2 Samuel 7 is similar to Isaiah 11 in the way that it provides entire panorama of Old Testament hope. Sam Emadi and Jim Hamilton did a great job highlighting this in a recent podcast. They talked about 2 Samuel 7 as “the mountain top of the Old Testament.”

In this post, I want to highlight how 2 Samuel 7 contributes to the series of posts I have been writing on the rest God gave humanity in Eden. This rest was forfeited when humanity chose to listen to another voice—not God’s but the snake’s. The hope of Edenic rest is a huge, meta Old Testament theme, and one of the primary clues to recognizing it in any given text is the use of hifil נוח.

This language shows up twice in 2 Samuel 7. In the first verse, the author says that at this point in David’s life—the narrative moment of 2 Samuel 7—Yahweh had given David rest (וַיהוָה הֵנִיחַ־לוֹ) from all his surrounding enemies. Nevertheless, later in the chapter, the author makes clear that there is rest yet to come. At this point, the language of Eden surfaces at with three lexemes.

In Genesis 2:8, Yahweh planted a garden (נטע) and placed (שׂים) humanity in the garden. Verse 15 fills out the portrait: Yahweh caused humanity to rest (נוח) in Eden. The same three verbs show up in 2 Samuel 7:10–11. Yahweh tells David that he will appoint a place (שׂים) for his people Israel. He will plant (נטע) them there, and he will give David rest (נוח) from all his enemies. The fulfillment of rest will come to David and his house after David’s “days are full and he sleeps with his fathers” (2 Sam 7:12). “A seed will rise” — Hear Isaiah 11:1?

There’s a hundred other things to say about how the language of 2 Samuel 7 points to Old Testament hope, but I hope this post makes clear one thing: The author of Samuel, portrays David as one through which Eden rest had finally come, but not in full. David brought rest (2 Sam 7:1), but there remains a day (2 Sam 7:10–11) when one of David’s descendants will bring a more complete rest, a rest characterized by the ideal of Eden.