Nevertheless, for the sake of your father David, I will not do it during your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
Parallel translations
- WEB Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days, for David your father’s sake; but I will tear it out of your son’s hand.
- KJV Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father’s sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.
- NKJV Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
- NASB However, I will not do it in your days, only for the sake of your father David; but I will tear it away from the hand of your son.
- NLT But for the sake of your father, David, I will not do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
For David's sake, God would delay the judgment until Solomon's son rather than his own reign. It reveals divine mercy tempering deserved judgment.
Overview
Though judgment was certain, the LORD graciously postponed it out of faithfulness to His covenant with David. The kingdom would be torn not from Solomon himself but from his son Rehoboam. This restraint displays God's steadfast love and His commitment to the Davidic promise, showing that even in judgment He remembers mercy and keeps His word to those He has chosen.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Exod 20:5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
- 2 Kgs 22:19–20because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD.
- 1 Sam 9:4–5So Saul passed through the hill country of Ephraim and then through the land of Shalishah, but did not find the donkeys. He and the servant went through the region of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then they went through the land of Benjamin, and still they did not find them.
- 2 Kgs 20:17The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.
- 2 Kgs 20:19But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Will there not at least be peace and security in my lifetime?”
- 1 Kgs 21:29“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity during his days, but I will bring it upon his house in the days of his son.”
- Gen 19:29So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.
- Gen 12:2I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
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Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 11:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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