If you really do as I have commanded, then David's descendants will continue to be kings. And they, together with their officials and their people, will continue to pass through the gates of this palace in chariots and on horses.

Then tell them that I, the LORD, am going to fill the people in this land with wine until they are drunk: the kings, who are David's descendants, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem.

"This man is condemned to lose his children, to be a man who will never succeed. He will have no descendants who will rule in Judah as David's successors. I, the LORD, have spoken."

At that time I will choose as king a righteous descendant of David. That king will do what is right and just throughout the land.

I, the LORD, promise that there will always be a descendant of David to be king of Israel

In the same way I have made a covenant with my servant David that he would always have a descendant to be king, and I have made a covenant with the priests from the tribe of Levi that they would always serve me; and those covenants can never be broken.

You will always have descendants, and I will make your kingdom last forever. Your dynasty will never end.' "

If you will serve me in honesty and integrity, as your father David did, and if you obey my laws and do everything I have commanded you,

I will keep the promise I made to your father David when I told him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants.

His dynasty will be as permanent as the sky; a descendant of his will always be king.

if they disregard my instructions and do not keep my commandments,

But I will not stop loving David or fail to keep my promise to him.

"Once and for all I have promised by my holy name: I will never lie to David.

It will be as permanent as the moon, that faithful witness in the sky."

You made a solemn promise to David--- a promise you will not take back: "I will make one of your sons king, and he will rule after you.

If your sons are true to my covenant and to the commands I give them, their sons, also, will succeed you for all time as kings."

His royal power will continue to grow; his kingdom will always be at peace. He will rule as King David's successor, basing his power on right and justice, from now until the end of time. The LORD Almighty is determined to do all this.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was,

and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end!"

The king is not to have a large number of horses for his army, and he is not to send people to Egypt to buy horses, because the LORD has said that his people are never to return there.

"This is how your king will treat you," Samuel explained. "He will make soldiers of your sons; some of them will serve in his war chariots, others in his cavalry, and others will run before his chariots.

David captured seventeen hundred of his cavalry and twenty thousand of his foot soldiers. He kept enough horses for a hundred chariots and crippled all the rest.

You must celebrate this day as a religious festival to remind you of what I, the LORD, have done. Celebrate it for all time to come."

The LORD has chosen Zion; he wants to make it his home:

"This is where I will live forever; this is where I want to rule.

Instead, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, with its thousands of angels.