1 Chronicles 17:4-6

17:4 “Go, tell my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord says: “You must not build me a house in which to live. 17:5 For I have not lived in a house from the time I brought Israel up from Egypt ¹  to the present day. I have lived in a tent that has been in various places. ²  17:6 Wherever I moved throughout Israel, I did not say ³  to any of the leaders whom I appointed to care for my people Israel, ⁴  ‘Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?’”’

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¹ tn The words “from Egypt” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

² tc Heb “and I was from tent to tent and from tabernacle.” The words אֶל־מִשְּׁכָּן (’el-mishÿkan, “to tabernacle”) should probably be added at the end of the sentence to complete this prepositional phrase and produce symmetry with the preceding prepositional phrase. The words probably fell from the text by homoioteleuton.

sn I have lived in a tent that has been in various places. The point here is that the Lord moved with the tabernacle as it moved from place to place; he did not confine himself to a particular location.

³ tn In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question (“Did I say?”) meaning “I did not say.”

⁴ tn Heb “to one of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people.”