness of the person or thing to which testimony is borne, whereas the differences are traceable to the individualities and experiences of the witnesses. A recognition of this fact and an application of the laws of evidence bearing on the points involved satisfactorily explain the seeming discrepancies.

One of the basic principles of the gradual unfolding of the revelation of God throws additional light upon the differences between the original covenant and the chronicler's version of it. The Lord, our maker, understands psychology and the best method of presenting His truth to us. According to the fundamentals of this science, the efficient teacher advances from the simple to the complex, from the near to the remote, and from the general to the specific. Thus the divine Spirit in the original statement of the covenant laid the emphasis upon the simple, the near, and the general (II Sam. 7), but in His later utterance (I Chron. 17), which assumes the development we know took place during the five hundred intervening years, He dealt with the complex, the remote, and the specific. As we shall see in the discussion of the predictions of Isaiah, an advance was made during the monarchal period of Israel's history toward the completion of the portrait of Messiah. Hence the definiteness of the revelations made concerning Him in this intervening period should appear in the chronicler's version. We should be disappointed indeed had he lagged behind the development and presented the exact portrait found in Samuel's account. On the contrary, as we shall presently see, the divine Spirit presented through him a portrait of Messiah in keeping with the development of his day.

1. Discussion of vital variations

"When thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, that shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever."

כִּי יִמְלְאוּ יָמֶיךָ וְשָׁכַבְתָּ אֶת־אֲבֹתֶיךָ וַהֲקִימֹתִי אֶת־זַרְעֲךָ אַחֲרֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר יֵצֵא מִמֵּעֶיךָ וַהֲכִינֹתִי אֶת־מַמְלַכְתּוֹ׃ הוּא יִבְנֶה־בַּיִת לִשְׁמִי וְכֹנַנְתִּי אֶת־כִּסֵּא מַמְלַכְתּוֹ עַד־עוֹלָם׃ אֲנִי אֶהְיֶה־לּוֹ לְאָב וְהוּא יִהְיֶה־לִּי לְבֵן אֲשֶׁר בְּהַעֲוֹתוֹ וְהֹכַחְתִּיו בְּשֵׁבֶט אֲנָשִׁים וּבְנִגְעֵי בְּנֵי אָדָם׃ וְחַסְדִּי לֹא־יָסוּר מִמֶּנּוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר הֲסִרֹתִי מֵעִם שָׁאוּל אֲשֶׁר הֲסִרֹתִי מִלְּפָנֶיךָ׃ וְנֶאְמַן בֵּיתְךָ וּמַמְלַכְתְּךָ עַד־עוֹלָם לְפָנֶיךָ: כִּסְאֲךָ יִהְיֶה נָכוֹן עַד־עוֹלָם׃