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Bible Q

Please explain 2 Samuel 7:14 “When he commits iniquity” – isn’t this about the Messiah?

First there is some variation in translations about whether the verse should be “when” or “if”.

Although 2 Samuel 7:14 speaks of God chastening the Davidic king “with the rod of men” when he commits iniquity, those who read this as a prophecy will understand its deepest fulfillment in Christ—not because He ever sinned, but because He took on our condition and bore our sin. Isaiah 53 explains this, that the Servant is wounded for our transgressions, and that God lays on Him “the iniquity of us all.”

The New Testament confirms this pattern. Hebrews 2:14 teaches that the Son took on “flesh and blood” so that He could truly stand in our place, and Hebrews 4:15 affirms that though He was “tempted in all ways as we are,” He remained entirely without sin. Thus Jesus, the flawless Son of David, receives the “rod” and “stripes” of 2 Samuel 7 not as punishment for His own wrongdoing, but as the innocent representative who shares our humanity, carries our guilt, and suffers on our behalf according to the pattern revealed in Isaiah 53.  He learned obedience through the things that he suffered. It wasn’t natural to be obedient.
Perhaps 2 Samuel 7v14 could be better rendered “I will be his father, and he shall be my son. But because of iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men [so that he can bear the transgressions of many, and take away their sin].”

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