1 When David was settled in his palace, he summoned Nathan the prophet. “Look,” David said, “I am living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of the lord’s Covenant is out there under a tent!”
2 Nathan replied to David, “Do whatever you have in mind, for God is with you.”
3 But that same night God said to Nathan,
4 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the lord has declared: You are not the one to build a house for me to live in.
5 I have never lived in a house, from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day. My home has always been a tent, moving from one place to another in a Tabernacle.
6 Yet no matter where I have gone with the Israelites, I have never once complained to Israel’s leaders, the shepherds of my people. I have never asked them, “Why haven’t you built me a beautiful cedar house?”’