Passage

2 Samuel 7.14

"I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men" (2 Samuel 7:14, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"12. 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. 13. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever."

"14. 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;"

"15. but my lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. 16. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever." (2 Samuel 7:12-16, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"12. When your days are fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13. He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever."

"14. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;"

"15. but my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. 16. Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever."'"" (2 Samuel 7:12-16, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"12. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. 13. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever."

"14. 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:"

"15. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. 16. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever." (2 Samuel 7:12-16, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"12. 'When thy days are full, and thou hast lain with thy fathers, then I have raised up thy seed after thee which goeth out from thy bowels, and have established his kingdom; 13. He doth build a house for My Name, and I have established the throne of his kingdom unto the age."

"14. I am to him for a father, and he is to Me for a son; whom in his dealings perversely I have even reproved with a rod of men, and with strokes of the sons of Adam,"

"15. and My kindness doth not turn aside from him, as I turned it aside from Saul, whom I turned aside from before thee, 16. and stedfast [is] thy house and thy kingdom unto the age before thee, thy throne is established unto the age.'" (2 Samuel 7:12-16, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: YHWH speaking through the prophet Nathan to David
Audience: David in his palace, after declining to build a temple
Location: Jerusalem, David's royal residence
Time period: events c. 1000 BC, during David's reign; composed c. 970-930 BC

Theological reading

2 Samuel 7 is the Davidic covenant chapter (see Davidic Covenant). David proposes to build a house (a temple) for YHWH; YHWH refuses and inverts the offer: He will build David a house (a dynasty, a royal line). Verse 14 supplies the covenant's adoption formula: "I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to Me."

The formula reads on two levels in the canonical scope of the OT and NT. The two readings are not in competition; the NT writers explicitly hold both.

(1) Historical-Solomonic reference. The immediate referent is Solomon, David's son who will build the temple v. 13 mentions ("he shall build a house for My name"). The conditional clause that follows ("when he commits iniquity, I will correct him") fits Solomon, who did commit iniquity (1 Kings 11) and whose kingdom was chastened by being divided after his death. The adoption-formula here is the dynastic-installation language by which YHWH binds Himself to the Davidic line. The parallel at 1 Chronicles 17.13 preserves the formula with the conditional clause omitted, foregrounding the unconditional promise dimension.

(2) Ultimate-Messianic reference. The author of Hebrews 1:5 quotes 2 Sam 7:14 directly as a Father-Son declaration about Christ, paired with Psalm 2:7 ("You are My Son, today I have begotten You"). The argument of Hebrews 1 is that the adoption-formula reaches its ultimate referent not in Solomon but in the eternal Son. The Davidic covenant's "your seed" (v. 12) is read by the NT as a near-far prophecy (see Two-Stage Messianic Prophecy): Solomon is the near fulfillment; Jesus the son of David is the far. The "throne established forever" clause of v. 13 is the load-bearing word for the dynastic-eternal reading: no Solomonic-only reading can support forever; the eternal son is required to fulfill the eternal throne.

The verse is load-bearing for the Davidic-messianic apologetic. The NT's repeated identification of Jesus as "son of David" (Matt 1:1; Mark 10:47-48; Luke 1:32; Rom 1:3; Rev 22:16) draws its theological warrant from 2 Sam 7. The covenant's three guarantees, a seed (v. 12), a house/temple (v. 13), and an everlasting throne (vv. 13, 16), are the structural skeleton on which the entire messianic expectation hangs. Jesus' Davidic ancestry (Matt 1; Luke 3) is not genealogical trivia; it is the canonical fulfillment of v. 12. The temple-builder note of v. 13 is fulfilled in the new-temple sense at John 2:19-22 (Jesus' body as the temple). The eternal-throne note of vv. 13, 16 is fulfilled in the resurrection-installation of Romans 1:3-4 and Acts 13:33-34.

The adoption-formula itself ("father... son") becomes the template for the believer's incorporation into Christ. Paul's "adoption as sons" (Eph 1:5; Rom 8:15) and 2 Cor 6:18's quotation of 2 Sam 7:14 ("I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me") extend the Davidic-covenant adoption-formula to all those in the messianic Son. The NT thus reads 2 Sam 7:14 in three concentric circles: Solomon (immediate), Christ (ultimate), and the church-in-Christ (derivative).

Key words

H0001 - ab, ab (H1), "father"; the adoption-formula's first half.
H1121 - ben, ben (H1121), "son"; the adoption-formula's second half.
zera (H2233), "seed, offspring"; the load-bearing covenant-noun of v. 12, ambiguous between near (Solomon) and far (the Messianic seed) referents.
H0120 - adam, adam; the "sons of men" clause that confines the chastening to ordinary-human means.

Theological themes

Davidic covenant. The covenant's three guarantees (seed, temple, eternal throne) frame messianic expectation.
Adoption formula. "Father to him... son to Me" becomes the template for messianic identification and, derivatively, for believers' adoption.
Two-stage fulfillment. Solomon is the near referent; Christ the far. NT writers (Hebrews 1, 2 Cor 6) hold both.
Conditional chastening within unconditional covenant. The "when he commits iniquity" clause assumes failure of the immediate referent without forfeiting the unconditional dynastic promise.

Cross-references

Hebrews 1.5, the NT quotation that applies the formula to Christ.
Psalms 2.7, the paired royal-installation oracle ("You are My Son, today I have begotten You").
Psalms 89.27, the Davidic-covenant rich-hub passage; "I shall make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth."
1 Chronicles 17.13, the Chronicles parallel that omits the conditional clause.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.