1 Chronicles 17:2

Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) Do.—Samuel, “Go, do.”

All that is in thine heart.—According to Hebrew ideas, the heart was the seat of the mind and will, as well as of the emotions. But even the great Greek Aristotle, seven centuries later than David, supposed the brain to be merely a kind of cooling counterpoise to the heat of the liver.

God.—Samuel, “Jehovah;” but in last verse,” ark of God.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:1-27 David's purposes; God's gracious promises. - This chapter is the same as 2Sa 7. See what is there said upon it. It is very observable that what in Samuel is said to be, for thy word's sake, is here said to be, "for thy servant's sake," ver. 19. Jesus Christ is both the Word of God, Re 19:13, and the Servant of God, Isa 42:1; and it is for his sake, upon account of his mediation, that the promises are made good to all believers; it is in him, that they are yea and amen. For His sake it is done, for his sake it is made known; to him we owe all this greatness, from him we are to expect all these great things. They are the unsearchable riches of Christ, which, if by faith we see in themselves, and see in the Lord Jesus, we cannot but magnify as the only true greatness, and speak honourably of them. For this blessedness may we look amidst the trials of life, and when we feel the hand of death upon us; and seek it for our children after us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare throughout 2 Samuel 7 and the notes found there.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 17

1Ch 17:1-10. David Forbidden to Build God a House.

1. as David sat in his house—The details of this chapter were given in nearly similar terms (2Sa 7:1-29). The date was towards the latter end of David's reign, for it is expressly said in the former book to have been at the cessation of all his wars. But as to narrate the preparations for the removal of the ark and the erection of the temple was the principal object of the historian, the exact chronology is not followed.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

See Chapter Introduction

Geneva Study Bible

Then Nathan said unto David, Do {c} all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee.

(c) As yet God had not revealed to the prophet what he purposed concerning David, therefore seeing God favoured David, he spoke what he thought.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. in thine heart] The heart according to Heb. thought is the seat of intention and purpose.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - This verse gives Nathan's response on the spur of the moment. And that it was not radically wrong from a prophet may be inferred from the stress afterwards laid upon the acceptableness to God of what had been in the heart of David to do. Even with God, silence would sometimes be understood by a prophet to be equivalent to assent. 1 Chronicles 17:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In the Chronicle, as in 2 Samuel 7, the account of the removal of the ark to the city of David is immediately followed by the narrative of David's design to build a temple to the Lord; and this arrangement is adopted on account of the connection between the subjects, though the events must have been separated by a period of several years. Our account of this design of David's, with its results for him and for his kingdom, is in all essential points identical with the parallel account, so that we may refer to the commentary on 2 Samuel 7 for any necessary explanation of the matter. The difference between the two narratives are in great part of a merely formal kind; the author of the Chronicle having sought to make the narrative more intelligible to his contemporaries, partly by using later phrases current in his own time, such as אלהים for יהוה, מלכוּת for ממלכה, partly by simplifying and explaining the bolder and more obscure expressions. Very seldom do we find divergences in the subject-matter which alter the meaning or make it appear to be different. To supplement and complete the commentary already given in 2nd Samuel, we will now shortly treat of these divergences. In 1 Chronicles 17:1, the statement that David communicated his purpose to build a temple to the Lord to the prophet Nathan, "when Jahve had given him rest from all his enemies round about," is wanting. This clause, which fixes the time, has been omitted by the chronicler to avoid the apparent contradiction which would have arisen in case the narrative were taken chronologically, seeing that the greatest of David's wars, those against the Philistines, Syrians, and Ammonites, are narrated only in the succeeding chapter. As to this, cf. the discussion on 2 Samuel 7:1-3.