1 Chronicles 17 · a question people ask
Why didn't the LORD let David build the house?
1 Chronicles 17 gives the LORD's own words and no other reason. "You shall not build me a house to dwell in" (17:4). "For I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tent to another" (17:5). He asks whether he ever said to any of the judges of Israel, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" (17:6). And of David's offspring he says, "He will build me a house" (17:12). Later in this same book David tells more. To Solomon he gives the LORD's word to him: "You have shed blood abundantly and have made great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight" (1 Chronicles 22:8). To the leaders of Israel (1 Chronicles 28:1) he says, "But God said to me, ‘You shall not build a house for my name, because you are a man of war and have shed blood.’" (1 Chronicles 28:3). Each passage says what it says; chapter 17 itself gives only the LORD's words above. 2 Samuel 7's honest question sets these beside 1 Kings 5:3 too.
The verses
““Go and tell David my servant, ‘The LORD says, “You shall not build me a house to dwell in; for I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tent to another. In all places in which I have walked with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”’”
“He will build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.”
“Then he called for Solomon his son, and commanded him to build a house for the LORD, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon his son, “As for me, it was in my heart to build a house to the name of the LORD my God. But the LORD’s word came to me, saying, ‘You have shed blood abundantly and have made great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.”
““You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the wars which were around him on every side, until the LORD put his enemies under the soles of his feet.”