1 CHRONICLES 22 COMMENTARY

EDITED BY GLENN PEASE

1Then David said, “The house of the Lord God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

BARNES, "This is the house of the Lord God - The double miracle - that of the angelic appearance and that of the fire from heaven - had convinced David that here he had found the destined site of that “house” which it had been told him that his son should build 1Ch_22:10. Hence, this public announcement.

CLARKE, "David said, This is the house of the Lord - Till a temple is built for his name, this place shall be considered the temple of God; and on this altar, and not on that at Gibeon, shall the burnt-offerings of Israel be made. David probably thought that this was the place on which God designed that his house should be built; and perhaps it was this that induced him to buy, not only the threshing-floor, but probably some adjacent ground also, as Calmet supposes, that there might be sufficient room for such a building.

GILL, "Then David said,.... Within himself, or to some principal persons about him:

this is the house of the Lord God; the place where the temple was to be built, hinted at in Deu_12:5 and elsewhere; the meaning is, here, or in "this" place, shall be the house of God, so Noldius (o), for as yet there were none; but it was now made known to David that here it should be built, and so the words in 2Ch_3:1 should be rendered:

then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, which was shown to David his father, which he prepared in the place of David, that which he bought in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite: and this is the altar for the burnt offering for Israel; not which he had built here; but this is the place where one should be built for the people of Israel to bring their offerings to, and to be here offered for them by the priests: this he said by a divine impulse upon his mind, or which he concluded from the acceptance of his sacrifice here, signified by fire that

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came down from heaven and consumed it; and this being in the threshingfloor of the Jebusites, might prefigure the church of God to be built up among the Gentiles.

HENRY 1-5, "Here is, I. The place fixed for the building of the temple (1Ch_22:1): Then David said, by inspiration of God, and as a declaration of his mind, This is the house of the Lord God. If a temple must be built for God, it is fit that it be left to him to choose the ground, for all the earth is his; and this is the ground he makes choice of - ground that pertained to a Jebusite, and perhaps there was not a spot of ground besides, in or about Jerusalem, that did so - a happy presage of the setting up of the gospel temple among the Gentiles. See Act_15:16, Act_15:17. The ground was a threshing-floor; for the church of the living God is his floor, his threshing, and the corn of his floor, Isa_21:10. Christ's fan is in his hand, thoroughly to purge his floor. This is to be the house because this is the altar. The temple was built for the sake of the altar. There were altars long before there were temples.

II. Preparation made for that building. David must not build it, but he would do all he could towards it: He prepared abundantly before his death, 1Ch_22:5. This intimates that the consideration of his age and growing infirmities, which showed him his death approaching, quickened him, towards his latter end, to be very diligent in making this preparation. What our hands find to do for God, and our souls, and our generation, let us do it with all our might before our death, because, after death, there is no device nor working. Now we are here told,

1. What induced him to make such preparation. Two things he considered: - (1.) That Solomon was young and tender, and not likely to apply with any great vigour to this business at first; so that, unless he found the wheels set a-going, he would be in danger of losing a great deal of time at first, the rather because, being young, he would be tempted to put it off; whereas, if he found the materials got ready to his hand, the most difficult part of the work would be over, and this would excite and encourage him to go about it in the beginnings of his reign. Note, Those that are aged and experienced should consider those that are young and tender, and provide them what help they can, that they may make the work of God as easy to them as possible. (2.) That the house must be exceedingly magnificent, very stately and sumptuous, strong and beautiful, every thing about it the best in its kind, and for a good reason, since it was intended for the honour of the great God, the Lord of the whole earth, and was to be a type of Christ, in whom all fulness dwells and in whom are hid all treasures. Men were then to be taught by sensible methods. The grandeur of the house would help to affect the worshippers with a holy awe and reverence of God, and would invite strangers to come to see it, and the wonder of the world, who thereby would be brought acquainted with the true God. Therefore it is here designed to be of fame and glory throughout all countries. David foretold this good effect of its being magnificent, Psa_68:29 Because of thy temple at Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto thee.

2. What preparation he made. In general, he prepared abundantly, as we shall find afterwards; cedar and stones, iron and brass, are here specified, 1Ch_22:2-4. Cedar he had from the Tyrians and the Zidonians. The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift, Psa_45:12. He also got workmen together, the strangers that were in the land of Israel. Some think that he employed them because they were generally better artists, and more ingenious in manual operations, than the Israelites; or, rather, because he would not employ the free-born Israelites in any thing that looked mean and servile. They were

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delivered from the bondage of making bricks in Egypt, and must not return to hew stone. These strangers were proselytes to the Jewish religion, but, though not enslaved, they were not of equal dignity with Israelites.

JAMISON, "1Ch_22:1-5. David perpares for building the Temple.

David said, This is the home of the Lord God — By the miraculous sign of fire from heaven, and perhaps other intimations, David understood it to be the will of God that the national place of worship should be fixed there, and he forthwith proceeded to make preparations for the erection of the temple on that spot.

K&D, "With this chapter commences the second section of the history of David's kingship, viz., the account of the preparations, dispositions, and arrangements which he made in the last years of his reign for the establishment of his kingdom in the future under his successors. All these preparations and dispositions had reference to the firm establishment of the public worship of the Lord, in which Israel, as the people and congregation of Jahve, might show its faithfulness to the covenant, so as to become partakers of the divine protection, and the blessing which was promised. To build the temple-this desire the Lord had not indeed granted the fulfilment of to David, but He had given him the promise that his son should carry out that work. The grey-haired king accordingly made preparations, after the site of the house of God which should be built had been pointed out to him, such as would facilitate the execution of the work by his successor. Of these preparations our chapter treats, and in it we have an account how David provided the necessary labour and materials for the building of the temple (1Ch_22:2-5), committed the execution of the work in a solemn way to his son Solomon (1Ch_22:6-16), and called upon the chiefs of the people to give him their support in the work (1Ch_22:17-19).

BENSON, "1 Chronicles 22:1. Then David said — Through the instinct and direction of God’s Spirit, by which as he is said to have had the pattern of the house, porch, altar, &c., (1 Chronicles 28:11-19,) so doubtless he was instructed as to the place where the house should be built. This is the house, &c. — This is the place appointed by God for the building of his temple and altar.

ELLICOTT, "(1) Then.—And.

This is the house.—Better, This is a house of Jehovah, the (true) God, and this (is) an altar of burnt offering for Israel. The verse resumes the narrative suspended at 1 Chronicles 21:28. The place of the apparition is called “a house of God,” as in

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Genesis 28:17. Obviously, we have here the goal of the entire narrative of the census, and the pestilence, which the chronicler would probably have omitted, as he has omitted that of the famine (2 Samuel 21), were it not for the fact that it shows how the site of the Temple was determined.

PARKER, ""Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel?— 1 Chronicles 22:1.

And yet not a stone of the building was laid!—The reference is to the site whereon the temple is to be built.—We read, "Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father" ( 2 Chronicles 3:1): the literal rendering would be, "which was shewn to David his father," the place being pointed out by the appearance of angels as the spot on which the temple was to stand.—This is the very spirit of prophecy.—We find all prophets impatient of time and space, and taking the future into their own hands, and dealing with it as if it were the immediate present.—Say they: This is the place, this is the time, this is the means,—a handling of time and space only to be understood by those in whom the spirit of prophecy resides.—There are prophets, and there are those who understand prophets, and both the classes may be said to live upon the same intellectual plane.—Some men are poets, others are only readers and lovers of poetry; yet those who love poetry are in a sense themselves poets, having the poetic instinct but not poetic expression.—We are more than we show ourselves to be in words.—The vividness of David"s representation is singularly instructive, for David already seemed to see the temple and to be in the temple, and to know all the appointments of that sacred pile.—It was the privilege of David to live in the future as if it were present. Is there not a sense in which we can all do this?—May we not even now be in heaven as to all our highest desires and truest sympathies?—Why speak of heaven as in the future, or in the distance?—The apostle did not scruple to say, "Our citizenship is in heaven."—Jesus Christ did not hesitate to declare that whilst he was upon the earth he was in heaven. And the glorious company of the apostles constantly declared that like Moses they endured as seeing the invisible, and their thoughts were intent upon a house not made with hands.

PULPIT, "From the commencement of this chapter to the close of the First Book of the Chronicles we again travel alone, and, with the exception of parallel passages of

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a merely ordinary character, have no longer the assistance of comparing different descriptions of the same stretches of history. The present chapter relates David's interested and zealous preparations for the building of the temple (1 Chronicles 22:1-5); his exhortations and solemn charge to his son and successor (1 Chronicles 22:6-16); and afterwards his injunctions to the "princes of Israel" (1 Chronicles 22:17-19) to help Solomon.

1 Chronicles 22:1

This verse evidently belongs to the close of the last' chapter, and should have had its place there. It indicates a deep sense of relief that now visited David's mind. We can imagine how he had pondered often and long the "place where" of the "exceeding magnificent" house which it was in his heart to build for the Lord. The place was now found, and the more unexpected and "dreadful" (Genesis 28:17) the method by which it was arrived at, the more convincing and satisfactory, at all events in some points of view. The extraordinary and impressive designating of this spot was in itself a signal for an active commencement of the work, and made at the same time such commencement practicable. Solomon and many others would afterwards often think, often speak, of the "threshing-finer of Ornan the Jebusite" as the place "which was shown to David his father," and which "David had prepared" (2 Chronicles 3:1). Here, then, he builds "the altar of burnt offering," as, on the neighbouring "hill of Zion," he had reared the "tabernacle for the ark."

Preparations for the Temple

2 So David gave orders to assemble the foreigners residing in Israel, and from among them he appointed stonecutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God.

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BARNES, "The strangers - i. e., the aliens the non-Israelite population of the land. Compare 2Ch_2:17.

CLARKE, "The strangers that were in the land - Those who had become proselytes to the Jewish religion, at least so far as to renounce idolatry, and keep what were called the seven Noahic precepts. These were to be employed in the more servile and difficult parts of the work: see on 1Ki_9:21 (note). For the account of building the temple, see 1 Kings 5-9 (note), and the notes there.

GILL, "And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel,.... The proselytes, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions; that is, proselytes of the gate, who submitted to the seven precepts of Noah, were admitted to dwell in the Cities of Israel, see Gen_9:4 and these were ordered to be got together to be employed in building the temple, and making preparations for it; and that partly because they were better artificers than the Israelites, who were chiefly employed in husbandry and cattle, and partly that the Israelites, who were freemen, might not be put to hard service; but chiefly this was for the sake of a mystery in it, denoting that the Gentiles would be concerned in building the spiritual house and church of God, the temple was a type and figure of, see Zec_6:15.

and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God; to dig them out of the quarries, and fit them for the building.

JAMISON, "David commanded to gather together the strangers — partly the descendants of the old Canaanites (2Ch_8:7-10), from whom was exacted a tribute of bond service, and partly war captives (2Ch_2:7), reserved for the great work he contemplated.

K&D, "Workmen and materials for the building of the temple. - 1Ch_22:2. In order to procure the necessary workmen, David commanded that the strangers in the land of Israel should be gathered together, and, as we learn from 2Ch_2:16, also numbered. the strangers, are the descendants of the Canaanites whom the Israelites had not ,הגריםdestroyed when they took possession of the land, but had reduced to bondage (2Ch_8:7-9; 1Ki_9:20-22). This number was so considerable, that Solomon was able to employ 150,000 of them as labourers and stone-cutters (1Ki_5:15.; 2Ch_2:16.). These strangers David appointed to be stone-cutters, to hew squared stones, אבני גזית (see on 1Ki_5:18).

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BENSON 2-3, "1 Chronicles 22:2-3. To gather the strangers that were in the land of Israel — The same persons whom Solomon afterward employed in the same work; of which see 1 Kings 5:15; 1 Kings 9:20-21. He set masons to hew wrought stones — Wherein he could not do much, being prevented by death; but Solomon carried on and perfected what David had begun. For the joinings — To be used, together with melted lead, for the joining of those great and square stones together.

ELLICOTT, " (2) And David commanded to gather together the strangers.—The word rendered “to gather together” (kânas) is different from the terms used in 1 Chronicles 15:3-4; 1 Chronicles 19:7, and is late in this sense.

The strangers (gêrîm).—Sojourners, or resident foreigners, such as Israel had been in Egypt (Genesis 15:13). The Canaanite population are meant, who lived on sufferance under the Israelite dominion, and were liable to forced service if the government required it. (See 2 Chronicles 8:7-8, and 1 Kings 9:20-21.) Solomon found them by census to be 153,600 souls. The census was a preliminary to apportioning their several tasks. (See 2 Chronicles 2:17-18.) David, probably on the present occasion, had held a similar census of the Canaanite serfs (2 Chronicles 2:17).

And he set.—Appointed (1 Chronicles 15:16-17); literally, caused to stand.

Masons.—Hewers; selected, apparently, from among “the strangers.”

Wrought stones.—“Saxum quadratum,” square stones (1 Kings ; Isaiah 9:9).

To build the house—i.e., for building it hereafter. It is not said that the work was begun at once, but only that the organisation of the serf labour originated with David.

WHEDON, " 2. David commanded to gather together the strangers — These strangers were the descendants of the old Canaanitish population of the land, whom the Israelites had not been able to expel. Comp. 1 Kings 9:21, and 2 Chronicles 2:17. Having settled on the site of Jehovah’s house, the king was stimulated to make, in his last days, all possible preparations for the building of the same.

Masons to hew wrought stones — Or, stonecutters to cut hewn stones. Compare 1

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Kings 5:15; 1 Kings 5:17.

GUZIK, "1 CHRONICLES 22 - DAVID’S CHARGE TO SOLOMON

A. David gathers men, material, and a vision.

1. (1 Chronicles 22:2-4) David gathers men and material for building the temple.

So David commanded to gather the aliens who were in the land of Israel; and he appointed masons to cut hewn stones to build the house of God. And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails of the doors of the gates and for the joints, and bronze in abundance beyond measure, and cedar trees in abundance; for the Sidonians and those from Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.

a. David commanded to gather the aliens who were in the land of Israel: 1 Kings 5:15-18 describes how these were actually put to work in the building of the temple in Solomon’s day, some 70,000 slaves.

b. Cedar trees in abundance: The cedar trees of Lebanon were legendary for their excellent timber. This means David (and Solomon after him) wanted to build the temple out of the best materials possible.

i. It also means that they were willing to build this great temple to God with “Gentile” wood and using “Gentile” labor. This was a temple to the God of Israel, but it was not only for Israel. Only Jews built the tabernacle, “But the temple is not built without the aid of the Gentile Tyrians. They, together with us, make up the Church of God.” (Trapp)

ii. Payne on iron in abundance: “The king’s provision of ‘a large amount of iron’ reflects how conditions had changed during his time - known archaeologically as Iron I - due, no doubt, to the incorporation of iron-producing Philistines within the sphere of Hebrew control.”

2. (1 Chronicles 22:5) David’s vision for the preparation of the temple.

Now David said, “Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries. I will now make preparation for it.” So David made abundant preparations before his death.

a. Solomon my son is young and inexperienced: Even after David’s death, Solomon knew that he was young and inexperienced (1 Kings 3:7), so when offered anything

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he wanted wisdom to lead God’s people.

b. The house to be built for the LORD must be exceeding magnificent: Solomon had the same vision for the glory of the temple, and he indeed built it according to David’s vision of a magnificent, famous, and glorious building. Solomon had this vision breathed into him through his father’s influence.

i. We can almost picture the old David and the young Solomon pouring over the plans and ideas for the temple together with excitement. David knew that it was not his place to build it, but had the right vision for what the temple should be in general terms, and he passed that vision on to his son.

ii. So David made abundant preparations before his death: This indicates that David was a peace with the idea that he himself could not build the temple and was content to prepare the way for his son to build it successfully. “This is a picture of a man who through stress and storm had found his way into the quiet calm assurance of his place in the divine economy. . . . It is a condition of peace and power.” (Morgan)

iii. “The Chronicler was vitally concerned to insure support for the Jerusalem temple in his day. No more fitting stimulus for dedication in this regard could then be found than in the example set by David when he made preparations for the construction of that temple in his day.” (Payne)

PARKER, ""And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God."— 1 Chronicles 22:2.

The "strangers" are the aliens.—We read of them in 1 Kings 9:20-21, "And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel, their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day."—There is a very pathetic expression in this account of the strangers,—"whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy."—Was not the destruction only partial in order to realise a divine providence? Would not such strangers or aliens be useful in the building of the temple?—Whom we are not able to destroy we may be able to employ in holy service, is a doctrine which is not applicable to persons only, but has a distinct reference to emotions, passions, impulses, and sympathies.—We are to

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hold ourselves in bondage, and often we are to drive ourselves to forced labour, and to become hewers of wood and stone, bearers of burdens, and indeed slaves to our higher manhood.—David did not hesitate to reckon the Canaanite serfs in the census which he took of the people.—In taking the census of a nation we do not only count the king, the statesmen, the military officers, and men of similar rank and position; we count down, even to young children; yea, we do not exclude the cradle itself when we number the people.—There is a higher as well as a lower census.—For civil and military purposes the infant is of no account, but the statesman looks not at the infant as he is to-day, but at the man as he will be in due process of time.—The magistrate counts life, not years only.—He says the nation is strong to such and such an extent, because he counts the little as well as the great.—A man should take a census of himself in the same way; he is not all genius, intellect, might, faculty; he has his peculiarities, infirmities, his germs of power, his beginnings and possibilities of strength; all this he should reckon when he takes a census of himself, and in reckoning even the least of his elements and faculties he should regard them not as they immediately are, but as what they are in possibility under rightly-accepted divine training.

PULPIT, "The strangers. These are plainly called in the Septuagint "proselytes" ( του ς προσηλυ τους). They were, of course, foreign workmen, who came in pursuit of their trade. The injunctions as to "strangers," and with regard to showing them kindness, are very numerous, beginning with Exodus 12:19, Exodus 12:48, Exodus 12:49; Exodus 22:21 (20); Exodus 23:9; Le Exodus 19:10, 33, 34; Exodus 15:14-16; Deuteronomy 10:18, Deuteronomy 10:19; Joshua 8:33-35. It was not David's object merely to gain cheap or compulsory work (2 Chronicles 2:17, 2 Chronicles 2:18), but to obtain a skill, which immigrants from certain places would possess, in excess of that of his own people (2 Chronicles 2:7, 2 Chronicles 2:8, 2 Chronicles 2:13,2 Chronicles 2:14), especially considering the absorption of Israel in the pursuit of war, which had so largely impeded their study and practice of these the arts of peace.

3 He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the

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fittings, and more bronze than could be weighed.

BARNES, "For the joinings - i. e., the girders, or cramps - pieces of iron to be used in joining beams or stones together.

CLARKE, "Irons - for the nails, etc. - Iron for bolts, bars, hinges, etc., etc.

GILL, "And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings,.... Great plenty of iron to make nails of for joining the boards together, of which the doors and gates were to be made, and for the fastening of the hinges of them:

and brass in abundance without weight; for making the altar of brass, and the laver of brass, and other vessels. Brass was much used by the Heathens in sacred things, as Macrobius (p) observes.

K&D, "1Ch_22:3Iron and brass he prepared in abundance: the iron for the nails of the doors, i.e., for

the folding-doors of the gates, i.e., partly for the pivots (Zapfen) on which the folding-doors turned, partly to strengthen the boards of which doors were made; as also for the ת .literally, things to connect, i.e., properly iron cramps ,מחבר

ELLICOTT, " (3) For the nails.—Mismĕrîm happens to occur only in the later books of the Old Testament, but may well be an ancient word. (Comp. the Assyrian asmarê “spears,” which derives from the same root.)

For the doors of the gates.—he doors were to be what we call folding-doors (1 Kings 6:34-35).

For the joinings.—Literally, things that couple, or connect (feminine participle): i.e., iron clamps and hinges. In 2 Chronicles 34:11 the same term is used of wooden

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clamps or braces.

And brass.—Bronze, which was much used in the ornamental work of ancient buildings. Comp. the plates of bronze which once adorned the doors of the temple of Shalmaneser II. (B.C. 854), at Balawât, and are now in the British Museum. Sennacherib, in a later age (B.C. 700), describes the doors of his palace at Nineveh as “overlaid with shining bronze.”

Without weight.—A natural hyperbole. The actual amounts would, of course, be known to the royal treasurers. (Comp. the common use of the phrases la niba, la mani “without number,” “without measure,” in Assyrian accounts of spoils and captives.)

WHEDON, " 3. Nails for the doors of the gates — “That is, for the folding doors of the gates; partly for the pivots on which the folding doors turned, partly to strengthen the boards of which the doors were made.” — Keil.

For the joinings — For cramps, or iron holders to fasten and hold beams and stones together.

Without weight — The bulk and amount was so great as not to be easily weighed. As we sometimes familiarly say, “There was no weighing it.”

PARKER, "For All Gleaners

"And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight." — 1 Chronicles 23:3.

David could hardly keep his hands off the actual building of the temple itself.—We have seen again and again that he went as near to it as he could possibly approach.—It sometimes becomes difficult to say who really did build the temple, so little was left for Solomon to do.—Is it not so with all the temples of civilisation?—Who built the temple of Literature?—Who erected the temple of Science?—Who is the architect and who the builder of the temple of Discovery,—the discovery of arts, sciences, provinces, continents, lakes, and rivers?—The last man is so immediately behind us that we dare not take credit to ourselves for aught we do; so much has been done in preparation that when we speak of the temple we say it was built by the age or the generation or the spirit of the times.—There Isaiah , of course, always

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one man whose name takes the lead in the higher architecture and erection of temples, but the name of the leader is only symbolical of the multitude of his followers and supporters.—David was content to prepare the way of the Lord; John was content to be a voice crying in the wilderness; other men have laboured, and we have entered into their labours.—We say David prepared, and Solomon built, but how could Solomon have built if David had not prepared?—We do not make our own roads, our own libraries, our own code of laws; we take the roads that are made, the libraries that are in existence, the laws that are operating, and these we enlarge or amend: or enrich or advance upon in some sense, but in reality we do but carry out what older and abler men it may be have prepared to our hands.—Gratitude should hold in loving remembrance all those who have even prepared for the building of the temple.—Think of the fathers and mothers, the statesmen and soldiers, the authors and artists, the preachers and teachers, who have been in this great world-house before us, preparing as it were for our advent and occupation; we should read our indebtedness on all the grave-stones; we should see our obligation in old age, and in things that are ready to vanish away.—We should not ruthlessly abrogate the past, but genuinely and philosophically fulfil it.—Jesus Christ himself said that he came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it; that Isaiah , to bring to bud and fruitage the things that had already been sown in the human mind by the action of previous teachers and legislators.—For our encouragement, when our ambition seems to be limited within a sphere which makes us impatient, we should read the words, "And David prepared," and remember that if a king could prepare for the building of a temple without actually building it himself, we should look upon every action we do and probably upon every word we speak as contributions towards the erection of a divine house upon the earth.—We read much of the "abundance" with which David prepared; he prepared iron in abundance, he gathered brass in abundance, he collected cedar trees in abundance; nothing was begrudged or limited; throughout the whole there was a presence of generosity and overflowing-ness, which indicated that the work was undertaken by generous and energetic hands. David"s estimate of the work that was to be done will be seen in the fifth verse.

PULPIT. "Iron… the joinings; and brass. The very first Bible mention of metals (Genesis 4:22) places these two together. Whence Solomon got his "abundance" of the latter we have read in 1 Chronicles 18:8; for the "abundance' of the former he would not necessarily go further than his own land. Although the expression, "the land whose stones are iron" (Deuteronomy 8:9), is possibly enough a poetical figure where it stands, yet some of the force of the figure may have sprung from its

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nearness to fact. The abundant use of iron in a great variety of tools, implements, weapons, and the knowledge of it in bar and sheet, might be illustrated from a large number of quotations from Scripture (Deuteronomy 19:5; Deuteronomy 27:5; 2 Samuel 12:31; 2 Kings 6:5; Isaiah 10:34; Amos 1:3; and many others). The "joinings" were the clamps and plates of various size and shape, which held strongly together, whether beams of wood or blocks of stone.

4 He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted, for the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought large numbers of them to David.

GILL, "Also cedar trees in abundance,.... To be sawed into boards and planks for the cieling, wainscotting, and flooring of the temple, and other things:

for the Zidonians, and they of Tyre, brought much cedar wood to David; from Mount Lebanon, which was chiefly in their possession; and which they did either of themselves as a free gift and present to him, or at his request, for which he paid them; and this is another thing prefiguring the help of the Gentiles in building up the church of Christ in Gospel times.

K&D, "1Ch_22:4The Tyrians sent him cedar trees or beams in abundance, probably in exchange for

grain, wine, and fruit of various sorts, which the Phoenicians obtained from the Israelites; cf. Movers, Phönizier, iii. 1, S. 88ff. Sidonians and Tyrians are named to denote the Phoenicians generally, as in Ezr_3:7. When Solomon began to build the temple, he made a regular treaty with Hiram king of Tyre about the delivery of the necessary cedar wood, 1Ki_5:15.

ELLICOTT, " (4) Also cedar trees in abundance.—Literally, and beams or logs of cedars without number. A rhetorical exaggeration, like that which we have just

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noted. (See also 1 Chronicles 14:1.)

The Zidonians and they of Tyra (i.e., the Phoenicians) brought much cedar wood—i.e., in the way of ordinary commerce, to barter them for supplies of grain, wine, oil, and other products of the soil, which their own rocky coast-land did not yield in sufficiency. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 14:1.) At a later time Hiram entered into an express contract with Solomon to supply the cedar and other materials required for building the Temple (1 Kings 5:8-11).

PULPIT, "The Zidonians and they of Tyre (see 1 Kings 5:6, 1 Kings 5:9, 1 Kings 5:13-18; 2 Chronicles 2:16-18). The interesting passages in Homer, Herodotus, and Strabo, which speak of Zidon, etc; are in entire accord with what is here said, and are well worth perusal; e.g. 'Iliad,' 6:289-295, "And she descended to the vaulted chamber, where were the garments all embroidered, the works of women of Sidon, whom the godlike Alexander himself brought from Sidon when he crossed the wide sea, by the way that he brought Helen of noble lineage;" 'Iliad,' 23. 743, 744, "And this vessel was of unsurpassed fame for beauty over all the land, for the men of Sidon, cunning artificers, had skilfully wrought it, and Phoenicians had brought it over the dark sea;" 'Odyssey,' 4:615-618, "And it was all silver, but the borders were mingled with gold. It was the work of Hephaestus. The illustrious Phademus, King of the Sidonians, gave it me when his palace sheltered me on my return thither;" 'Odyssey,' 15:424, "I boast to come from Sidon, famed for its skill in the working of brass." Similar references may be found in Herodotus (7:44, 96) and Strabo (1 Chronicles 16:2, § 23. See also 'Speaker's Commentary,' under 1 Kings 5:6).

5 David said, “My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord should be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight of all the nations. Therefore I will make preparations for it.” So

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David made extensive preparations before his death.

BARNES, "Young and tender - The exact age of Solomon at this time is uncertain; but it cannot have been more than 24 or 25. It may have been as little as 14 or 15. Compare the 1Ki_2:2 note.

GILL, "And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender,.... Jarchi supposes he was about twelve years of age, though he observes that the same word is used of Joshua when forty two years of age; it is probable Solomon might be now about twenty:

and the house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: and such was the temple built by Solomon; it was renowned throughout the whole earth; never was there a temple equal to it, no, not the famous temple of Diana at Ephesus, built by the assistance of many kings, and at the expense of all Asia, and was two hundred years in building:

I will therefore now, make preparation for it; seeing his son was so young, and this building to be so magnificent, though he himself was not admitted to build it:

so David prepared abundantly before his death; of which we have an after account in this chapter, and more largely in 1Ch_28:1.

K&D, "1Ch_22:51Ch_22:5 gives in substance the reason of what precedes, although it is connected

with it only by ו consec. Because his son Solomon was still in tender youth, and the building to be executed was an exceedingly great work, David determined to make considerable preparation before his death. נער ור ור, puer et tener, repeated in 1Ch_29:1, indicates a very early age. Solomon could not then be quite twenty years old, as he was born only after the Syro-Ammonite war (see on 2Sa_12:24), and calls himself at the commencement of his reign still נער קטן (1Ki_3:7). The word נער may of itself denote not merely a boy, but also a grown youth; but here it is limited to the boyish age by the addition of ור. Berth. wrongly compares Exo_33:11, where נער denotes not a boy, but a

lad, i.e., a servant. In the succeeding clause ת ליהוה is to be taken relatively: and the לבנ

house which is to be built to the Lord is to be made great exceedingly (למעלה, see on

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1Ch_14:2), for a name and glory for all lands, i.e., that it might be to the Lord for whom it should be built for an honour and glory in all lands. אכינה נא ל, I will (= therefore will I) prepare for him (Solomon), scil. whatever I can prepare to forward this great work.

BENSON, "1 Chronicles 22:5. So David prepared abundantly — And with good reason, because it was intended for the honour of the great God, and was to be a type of Christ, in whom all fulness dwells, and in whom are hid all treasures.

ELLICOTT, " (5) Solomon my son is young and tender—i.e., an inexperienced young man. David repeats the expression (1 Chronicles 29:1); and it is applied to Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 13:7) at the age of forty-one. The word here rendered “young,” literally, “youth” (na’ar), is even more vague than the Latin adolescens. It may mean a new-born babe (Exodus 2:6), a young child (Isaiah 7:16; Isaiah 8:4), a youth (Isaiah 3:5; 1 Samuel 17:55), or a man in the prime of life (1 Samuel 30:17; Exodus 33:11). Solomon calls himself “a young child” (na‘ar qâtôn) even after his accession to the throne (1 Kings 3:7), though he was born soon after the time of the Syro-Ammonite war (2 Samuel 12:24).

Tender.—Timid (Deuteronomy 20:8).

The house that is to be builded . . . exceeding magnifical.—Literally, the house to build . . . (one is) to make great exceedingly. For the infinitival construction, comp. 1 Chronicles 5:1; 1 Chronicles 13:4; 1 Chronicles 9:25; 1 Chronicles 15:2.

Exceeding.—Literally, unto height, upwards; an adverbial expression, which frequently occurs in the Chronicles. (See 1 Chronicles 14:2 : “On high.”)

Of fame and of glory throughout all countries.—Literally, for a name and for a glory (tiph’ereth) for all the lands. (Comp. Isaiah 2:3; Isaiah 60:3, et seq., Isaiah 62:2-3.) In similar terms the famous Assyrian Sennacherib (Sin-ahi-irba) speaks of his palace as built “for the lodging (taprati) of multitudes of men.” And of his temple of Nergal he says: “The house of Nergal, within the city of Tarbiçu, I caused to be made, and like day I caused it to shine” (usnammir).

I will therefore now make preparation for it.—Literally, Let me now prepare for him—the expression of an earnest desire, and self-encouragement to an arduous task, rather than of mere resolve.

We need not suppose that the verse relates to any actual utterance of David’s. It is not said when nor to whom he spoke. The historian is merely representing the king’s motive for these preparations. “To say” in Hebrew often means to think, by an

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elliptic construction. (Comp. Exodus 2:14 with Genesis 17:17.)

So David prepared.—It is strange, but instructive, to remember that there have been critics so destitute of the historical faculty as to allege that “the whole episode about David’s preparations is a fiction of the chronist’s” (Gramberg), because the Books of Samuel and Kings are silent on the subject.

WHEDON, " 5. Young and tender — A youth of probably less than twenty years. See on 1 Kings 3:7.

Exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory — Literally, the house to be builded to Jehovah is to be made great to an exceeding extent, for a name and for an ornament to all the lands. David had a most exalted and worthy conception of the grandeur and importance of the temple to be builded. Not only was it to be a most magnificent structure, but it was to magnify Jehovah’s name and praise among the nations. Thus the monarch of Israel breathed the spirit of later prophecies, which foreshadowed the spiritual glory of the Christian temple, and according to which “the mountain of the Lord’s house should be established in the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills; and all nations flow unto it.” Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1.

PARKER, ""David prepared abundantly before his death."— 1 Chronicles 22:5.

David wanted to do something more than prepare, he wanted actually to build the temple.—God tells us where we must stop.—He mortifies ambition, and yet gratifies it.—He will not give us the highest honour of all, yet he will put upon us an honour which contributes to the success of other men.—Some hearts would have been discouraged by what the Lord said unto David; and their discouragement might have expressed itself in some degree of resentment, for they would have said, If we cannot do all, we will do nothing; if we cannot build, we will not prepare; if we cannot have the honour of putting up the temple, we certainly will not assist any other man to erect it.—This would have been peevishness, selfishness, the veriest meanness of soul.—David, on the other hand, consented to the Lord"s arrangement, and did all that lay in his power to facilitate the progress of his son.—We should work up to the very moment of our death.—Our last breath should, if possible, help some other man to pray better, or work more, or suffer with a firmer constancy.—Let no man suppose that the world stands still because he dies.—God has always a temple to build, and he will always raise up the builder of it, and yet it pleases him in his condescension to receive our assistance in preparation.—Some men will only

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take an interest in what they can themselves enjoy; they care nothing for posterity, but rather speak mockingly of it; the prophetic soul does live in the future, does populate the earth with posterity, and does take an interest in the ages that are yet to dawn.—We do things better to-day by casting our minds forward to the riper periods of civilisation; by foreseeing that the glory of the Lord shall make glad the whole earth, men can work to-day in the twilight with stronger courage and more ardent enthusiasm.—Thus the future may be made to help the present; thus posterity may take part in the affairs of to-day.

PULPIT, "Solomon… is young and tender. It is impossible to fix the exact age of Solomon as marked by these words. In a "fragment" of Eupolemus he is put down at twelve years of age. Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 1 Chronicles 8:7, § 8) as vaguely supposes he was fourteen at the time that he took the throne. He was the second son of Bathsheba, and can scarcely have exceeded the last-men-tioned age by mere than three or four years. This same language, "young and tender," is repeated in 1 Chronicles 29:1. The reign of Solomon lasted forty years (1 Kings 11:42; 2 Chronicles 9:30). He is called old (1 Kings 11:4) when his strange wives "turned away his heart after other gods." We are not told his age at the time of his death. There are, in fact, no sufficient data for fixing to the year, or indeed within the liberal margin of several years, the age now designated as young and tender.

6 Then he called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel.

CLARKE, "Solomon - is young and tender - He is as yet without complete knowledge and due experience; and it is necessary that I should make as much preparation for the work as I possibly can; especially as the house is to be exceedingly magnificent.

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GILL, "Then he called for Solomon his son,.... To be brought before him:

and charged him to build an house for the Lord God of Israel; which charge was given a little before his death, after he had made great preparations for this work, as appears from 1Ch_22:5.

HENRY, "Though Solomon was young and tender, he was capable of receiving instructions, which his father accordingly gave him, concerning the work for which he was designed. When David came to the throne he had many things to do, for the foundations were all out of course; but Solomon had only one thing in charge, and that was to build a house for the Lord God of Israel, 1Ch_22:6. Now,

JAMISON, "1Ch_22:6-9. He instructs Solomon.

Then he called for Solomon ... and charged him — The earnestness and solemnity of this address creates an impression that it was given a little before the old king’s decease. He unfolded his great and long cherished plan, enjoined the building of God’s house as a sacred duty on him as his son and successor, and described the resources that were at command for carrying on the work. The vast amount of personal property he had accumulated in the precious metals [1Ch_22:14] must have been spoil taken from the people he had conquered, and the cities he had sacked.

K&D 6-10lomon commissioned to build the temple. - 1Ch_22:6. Before his death (1Ch_22:5) David called his son Solomon, in order to commit to him the building of the temple, and to press it strongly upon him, 1Ch_22:7-10. With this design, he informs him that it had been his intention to build a temple to the Lord, but the Lord had not permitted him to carry out this resolve, but had committed it to his son. The Keri בני (1Ch_22:7) is, notwithstanding the general worthlessness of the corrections in the Keri, probably to be preferred here to the Keth. בנ, for בנ might have easily arisen by the

copyist's eye having wandered to מה בנ is בני 1Ch_22:6. David's addressing him as ,לש

very fitting, nay, even necessary, and not contrary to the following עם לבבי .אני, it was with my heart, i.e., I had intended, occurs indeed very often in the Chronicle, e.g., 1Ch_28:2; 2Ch_1:11; 2Ch_6:7., 1Ch_9:1; 1Ch_24:4; 1Ch_29:10, but is also found in other books where the sense demands it, e.g., Jos_14:7; 1Ki_8:17., 1Ch_10:2. In ויהי עלי, There came to me the word of Jahve (1Ch_22:8), it is implied that the divine word was given to him as a command. The reason which David gives why the Lord did not allow him to build the temple is not stated in 1 Chron 17 (2 Sam 7), to which David here refers; instead of the reason, only the promise is there communicated, that the Lord would first build him a house, and enduringly establish his throne. This promise does not exclude the reason stated here and in 1Ch_28:3, but rather implies it. As the temple was only to be built when God had enduringly established the throne of David, David could not

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execute this work, for he still had to conduct wars - wars, too, of the Lord - for the establishment of his kingdom, as Solomon also states it in his embassy to Hiram. Wars and bloodshed, however, are unavoidable and necessary in this earth for the establishment of the kingdom of God in opposition to its enemies, but are not consonant with its nature, as it was to receive a visible embodiment and expression in the temple. For the kingdom of God is in its essence a kingdom of peace; and battle, or war, or struggle, are only means for the restoration of peace, the reconciliation of mankind with God after the conquest of sin and all that is hostile to God in this world. See on 2Sa_7:11. David, therefore, the man of war, is not to build the temple, but (1Ch_22:9.) his son; and to him the Lord will give peace from all his enemies, so that he shall be איש מנוחה, a man of rest, and shall rightly bear the name Shelomo (Solomon), i.e., Friederich (rich in peace, Eng. Frederick), for God would give to Israel in his days, i.e., in his reign, peace and rest (שקט). The participle לד has the signification of the future, shall be הנה after נ

born; cf. 1Ki_13:2. איש מנוחה, not a man who procures peace (Jer_51:59), but one who

enjoys peace, as the following תי ל מה shows. As to the name והניח _see on 2Sa ,ש12:24. Into 1Ch_22:10 David compresses the promise contained in 1Ch_17:12 and 1Ch_17:13.

ELLICOTT, " (6) Then he called.—And he called Solomon. When? After completing his preparations, and shortly before his death (1 Chronicles 22:5). (Comp. 1 Kings 2:1-9, especially 1 Chronicles 22:3-4, of which we seem to hear echoes in the present speech.) Upon grounds of internal evidence we may pronounce this dying address of David to be an ideal composition, put into the king’s mouth by the unknown author whose work the chronicler follows: or rather, perhaps, by the chronicler himself, whose style is evident throughout. (Comp. the addresses attributed to David in 1 Chronicles 28)

For the Lord God of Israel.—There ought to be a comma after “Lord.” Literally the phrase would run, For Jehovah, the God of Israel. Thus the stress lies on the national aspect of the Deity, for whom Solomon was to undertake this national work.

WHEDON, "6-16. David’s charge to Solomon, here recorded, belongs to the same period as that of 1 Kings 2:1-10. One passage supplements the other, and the contrast between them is very noticeable. The writer of Kings was concerned more particularly with the political history of David, and records the aged king’s counsel to his son in reference to dangerous political enemies; the chronicler omits all that, and records only the charge of David respecting the building of the temple.

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GUZIK "B. David’s exhortation to his son Solomon.

1. (1 Chronicles 22:6-10) David’s testimony of the call to build the temple.

Then he called for his son Solomon, and charged him to build a house for the LORD God of Israel. And David said to Solomon: “My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house to the name of the LORD my God; but the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have made great wars; you shall not build a house for My name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight. Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies all around. His name shall be Solomon, for I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’”

a. And charged him to build a house for the LORD God of Israel: This was not a suggestion or an idea offered to Solomon. It was a sacred charge for him to fulfill. David knew that he could not fulfill this last great work of his life himself; he could only do it through Solomon after David went to his reward. There was a sense in which if Solomon failed, David failed also.

i. Specifically, David wanted to build a house to the name of the LORD my God. “That the temple was to be built ‘for the Name of the LORD’ means more than his reputation or honor but ultimately for his Person.” (Payne)

b. You have shed much blood and have made great wars; you shall not build a house for My name: This explaination was not previously recorded, either in 2 Samuel or in 1 Chronicles. Here we find one of the reasons why God did not want David to build the temple, and why He chose Solomon instead. God wanted a man of rest and peace to build a house unto Him.

i. It wasn’t that David’s wars were wrong or ungodly, or that the blood he shed was unrighteous. It was that God wanted His house built from the context of peace and rest and victory; He wanted it to be built after and from the victory, not from the midst of struggle.

ii. “Principally for mystical signification, to teach us that the church (whereof the temple was a manifest and a illustrious type) should be built by Christ, the Prince of peace, Isaiah 9:6; and that it should be gathered and built up, not by might or power, or by force of arms, but by God’s Spirit, Zechariah 4:6, and by the preaching

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of the gospel of peace.” (Poole)

MACLAREN, "DAVID’S PROHIBITED DESIRE AND PERMITTED SERVICE

1 Chronicles 22:6 - 1 Chronicles 22:16.

This passage falls into three parts. In 1 Chronicles 22:6 - 1 Chronicles 22:10 the old king tells of the divine prohibition which checked his longing to build the Temple; in 1 Chronicles 22:11 - 1 Chronicles 22:13 he encourages his more fortunate successor, and points him to the only source of strength for his happy task; in 1 Chronicles 22:14 - 1 Chronicles 22:16 he enumerates the preparations which he had made, the possession of which laid stringent obligations on Solomon.

I. There is a tone of wistfulness in David’s voice as he tells how his heart’s desire had been prohibited. The account is substantially the same as we have in 2 Samuel 7:4 - 2 Samuel 7:16, but it adds as the reason for the prohibition David’s warlike career. We may note the earnestness and the motive of the king’s desire to build the Temple. ‘It was in my heart’; that implies earnest longing and fixed purpose. He had brooded over the wish till it filled his mind, and was consolidated into a settled resolve. Many a musing, solitary moment had fed the fire before it burned its way out in the words addressed to Nathan. So should our whole souls be occupied with our parts in God’s service, and so should our desires be strongly set towards carrying out what in solitary meditation we have felt borne in on us as our duty.

The moving spring of David’s design is beautifully suggested in the simple words ‘unto the name of the Lord my God.’ David’s religion was eminently a personal bond between him and God. We may almost say that he was the first to give utterance to that cry of the devout heart, ‘My God,’ and to translate the generalities of the name ‘the God of Israel’ into the individual appropriation expressed by the former designation. It occurs in many of the psalms attributed to him, and may fairly be regarded as a characteristic of his ardent and individualising devotion. The sense of a close, personal relation to God naturally prompted the impulse to build His house. We must claim our own portion in the universal blessings shrined in His

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name before we are moved to deeds of loving sacrifice. We must feel that Christ ‘loved me, and gave Himself for me,’ before we are melted into answering surrender.

The reason for the frustrating of David’s desire, as here given, is his career as a warrior king. Not only was it incongruous that hands which had been reddened with blood should rear the Temple, but the fact that his reign had been largely occupied with fighting for the existence of the kingdom showed that the time for engaging in such a work, which would task the national resources, had not yet come. We may draw two valuable lessons from the prohibition. One is that it indicates the true character of the kingdom of God as a kingdom of peace, which is to be furthered, not by force, but in peace and gentleness. The other is that various epochs and men have different kinds of duties in relation to Christ’s cause, some being called on to fight, and others to build, and that the one set of tasks may be as sacred and as necessary for the rearing of the Temple as the other. Militant epochs are not usually times for building. The men who have to do destructive work are not usually blessed with the opportunity or the power to carry out constructive work. Controversy has its sphere, but it is mostly preliminary to true ‘edification.’ In the broadest view all the activity of the Church on earth is militant, and we have to wait for the coming of the true ‘Prince of peace’ to build up the true Temple in the land of peace, whence all foes have been cast out for ever. To serve God in God’s way, and to give up our cherished plans, is not easy; but David sets us an example of simple-hearted, cheerful acquiescence in a Providence that thwarted darling designs. There is often much self-will in what looks like enthusiastic perseverance in some form of service.

II. The charge to Solomon breathes no envy of his privilege, but earnest desire that he may be worthy of the honour which falls to him. Petitions and exhortations are closely blended in it, and, though the work which Solomon is called to do is of an external sort, the qualifications laid down for it are spiritual and moral. However ‘secular’ our work in connection with God’s service may be, it will not be rightly done unless the highest motives are brought to bear on it, and it is performed as worship. The basis of all successful work is God’s presence with us, so David prays for that to be granted to Solomon as the beginning of all his fitness for his task.

Next, David recalls to his son God’s promise concerning him, that it may hearten him to undertake and to carry on the great work. A conviction that our service is appointed for us by God is essential for vigorous and successful Christian work. We

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must have, in some way or other, heard Him ‘speak concerning us,’ if we are to fling ourselves with energy into it.

The petitions in 1 Chronicles 22:12 seem to stretch beyond the necessities of the case, in so far as building the Temple is concerned. Wisdom and understanding, and a clear consciousness of the duty enjoined on him by God in reference to Israel, were surely more than that work required. But the qualifications for God’s service, however the manner of service may be concerned with ‘the outward business of the house of God,’ are always these which David asked for Solomon. The highest result of true ‘wisdom and understanding’ given by God is keeping God’s law; and keeping it is the one condition on which we shall obtain and retain that presence of God with us which David prayed for Solomon, and without which they labour in vain that build. A life conformed to God’s will is the absolutely indispensable condition of all prosperity in direct Christian effort. The noblest exercise of our wisdom and understanding is to obey every word that we hear proceeding out of the mouth of God.

III. There is something very pathetic in the old king’s enumeration of the treasures which, by the economies of a lifetime, he had amassed. The amount stated is enormous, and probably there is some clerical error in the numbers specified. Be that as it may, the sum was very large. It represented many an act of self-denial, many a resolute shearing off of superfluities and what might seem necessaries. It was the visible token of long years of fixed attention to one object. And that devotion was all the more noble because the result of it was never to be seen by the man who exercised it.

Therein David is but a very conspicuous example of a law which runs through all our work for God. None of us are privileged to perform completed tasks. ‘One soweth and another reapeth.’ We have to be content to do partial work, and to leave its completion to our successors. There is but one Builder of whom it can be said that His hands ‘have laid the foundation of this house; His hands shall also finish it.’ He who is the ‘Alpha and Omega,’ and He alone, begins and completes the work in which He has neither sharers nor predecessors nor successors. The rest of us do our little bit of the great work which lasts on through the ages, and, having inherited unfinished tasks, transmit them to those who come after us. It is privilege enough for any Christian to lay foundations on which coming days may build. We are like

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the workers on some great cathedral, which was begun long before the present generation of masons were born, and will not be finished until long after they have dropped trowel and mallet from their dead hands. Enough for us if we can lay one course of stones in that great structure. The greater our aims, the less share has each man in their attainment. But the division of labour is the multiplication of joy, and all who have shared in the toil will be united in the final triumph. It would be poor work that was capable of being begun and perfected in a lifetime. The labourer that dug and levelled the track and the engineer that drives the locomotive over it are partners. Solomon could not have built the Temple unless, through long, apparently idle, years, David had been patiently gathering together the wealth which he bequeathed. So, if our work is but preparatory for that of those who come after, let us not think it of slight importance, and let us be sure that all who have had any portion in the toil shall share in the victory, that ‘he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.’

7 David said to Solomon: “My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God.

GILL, "And David said to Solomon,.... When brought into his presence:

my son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God; he was disposed and inclined to it, and was once determined upon it, see 2Sa_7:2.

HENRY, "I. David tells him why he did not do it himself. It was in his mind to do it (1Ch_22:7), but God forbade him, because he had shed much blood, 1Ch_22:8. Some think this refers to the blood of Uriah, which fastened such a reproach upon him as rendered him unworthy the honour of building the temple: but that honour was forbidden him before he had shed that blood; therefore it must be meant, as it is here explained, of the blood he shed in his wars (for he had been a man of war from his

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youth), which, though shed very justly and honourably in the service of God and Israel, yet made him unfit to be employed in this service, or rather less fit than another that had never been called to such bloody work. God, by assigning this as the reason of laying David aside from this work, showed how precious human life is to him, and intended a type of him who should build the gospel temple, not by destroying men's lives, but by saving them, Luk_9:56.

ELLICOTT, " (7) My son.—So some MSS., the Hebrew margin, and LXX., Vulg., Targ. rightly. The Hebrew text reads, “His son,” which is probably an oversight, due to “Solomon his son” in 1 Chronicles 22:6.

As for me, it was in my mind.—Literally, I—it became with (near or in) my heart, i.e., it came into my mind, was my intention. The phrase is common in 2 Chronicles, but rare in the older books. (Comp. 1 Kings 8:17; 1 Kings 10:2; and also Joshua 14:7.) It recurs in 1 Chronicles 28:2 exactly as here.

Unto the name of the Lord.—Comp. 1 Kings 8:29 : “My name shall be there,” i.e., My real presence. The statement of this and the following verses refers to what is told in 1 Chronicles 17:1-14.

WHEDON, "7. It was in my mind to build — See at 1 Chronicles Samuel 1 Chronicles 7:1-17, and 1 Chronicles 17:1-15.

SBC 7-8, "A fine and delicate sense of the becoming hindered David from building the Temple. A voice within him had whispered, "No: however right and praiseworthy the idea, you are hardly the man to carry it out. Your hands are too stained with blood." When the Divine word came, simply interdicting, it awoke in him at once a Divine perception of the reason and reasonableness of it; and the God-taught, God-chastened spirit within him made him see at once why the work of enshrining the ark, the ark of the holy and awful presence, must not be his.

I. Consider the remarkable self-restraint displayed by David. He who had lived much in camps and on the battlefield, whose will was law through the length and breadth of the land—he could stay himself from prosecuting his darling scheme with the thought of incongruity.

II. (1) The self-restraint of David reveals the intense reality which God was to him, as well as the impression which he had of the character of God. How pure and lofty would be his conception of the almighty Ruler when it struck him as altogether inappropriate and inconsistent that a shrine should be built for Him by one who had been engaged, however patriotically and for the interests of his country, in shedding much human blood. (2) The picture indicates that, although a man of war from his youth, David had never been proud of fighting. He had had dreams perhaps in his father’s fields of quite

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another sort of career for himself, and could see something far more attractive and desirable; it was not his ideal life; but it was what his lot had rendered inevitable for him and incumbent on him; it was what he had to do, and he did it. (3) Then, once more, observe revealed here the remarkable preservation of David’s higher sensibilities. Neither the tumult and strife of years of warfare, nor the elation of successes gained by bow and spear, had prevailed to coarsen him, to render him gross and dull of soul. He emerges from it all, on the contrary, sensitive enough to answer readily to the whispered suggestions of seemliness, to be restrained and turned back upon the threshold of a coveted enterprise by a sense of the becoming. (4) Although precluded from doing what he had purposed and wished to do, he did not, as is the case with many, make that an excuse for doing nothing; did not, therefore, sulkily fold his hands, and decline to see what there was that he might do. (5) Then see how his true thought and noble aim survived him, and survived him to be ultimately realised. The Temple grew and rose at last in all its wonderful splendour, though he was not there to behold it.

S. A. Tipple, Echoes of Spoken Words, p. 251.

8 But this word of the Lord came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.

BARNES, "The word of the Lord came to me ... - Not by Nathan 1Ch_17:4-15, but on some other occasion 1Ch_28:3. On the bloody character of David’s wars, see 2Sa_8:2, 2Sa_8:5; 2Sa_10:18; 2Sa_12:31; and 1Ki_11:16.

CLARKE, "hou hast shed blood abundantly - Heathens, Jews, and Christians, have all agreed that soldiers of any kind should have nothing to do with Divine offices. Shedding of human blood but ill comports with the benevolence of God or the spirit of the Gospel.

Aeneas, overpowered by his enemies, while fighting for his parents, his family, and his

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country, finding farther resistance hopeless, endeavors to carry off his aged father, his wife, young son, and his household gods; but as he was just come from slaughter, he would not even handle these objects of superstition, but confided them to his father, whom he took on his shoulders, and carried out of the burning of Troy.

Tu, genitor, cape sacra manu, patriosque penates:Me bello tanto digressum, et caede recenti,Attrectare nefas; donec me flumine vivo Abluero.

Aen. ii., ver. 717.

“Our country gods, our relics, and the bands,Hold you, my father, in your guiltless hands:In me ‘tis impious holy things to bear,Red as I am with slaughter, new from war;Till, in some living stream, I cleanse the guiltOf dire debate, and blood in battle spilt.”

Dryden.

See the note at the end of 2Sa_7:25 (note).

GILL, "But the word of the Lord came to me,.... The word of prophecy, as the Targum, by the mouth of Nathan the prophet:

saying; as follows, which though not expressed in the book of Samuel before referred to, is here recorded by divine inspiration:

thou hast shed blood abundantly; Kimchi thinks this refers to the blood of Uriah, and those gallant men that were slain with him, and to the priests slain by the order of Saul, which David was the occasion of, or accidental cause of, 1Sa_22:22 and to many good men among the Gentiles; though it was the intention of the Lord to consume the wicked among them, that they might not prevail over Israel:

and hast made great wars: with the Philistines, Moabites, &c.

thou shall not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight; an intimation this, that the church of God, of which this house was a type, was to be built by Christ, the Prince of peace, and to be supported and maintained not by force of arms, and by spilling of blood, as the religion of Mahomet, but by the preaching of the Gospel of peace.

BENSON, "1 Chronicles 22:8. Thou hast shed blood, &c.; thou shalt not build a house unto my name — Not that wars are simply unlawful, but to teach us that the church (whereof the temple was an illustrious type) should be built by Christ, the Prince of peace, Isaiah 9:6, and that it should be gathered and built up, not by might or power, but by God’s Spirit, Zechariah 4:6, and by the preaching the gospel of

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peace. David therefore was less fit for that service, than one who had not been called to such bloody work. Likewise, by setting him aside for this reason, God showed how precious human life is to him.

ELLICOTT, " (8) But the word of the Lord came to me (upon me).—Literally, And a word of Jehovah became upon me. There is a partial correspondence between this “word of the Lord” and that which Nathan is represented as delivering (1 Chronicles 17:4-14). There, however, David is promised success in war, without any hint that warfare, as such, would unfit him for the sacred task which he longed to undertake. And in 1 Kings 5:3, Solomon implies that David’s wars left him no leisure for the work.

Thou hast shed blood.—The emphatic word is “blood.” Literally, Blood in abundance hast thou shed, and great wars hast thou made.

Because thou hast shed much blood.—Better. for torrents of blood (plural) hast thou shed earthward before me. The author of this narrative may well have remembered Genesis 9:5-6, and the denunciations of the prophets against men of blood. (Comp. especially Amos 1:3; Amos 1:13; Amos 2:1, with David’s treatment of the conquered Ammonites, 1 Chronicles 20:3. And see also Hosea’s denunciation of vengeance upon the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel: Hosea 1:4; Hosea 7:7). Or the verse may express the interpretation which David’s own conscience put upon the oracle forbidding him to build the Temple.

WHEDON, " 8. The word of the Lord came to me — Probably by Nathan, but not at the time referred to in 1 Chronicles 17:3, and 2 Samuel 7:4. At that time Jehovah opened to David’s prophetic eye that Messianic future which ever after was his joy and song; but at another time he sent Nathan again to explain to him the reason, as here given, why he should not build the temple of Jehovah.

Because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight — The wars of David were not carried on against God’s will. In many cases they were expressly ordered by Jehovah, and often called the “wars of the Lord.” In order to the establishment of Israel in Canaan wars and bloodshed were unavoidable. Nevertheless, the bloodshed and barbarity of war were not in harmony with the profound symbolism of peace, sabbatic quiet, and thoughtful repose, which were to be embodied in the house of Jehovah. Hence David’s unfitness to build the temple.

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Comp. 1 Kings 5:3.

PARKER, ""And David said to Song of Solomon , My Song of Solomon , as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God: but the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight."— 1 Chronicles 22:7, 1 Chronicles 22:8.

How the word of the Lord came to David we do not know. He says the word of Jehovah came upon him.—Possibly he may only be putting into words his own spiritual impressions on a review of his sanguinary career.—We are not to understand that the words were delivered articulately to David, as he listened to a voice from heaven; they may have been so delivered, or an impression may have been wrought upon his mind that these words alone can correctly represent.—In what way soever the communication was made to David, the communication itself is of singular moral value.—Say that the Lord delivered the message immediately in audible words, we have then the doctrine that God will not permit men of blood to end their career as if they had been guiltless of bloodshedding.—He will make a distinction between them and the work to the execution of which they aspire. Say that David uttered these words out of the depths of his own consciousness, then we have the doctrine that there is a moral fitness of things: that hands stained with blood should not be put forth in the erection of a house of prayer.—There are innumerable difficulties connected with the whole situation, for we have been given to understand that the Lord himself commanded certain of the wars to be undertaken; but what know we of God"s idea of undertaking a war? There may be a war within a war; it may be that God scrutinizes even the motives of warriors, and notes when the warrior degenerates into a mere murderer, or when the warrior begins to thirst for the blood which he has once tasted.—Into these mysteries we cannot enter; it is enough for us to know that God will separate his temple, his house of prayer, from every hand that is destructive of human life, from all that is sanguinary, and from all that is personally or nationally ambitious.—The house of God is to be the house of peace, the sanctuary of rest, a Sabbatic building, calm with the tranquillity of heaven, unstained by the vices and attachments of earth.—David submits to this view of the case with a modesty which is truly pious.—Not one word of reproach does he utter against God.—If David could have found an excuse in having received the commandment of God to execute certain wars he would have

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remembered the giving of that commission, and would have reminded God that as a soldier he was not acting in his own name, but in the name of heaven.—As David quoted no such precedent or authority we may safely conclude that there was something unrecorded in the history which would explain God"s condemnation of David"s sanguinary conduct.—It is not incumbent upon annotators and theologians to whitewash Old Testament saints; God himself has permitted their lives to be traced in his book with graphic and even revolting clearness, and nowhere are Old Testament saints so sharply rebuked as in the Old Testament itself.

PULPIT, "Because thou hast shed much blood. This is repeated very distinctly below (1 Chronicles 28:3), and appears there again as acknowledged by the lip of David himself. It seems remarkable that no previous statement of this objection, nor even allusion to it, is found. Further, there seems no very opportune place for it in either our 1 Chronicles 17:1-15 or in 2 Samuel 7:1-17. Yet, if it seem impossible to resist the impression that it must have found expression on the occasion referred to in those two passages, we may fit it in best between 2 Samuel 7:10 and 2 Samuel 7:11 of the former reference, and between 2 Samuel 7:11 and 2 Samuel 7:12 of the latter. So far, however, as our Hebrew text goes, this is the first place in which the statement is made.

9 But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon,[a] and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign.

BARNES, "For the names of Solomon, compare 2Sa_12:24 note. The former name prevailed, probably on account of this prophecy, which attached to the name the

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promise of a blessing.

CLARKE, "His name shall be Solomon - שלמה Shelomoh, from שלם shalam, he

was peaceable; and therefore, says the Lord, alluding to the name, I will give Peace, שלום

Shalom, in his days.

GILL, "Behold, a son shall be born to thee,.... For this was said to David before the birth of Solomon, see 2Sa_7:12.

who shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: and so should be at leisure for such a work, and his people enjoy great prosperity and riches, and so be capable of contributing largely and liberally to it:

for his name shall be Solomon; which signifies peace, and is one of the six persons that had their names given them before they were born, as the Jews observe (q):

and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days; and so a proper time to begin and carry on such a work; of the fulfilment of this prophecy, see 1Ki_4:24.

HENRY, "II. He gives him the reason why he imposed this task upon him. 1. Because God had designed him for it, nominated him as the man that should do it: A son shall be born to thee, that shall be called Solomon, and he shall build a house for my name, 1Ch_22:9, 1Ch_22:10. Nothing is more powerful to engage us to any service for God, and encourage us in it, than to know that hereunto we are appointed. 2. Because he would have leisure and opportunity to do it. He should be a man of rest, and therefore should not have his time, or thoughts, or wealth, diverted from this business. He should have rest from his enemies abroad (none of them should invade or threaten him, or give him provocation), and he should have peace and quietness at home; and therefore let him build the house. Note, Where God gives rest he expects work. 3. Because God had promised to establish his kingdom. Let this encourage him to honour God, that God had honour in store for him; let him build up God's house, and God will build up his throne. Note, God's gracious promises should quicken and invigorate our religious service.

ELLICOTT, " (9) Shall be born.—Is about to be born (participle).

Who shall be.—He (emphatic) shall become a man of rest, opposed to “a man of war,” such as was David (2 Samuel 17:8; 1 Chronicles 28:3). The phrase is further explained by what follows.

And I will give him rest from all his enemies round about—i.e., the surrounding

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peoples, who are his natural foes, seeing that they were brought under the yoke by his father, will acquiesce in his dominion. The same words are used, in a somewhat different sense. about David (2 Samuel 7:1); and in 1 Kings 5:4 Solomon applies them to himself. (Comp. also Proverbs 16:7.)

Solomon.—The emphatic word. (See 2 Samuel 12:24.) The Hebrew is Shĕlômô; for which the LXX. gives Sălômôn; Syriac, Shĕleimûn; Arabic, Suleimân (same as “Solyman the Magnificent”). The original form of the word had the final n which we see in the cognate languages. The Assyrian Shalman (in Shalmaneser) and the Moabite Salamanu seem to be identical. The Vulg. has Pacificus (peace-maker). (Comp. the Greek Irenæeus, the German Friederich, our “Frederick,” peaceful.) Sŏlŏmon is the New Testament spelling.

It would seem that the original name of Solomon was Jedidiah (2 Samuel 12:25), but posterity, looking back with fond regret to the palmy days of his reign, remembered him only as Shelomoh, “The Peaceful.” (See on 1 Chronicles 20:5.)

And I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.—Literally, and peace and quietness will I put upon Israel, &c. His name will be a Divine augury of the character of his reign.

Quietness (shèqet).—Only here; but compare the cognate verb (Judges 5:31 : “had rest”).

WHEDON, "9. His name shall be Solomon — See note on 2 Samuel 12:24-25.

PARKER, ""Behold a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest."— 1 Chronicles 22:9.

This is a beautiful expression, as signifying a departure from the ordinary law of heredity, and as indicating the speciality of divine creation.—It would be quite proper to recognise a law of evolution in the succession of families, and indeed it is impossible to deny the operation of such a law, yet, curiously. again and again, with quite remarkable repetition, God undertakes, so to say, to start a new family point, or a new-family line.—The time comes when the warrior departs, and the man of peace enters into the household genealogy.—Singularly enough, the genealogy is still one, yet there are specialities about it which seem to proclaim the directing providence of God in certain singular actions, which detach themselves from the common run of events, and create new eras in family history.—This is a forecast

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which is full of moral instruction; for example, it shows how God knows every man who is coming into the world, what his character will be, what function he will have to discharge, and what will be the effect of his ministry upon his day and generation.—Solomon could not have come before David, because the day in which David lived was marked by characteristics which he alone could adequately and usefully handle.—By-and-by we shall see that history could not have been inverted even in its smallest details without injury having been done to the indwelling spirit of progress.—We wish that certain persons were living now, or that certain men now living had lived long ago to have exerted a happy influence upon a remote age: here we speak in our ignorance: the Christian believes that every event is ordered from above, that every man is born at the right time, is permitted to live for a proper period if he be obedient to providence, and that the mission of every man is assigned, limited, and accentuated: all we have to do is to say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me do?" and to obey what we honestly believe to be the voice from heaven.—The prophecy was delivered to David after Solomon"s birth, and yet it is delivered as if it were yet to be fulfilled. Again we are reminded, that we must make ourselves familiar with the Biblical usage of words.—We have often affirmed the doctrine that we can only understand parts of the Bible by living in the spirit of the whole Bible.—The Bible is more than a book of grammar; we have said, and we repeat, that the Bible is not a piece of literature, but is a divine Revelation , and a divine revelation which must be judged by standards and tests peculiar to itself.—The name of David"s successor was to be "Solomon." That is the emphatic word. The very word is indicative of peace.—The name was the character.—Yet mark carefully how God does not allow Solomon to be the fount and origin of peace, but rather how Solomon represents the then idea of the divine administration of affairs,—"I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days."—So the Lord still keeps everything within his own power and uses even the highest men as his agents and instruments.—The Lord does not only give peace, he gives unrest, tumult; he is a man of war, he is a God of battles; his banner is often stained with blood.—We should read history incorrectly if we looked only at its religious side, expressive of contentment, dependence, and thankfulness, and regarded that side alone as under the care of God.—The Lord is in every battlefield; in a sense which will be explained when we are able to receive the explanation; the Lord is the author of war, and without tumult he could not have brought in peace: without David he could not have brought in Solomon to rule over his people Israel.

PULPIT, "Shall be born. This is not the necessary translation of the verb. The form does not express here future time. Solomon was already born when the word of נולד

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the Lord came to David. On the other hand, we may suppose special emphasis to belong to the clause, His name shall be Solomon. The name designates the man of peace, and the clause is an announcement, probably intended to throw further into the shade the alternative name Jedidiah, which also had been divinely given (2 Samuel 12:24, 2 Samuel 12:25).

10 He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’

GILL, "He shall build an house for my name,.... For the worship of God, and for his honour and glory:

and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; see 2Sa_7:13 and which is applied to Christ, Heb_1:5.

and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever; that is, for a long time in his posterity; and which will have its fulfilment in Christ, his antitype, in the utmost sense of the expression, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his throne for ever and ever, Luk_1:32.

ELLICOTT, "(10) He shall build an house.—Comp. 1 Chronicles 17; parts of 1 Chronicles 22:11-13 are here repeated. (See the Notes there.)

PULPIT, "The substance of this verse is found also in Nathan's language (1 Chronicles 17:12, 1 Chronicles 17:13; 2 Samuel 7:13, 2 Samuel 7:14).

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11 “Now, my son, the Lord be with you, and may you have success and build the house of the Lord your God, as he said you would.

GILL, "Now, my son, the Lord be with thee, &c. Or "shall be with thee" (r), as some; and if it be as a prayer, it was no doubt a prayer of faith; the Targum is,"may the Word of the Lord be thine help:"

and prosper thee; may success attend thee:

and build the house of the Lord thy God, as he hath said of thee; foretold he should, and therefore would assist him to do it, which was an encouragement to go about it.

K&D, "After David had so committed to his son Solomon the building of the temple, as task reserved and destined for him by the divine counsel, he wishes him, in 1Ch_22:11, the help of the Lord to carry out the work. והצלחת, ut prospere agas et felici

successu utaris (J. M. Mich.), cf. Jos_1:8. דבר על of a command from on high; cf.

f, 1Ch_22:8. Above all, however, he wishes (1Ch_22:12) him right understanding. עלי

and insight from God (שכל ובינה, so connected in 2Ch_2:11 also), and that God may establish him over Israel, i.e., furnish him with might and wisdom to rule over the people Israel; cf. 2Sa_7:11. ר to observe” = and mayest thou observe the law of“ ,ולשמ

Jahve; not thou must keep (Berth.), for ר is to be regarded as a continuation of the ולשמverb. finit.; cf. Ew. §351, c, S. 840.

ELLICOTT, " (11) The Lord be with thee.—See 1 Chronicles 9:20. (1 Samuel 3:19; 2 Kings 18:7 : “The Lord was with him.”) The phrase is the origin of the familiar liturgical formula, “The Lord be with you.”

And prosper thou, and build the house.—Not a command, but a wish, i.e., mayest

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thou prosper and build. The verb “prosper” (literally, carry through, make succeed) is used transitively in 2 Chronicles 7:11 and Genesis 24:40.

As he hath said of (upon) thee.—This phrase (dibbèr ‘al) is specially used of Divine threats and promises. (See Genesis 18:19; Isaiah 37:22; and comp. 1 Chronicles 22:8, above: “And the word of the Lord became upon me.”)

GUZIK, "2. (1 Chronicles 22:11-13) David warns Solomon to stay faithful to God and His word.

“Now, my son, may the LORD be with you; and may you prosper, and build the house of the LORD your God, as He has said to you. Only may the LORD give you wisdom and understanding, and give you charge concerning Israel, that you may keep the law of the LORD your God. Then you will prosper, if you take care to fulfill the statutes and judgments with which the LORD charged Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and of good courage; do not fear nor be dismayed.”

a. May the LORD be with you; and may you prosper, and build the house of the LORD your God: The Chronicler emphasized David’s legacy and Solomon’s mission to build the temple. This would become by far Solomon’s greatest accomplishment.

b. That you may keep the law of the LORD your God: David knew that Solomon could not be strong or courageous without obedient fellowship with God. In this place of obedient fellowship, Solomon would prosper in all that he did.

c. Be strong and of good courage; do not fear nor be dismayed: Solomon could take courage and reject fear because God promised David that as long as his sons walked in obedience, they would keep the throne of Israel (1 Kings 2:1-4).

i. This is an amazing promise. No matter what the Assyrians or the Egyptians or the Babylonians did, as long as David’s sons were obedient and followed God with their heart and with all their soul, God would establish their kingdom. He would take care of the rest.

12 May the Lord give you discretion and 38

understanding when he puts you in command over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.

GILL, "Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding,.... To manage and conduct an affair of such importance, as well as to govern the people, as follows:

and give thee charge concerning Israel; or, when he gives, commits the charge of them to thee, sets thee king over them:

that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God; have wisdom and understanding to do that, and make that the rule of all thine actions, private and public, in thine own house, in the house of God, and in all things relative to that, and in the government of the nation.

HENRY, "VII. He prays for him: The Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, 1Ch_22:12. Whatever charge we have, if we see God giving us the charge and calling us to it, we may hope he will give us wisdom for the discharge of it. Perhaps Solomon had an eye to this prayer of his father for him, in the prayer he offered for himself: Lord, give me a wise and understanding heart. He concludes (1Ch_22:16), Up, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee. Hope of God's presence must not slacken our endeavours. Though the Lord be with us, we must rise and be doing, and, if we do this, we have reason to believe he is and will be with us. Work out your salvation, and God will work in you.

ELLICOTT, " (12) Only the Lord give thee wisdom.—Better, at least may the Lord give, &c.; restricting the wish to one supremely important point. (For Solomon’s wisdom, comp. 1 Kings 3:9-15.)

And give thee charge concerning Israel.—Rather, and appoint thee over Israel (2 Samuel 7:11). Solomon had been indicated as David’s successor, and David intended it so; yet his wish and prayer for the Divine ratification of this Divine appointment was by no means superfluous, unless Solomon were exempt from human liability to err.

That thou mayest keep.—Rather, and mayest thou keep (the infinitive construct): a

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favourite continuative construction with the chronicler.

PULPIT, "The father's prayer for the son, and in his hearing, will have often recurred to the memory of Solomon, and may have been the germ of the son's own prayer, which "pleased the Lord" (1 Kings 3:5-14; 2 Chronicles 1:7-12).

13 Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the Lord gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.

BARNES, "Be strong ... - David adopts the words of Moses to the Israelites (compare the marginal references) and to Joshua.

GILL, "Then shall thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes,.... See 1Ki_2:2 where the same things are said as here: which shows that this was spoken by David a little before his death.

HENRY, "IV. He charges them to keep God's commandments and to take heed to his duty in every thing, 1Ch_22:13. He must not think by building the temple to purchase a dispensation to sin; no, on the contrary, his doing that would not be accepted, nor accounted of, if he did not take heed to fulfil the statutes which the Lord charged Moses with, 1Ch_22:13. Though he was to be king of Israel, he must always remember that he was a subject to the God of Israel.

V. He encourages him to go about this great work, and to go on in it (1Ch_22:13): “Be strong, and of good courage, Though it is a vast undertaking, thou needest not fear coming under the reproach of the foolish builder, who began to build and was not able to finish it; it is God's work, and it shall come to perfection. Dread not, nor be dismayed.” In our spiritual work, as well as in our spiritual warfare, we have need of courage and

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resolution.

K&D, "The condition of obtaining the result is the faithful observing of the commands of the Lord. The speech is filled with reminiscences of the law, cf. Deu_7:11; Deu_11:32; and for the exhortation to be strong and of good courage, cf. Deu_31:6; Jos_1:7, Jos_1:9, etc.

ELLICOTT, " (13) Then shalt thou prosper.—The verse makes it quite clear that obedience was an indispensable condition to the full realisation of the promise. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 22:10 with the actual after-course of history.) Yet the word of the Lord does not return unto Him void; and if the earthly dynasty of David came to an end through disobedience, in due time was born an heir of David and Solomon, who is at this day the Lord of a spiritual dominion which will endure throughout the ages.

If thou takest heed to fulfil.—Literally, if thou keep to do the statutes and judgments: language which is obviously a reminiscence of Deuteronomy. (Comp. Deuteronomy 7:11; Deuteronomy 11:32.)

Be strong, and of good courage.—Or, Be stout and staunch! a frequent phrase in Joshua (1 Chronicles 1:7, &c.).

Dread not, nor be dismayed.—So Deuteronomy 1:21; Deuteronomy 31:8; Joshua 1:9.

Dismayed.—Broken, i.e., in spirit: metu fractus. (Comp. “Solomon my son is young and timid,” 1 Chronicles 22:5.)

PARKER, ""Be strong and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed."— 1 Chronicles 22:13.

We have read that Solomon was young and tender, young and timid; it would seem as if David, recognising the timidity of his Song of Solomon , specially charged him to cultivate courage, bravery, fearlessness.—This was training up a child in the way he should go.—We are too fond of training our strongest faculties, and thus we are tempted to neglect the weaker side of our nature.—Find out the weak side of a child"s character, and address yourselves assiduously to its cultivation.—We should

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seek to fill the empty sack, not to overcrowd the full one.—Bring into play the muscles that are most difficult to get at, and do not overtrain those which afford the fairest prospect of immediate results.—Our most backward faculty must be exercised.—When we complain of a weak memory, or a hesitant will, or a defective imagination, we should address ourselves to the cultivation of that which is in special need of culture. On the other hand, what man regards as of the nature of defect and lack, God may account as a special excellence, and even a peculiar qualification for a particular work.—God did not want a man to go to temple building with the air of a warrior, with the port of a hero, with the aggressiveness of one who was about to storm a fortress.—As Solomon advances to his sacred work with a timid air, with a modesty which hides his strength, we may see the qualities which God most appreciates.—Throughout the whole of human history God has never hesitated to declare that a meek and a quiet spirit is in his sight of great price.—Clothing himself with his eternity as with a vesture, and inhabiting infinity as a dwelling-place, he declares that he will look to the man who is of a humble and a contrite spirit, and who trembleth at his word.—When did the Lord select some towering man to be his agent or instrument in critical periods of history?—Who has not been amazed to see how God will take weak things with which to oppose things that are mighty, and even things that are not, to bring to nought things that are?—When the Son of man came upon the earth, the most conspicuous thing, in the estimation of some observers, was his timidity, his meekness, his almost fear.—For a time he ran away from the face of Prayer of Manasseh , and in protracted solitude prepared himself for the few agonistic years of his ministry; he did not strive, nor cry, nor cause his voice to be lifted up in the streets; he was womanly, gentle, tender, patient, and he concealed his almightiness under his all-pitifulness.—No mistakes are greater than those which are often made about strength.—We forget that moderation is power.—We neglect to admit the full meaning of the doctrine that in proportion as a man is really capable is he profoundly serene; if he were uncertain of his strength he would be turbulent, agitated, impatient, and through his foolish excitement we should discover his self-misgiving. Everywhere God"s servants are called to fearlessness, to strength, to good courage.—Jesus Christ called men in this direction; the Apostle Paul, speaking of every one who would be a faithful servant of the Cross, says, "Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

PULPIT, "The references to olden time, and the pointed reference to Moses, must be regarded as emphatic. In 1 Chronicles 28:20 we find the additional words, "and do it," inserted after the animated and intensely earnest exhortation, Be strong, and of good courage. This inspiriting summons was no new one. It was probably already

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hallowed in the name of religious language, and would be often quoted (Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 31:5-8; Joshua 1:5-9).

14 “I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the Lord a hundred thousand talents[b] of gold, a million talents[c] of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. And you may add to them.

BARNES, "In my trouble - See the margin. David refers to the manifold troubles of his reign, which had prevented him from accumulating very much treasure.

An hundred thousand talents of gold ... - We do not know the value of the Hebrew talent at this period, and therefore these numbers may be sound. But in that case we must suppose an enormous difference between the pre-Babylonian and the post-Babylonian talents. According to the value of the post-Babylonian Hebrew talent, the gold here spoken of would be worth more than 1 billion of our British pounds sterling, while the silver would be worth ahove 400 million pounds. Accumulations to anything like this amount are inconceivable under the circumstances, and we must therefore either suppose the talents of David’s time to have been little more than the 100th part of the later talents, or regard the numbers of this verse as augmentcd at least a hundredfold by corruption. Of the two the latter is certainly the more probable supposition.

CLARKE, "In my trouble - See the margin. David refers to the manifold troubles of his reign, which had prevented him from accumulating very much treasure.

An hundred thousand talents of gold ... - We do not know the value of the Hebrew talent at this period, and therefore these numbers may be sound. But in that case we must suppose an enormous difference between the pre-Babylonian and the post-Babylonian talents. According to the value of the post-Babylonian Hebrew talent, the gold here spoken of would be worth more than 1 billion of our British pounds sterling,

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while the silver would be worth ahove 400 million pounds. Accumulations to anything like this amount are inconceivable under the circumstances, and we must therefore either suppose the talents of David’s time to have been little more than the 100th part of the later talents, or regard the numbers of this verse as augmentcd at least a hundredfold by corruption. Of the two the latter is certainly the more probable supposition.

GILL, "Now, behold, in my trouble,.... Or affliction, which had attended him, through the greater part of his reign, partly through wars abroad, and partly through rebellions and insurrections at home: or:

in my poverty (a); living in a frugal way, as if he had been a poor man, in order to lay up money for this purpose:

I have prepared for the house of the Lord; for the building of it, and for things to be used in it:

an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; a prodigious sum, be it reckoned as it will; the gold, according to Scheuchzer (b) was answerable to 1,222,000,000 ducats of gold; according to Waserus (c) the talents of gold made six hundred millions of Hungarian pieces of gold, or 6000 tons of gold; our Brerewood (d) makes them to amount to 450,000,000 pounds; but this being a sum so excessive large as what exceeds the riches of any monarch read of in history, he thinks (e) the word "kikkar" signifies a mass or cake of gold of an uncertain value; or that this talent was of a lesser value than the Mosaic one, as there were small talents in the times of Homer (f), as he observes, and some of different worth in various countries. The silver, taking gold to be in proportion to silver as ten to one, as it formerly was, is just of the same value with the gold; but Brerewood, who takes it to be as twelve to one, computes it at 375,000,000 pounds; but the proportion of gold to silver is now grown, as Bishop Cumberland observes (g), to above fourteen to one. According to Scheuchzer the silver talents amounted to 4,500,000,000 imperials or rix dollars; according to Witsius (h) the gold and silver both amounted to 3000 and nine hundred millions of pieces of gold; but Josephus (i) has reduced these sums very much, making them to be 10,000 talents of gold, and 100,000 of silver. Dr. Prideaux (k) says that what is said to be given by David here, and in 1Ch_29:3 and by his princes, 1Ch_29:6 if valued by the Mosaic talent, exceeded the value of eight hundred million of our money, which was enough to have built the whole temple of solid silver:

and of brass and iron without weight, for it is in abundance; there was so much of both, that it was too much trouble to take the weight and value of them:

timber also and stone have I prepared; see 1Ch_22:2.

and thou mayest add thereunto; which might easily be obtained, there being not a sufficiency of either of them prepared for the work.

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HENRY, "III. He delivers him an account of the vast preparations he had made for this building (1Ch_22:14), not in a way of pride and vain glory (he speaks of it as a poor thing - I have, in my poverty, prepared, margin), but as an encouragement to Solomon to engage cheerfully in the work, for which so solid a foundation was laid. The treasure here mentioned of the 100,000 talents of gold, and 1,000,000 talents of silver, amounts to such an incredible sum that most interpreters either allow an error in the copy or think the talent here signifies no more than a plate or piece: ingots we call them. I am inclined to suppose that a certain number is here put for an uncertain, because it is said (1Ch_22:16) that of the gold and silver, as well as of the brass and iron, there was no number, and that David here includes all the dedicated things (1Ch_18:11) which he designed for the house of the Lord, that is, not only for the building of it, but for the treasure of it; and putting all together, it might come pretty near what is here spoken of. Hundreds and thousands are numbers which we often use to express that which is very much, when yet we would not be understood strictly.

K&D, "In conclusion (1Ch_22:14-16), David mentions what materials he has prepared for the building of the temple. בעניי, not, in my poverty (lxx, Vulg., Luth.), but, by my painful labour (magna molestia et labore, Lavat.); cf. Gen_31:42, and the corresponding חי 1Ch_29:2. Gold 100,000 talents, and silver 1,000,000 ,בכל־כtalents. As the talent was 3000 shekels, and the silver shekel coined by the Maccabees, according to the Mosaic weight, was worth about 2s. 6d., the talent of silver would be about £375, and 1,000,000 talents £375,000,000. If we suppose the relative value of the gold and silver to be as 10 to 1,100,000 talents of gold will be about the same amount, or even more, viz., about £450,000,000, i.e., if we take the gold shekel at thirty shillings, according to Thenius' calculation. Such sums as eight hundred or eight hundred and twenty-five millions of pounds are incredible. The statements, indeed, are not founded upon exact calculation or weighing, but, as the round numbers show, only upon a general valuation of those masses of the precious metals, which we must not think of as bars of silver and gold, or as coined money; for they were in great part vessels of gold and silver, partly booty captured in war, partly tribute derived from the subject peoples. Making all these allowances, however, the sums mentioned are incredibly great, since we must suppose that even a valuation in round numbers will have more or less correspondence to the actual weight, and a subtraction of some thousands of talents from the sums mentioned would make no very considerable diminution. On the other hand, it is a much more important circumstance that the above estimate of the value in our money of these talents of silver rests upon a presumption, the correctness of which is open to well-founded doubts. For in that calculation the weight of the Mosaic or holy shekel is taken as the standard, and it is presumed that the talents weighed 3000 Mosaic shekels. But we find in 2Sa_14:26 mention made in David's time of another shekel, “according to the kings' weight,” whence we may with certainty conclude that in common life another shekel than the Mosaic or holy shekel was in use. This shekel according to the king's weight was in all probability only half as heavy as the shekel of the sanctuary, i.e., was equal in weight to a Mosaic beka or half-shekel. This is proved by a comparison of 1Ki_10:17 with 2Ch_9:16, for here three golden minae are reckoned equal to 300 shekels-a mina containing 100 shekels, while it contained only 50 holy or Mosaic shekels. With this view, too, the statements of the Rabbins agree, e.g., R. Mosis Maimonidis constitutiones de Siclis, quas - illustravit Joa. Esgers., Lugd. Bat. 1718, p.

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19, according to which the שקל שלחול or שקל המדינה, i.e., the common or civil shekel,

is the half of the שקל הקדש. That this is the true relation, is confirmed by the fact that, according to Exo_38:26, in the time of Moses there existed silver coins weighing ten gera (half a holy shekel) called beka, while the name beka is found only in the Pentateuch, and disappears at a later time, probably because it was mainly such silver coins of ten gera which were in circulation, and to them the name shekel, which denotes no definite weight, was transferred. Now, if the amounts stated in our verse are reckoned in such common shekels (as in 2Ch_9:16), the mass of gold and silver collected by David for the building of the temple would only be worth half the amount above calculated, i.e., about £375,000,000 or £400,000,000. But even this sum seems enormously large, for it is five times the annual expenditure of the greatest European states in our day.

(Note: According to Otto Hübner, Statistical Table of all Lands of the Earth, 18th edition, Frankf. a M. 1869, the yearly expenditure of Great Britain and Ireland (exclusive of the extra-European possessions) amounts to a little over £70,000,000; of the French Empire, to £85,000,000; of Russia, to about £78,000,000; of Austria and Hungary, to £48,500,000.)

Yet the calculation of the income or expenditure of modern states is no proper standard for judging of the correctness of probability of the statements here made, for we cannot estimate the accumulation of gold and silver in the states and chief cities of Asia in antiquity by the budgets of the modern European nations. In the capitals of the Asiatic kingdoms of antiquity, enormous quantities of the precious metals were accumulated. Not to mention the accounts of Ktesias, Diodor. Sic., and others, which sound so fabulous to us now, as to the immense booty in gold and silver vessels which was accumulated in Nineveh and Babylon (see the table in Movers, die Phönizier, ii. 3, S. 40ff.), according to Varro, in Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxii. 15, Cyrus obtained by the conquest of Asia a booty of 34,000 pounds of gold, besides that which was wrought into vessels and ornaments, and 500,000 talents of silver; and in this statement, as Movers rightly remarks, it does not seem probable that there is any exaggeration. In Susa, Alexander plundered the royal treasury of 40,000, according to other accounts 50,000 talents, or, as it is more accurately stated, 40,000 talents of uncoined gold and silver, and 9000 talents in coined darics. These he caused to be brought to Ecbatana, where he accumulated in all 180,000 talents. In Persepolis he captured a booty of 120,000 talents, and in Pasargada 6000 talents (see Mov. loc cit. S. 43). Now David, it is true, had not conquered Asia, but only the tribes and kingdoms bordering on Canaan, including the kingdom of Syria, and made them tributary, and had consecrated all the gold and silver taken as booty from the conquered peoples, from the Syrians, Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, Amalekites, and Hadadezer the king of Zobah (2Sa_8:11.), to Jahve. Now, in consequence of the ancient connection between Syria and the rich commercial countries of the neighbourhood, great treasures of silver and gold had very early flowed in thither. According to 2Sa_8:7, the servants (i.e., generals) of King Hadadezer had golden shields, which David captured; and the ambassadors of King Toi of Hamath brought him vessels of silver, gold, and copper, to purchase his friendship.

(Note: Apropos of the riches of Syria even in later times, Movers reminds us, S. 45, of the rich temple treasures - of the statue of Jupiter in Antioch, which was of pure gold and fifteen yards high, and of the golden statues in the temple at Hierapolis - and adds: “Even Antiochus the Great had immense treasures in his possession. The private soldiers in his army had their half-boots studded with gold nails, and their cooking utensils were of silver.” See the proofs, loc cit.)

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The other peoples whom David overcame are not to be regarded as poor in the precious metals. For the Israelites under Moses had captured so large a booty in gold rings, bracelets, and other ornaments from the nomadic Midianites, that the commanders of the army alone were able to give 16,750 shekels (i.e., over 5 1/2 talents of gold, according to the Mosaic weight) to the sanctuary as a consecrating offering (Num_31:48.).

We cannot therefore regard the sums mentioned in our verse either as incredible or very much exaggerated,

(Note: As Berth. for example does, expressing himself as follows: “In our verse, 100,000 talents of gold, 1,000,000 talents of silver, - a sum with which the debts of the European nations might almost be paid! It is absolutely inadmissible to take these at their literal value, and to consider them as a repetition, though perhaps a somewhat exaggerated one, of actual historical statements. They can have been originally nothing else than the freest periphrasis for much, an extraordinary quantity, such as may even yet be heard from the mouths of those who have not reflected on the value and importance of numbers, and consequently launch out into thousands and hundreds of thousands, in an extremely unprejudiced way.” On this we remark: (1) The assertion that with the sums named in our verse the debts of the European nations could be paid, is an enormous exaggeration. According to O. Hübner's tables, the national debt of Great Britain and Ireland alone amounts to £809,000,000, that of France to £564,000,000, that of Russia to £400,000,000, that of Austria to £354,000,000, and that of the kingdom of Italy to £258,000,000; David's treasures, consequently, if the weight be taken in sacred shekels, would only have sufficed to pay the national debt of Great Britain and Ireland. (2) The hypothesis that the chronicler, without reflecting on the value and importance of numbers, has launched out into thousands and hundreds of thousands, presupposes such a measure of intellectual poverty as is irreconcilable with evidences of intellect and careful planning such as are everywhere else observable in his writing.)

nor hold the round sums which correspond to the rhetorical character of the passage with certainty to be mistakes.

(Note: As proof of the incorrectness of the above numbers, it cannot be adduced “that, according to 1Ki_10:14, Solomon's yearly revenue amounted to 666 talents of gold, i.e., to about £3,000,000 in gold; that the queen of Sheba presented Solomon with 120 talents of gold, 1Ki_10:10; 2Ch_9:9; and King Hiram also gave him a similar amount, 1Ki_9:14; all of which sums the context shows are to be considered extraordinarily great” (Berth.). For the 666 talents of gold are not the entire annual income of Solomon, but, according to the distinct statement of the Biblical historian, are only the annual income in gold, exclusive of the receipts from the customs, and the tributes of the subject kings and tribes, which were probably more valuable. The 120 talents of the queen of Sheba are certainly a very large present, but Solomon would give in return not inconsiderable presents also. But the quantities of silver and gold which David had collected for the building of the temple had not been saved out of his yearly income, but had been in great part captured as booty in war, and laid up out of the tribute of the subject peoples. A question which would more readily occur than this is, Whether such enormous sums were actually necessary for the temple? But the materials necessary to enable us to arrive at even a proximate estimate of this building are entirely wanting. The building of a stone temple from 60 to 70 yards long, 20 yards broad, and 30 yards high, would certainly not have cost so much, notwithstanding that, as we read in 2Ch_3:8., 650 talents of gold were required to

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gild the inner walls of the Holy Place, and at the same rate 2000 talents must have been required to gild the inside of the Sanctuary, which was three times as large; and notwithstanding the great number of massive gold vessels, e.g., the ten golden candlesticks, for which alone, even if they were no larger and heavier than the candlesticks in the tabernacle, ten talents of gold must have been required. But there belonged to the temple many subordinate buildings, which are not further described; as also the colossal foundation structures and the walls enclosing the temple area, the building of which must have swallowed up millions, since Solomon sent 70,000 porters and 80,000 stone-hewers to Lebanon to procure the necessary materials. Consul Rosen has recently indeed attempted to show, in das Haram von Jerusalem und der Tempelplatz des Moria, Botha (1866), that there is reason to suppose that the temple area was enlarged to the size it is known to have had, and surrounded by a wall only by Herod; but he has been refuted by Himpel in the Tübinger theol. Quartalschr. 1867, S. 515f., who advances very weighty reasons against his hypothesis. Finally, we must have regard to the statement in 1Ki_7:51 and 2Ch_5:1, that Solomon, after the building was finished, deposited the consecrated silver and gold collected by his father David among the temple treasures. Whence we learn that the treasures collected by David were not intended merely for the building of the House of God.)

Brass and iron were not weighed for abundance; cf. 1Ch_22:3. Beams of timber also, and stones - that is, stones hewed and squared - David had prepared; and to this store Solomon was to add. That he did so is narrated in 2 Chr. 2.

BENSON, "1 Chronicles 22:14. Behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord — This he alleges as a reason why he could do no more, because of the many troubles and wars in which he had been engaged, both foreign and domestic, whereby much of his treasure had been exhausted. A hundred thousand talents of gold, &c. — The sum here mentioned is so great, according to the usually computed value of a talent, being not less than three hundred and sixty millions sterling, that most interpreters conclude, either that some error has crept into the text through the inaccuracy of transcribers, or else that the word ככרים, chicharim, should not be translated talents, in this place, but only masses, plates, or pieces, such as we call ingots, of gold and silver. And thus Budæus observes in his book De Asse, that in Homer’s time there was a talent of lesser value; for he speaks of two talents which were given with other things as a reward of a victory obtained in some exercises. Such talents he thinks we are to understand in this place; for David reigned about the time of the rise of the kingdom of the Assyrians, which was not very far from the time of Homer. Houbigant translates the former part of this verse, But I, according to my poor ability, have prepared a hundred talents of gold, and a thousand talents of silver. See Joseph. Antiq., 50.7, c. 14, sect. 2.

ELLICOTT, " (14) In my trouble.—Rather, by my toil or pains. (Comp. 1

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Chronicles 29:2 : “I have prepared with all my might.”) In Genesis 31:42 the same expression is equated with “the labour of my hands.” The LXX. and Vulg. wrongly render “in” or “according to my poverty.”

An hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver.—The gold talent is usually valued at £6,000, the silver talent at £400 sterling. If this reckoning be approximately correct, the numbers of the text are incredibly large. It is noticeable that the sums are given as round numbers, and expressed in thousands. Further, the figures are such—a hundred thousand and a million—as might easily and naturally be used in rhetorical fashion to suggest amounts of extraordinary magnitude. As David is said to have amassed 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver, so he is said, in the same hyperbolical strain, to have hoarded iron and bronze “without weight,” and gold and silver “without number” (1 Chronicles 22:16): phrases which nobody would think of taking literally. Doubtless, a modern historian would not handle exact numbers in this free manner; but we are not, therefore, bound to construe these vivid Oriental exaggerations according to the strict letter rather than the spirit and general intention. Of course, the numerals may have been corrupted in transmission; but their symmetry is against this hypothesis. (Comp. Daniel 7:10; Genesis 24:60; Micah 6:7, for a like rhetorical use of “thousands.”) To take an Egyptian illustration, in the famous poem of Pentaur, Ramses II., beset by the Hittites, calls thus upon his god Amen: “Have I not built thee houses for millions of years? I have slain to thee 30,000 bulls.” When the god helps him, he exclaims: “I find Amen worth more than millions of soldiers, one hundred thousand cavalry, ten thousand brothers, were they all joined in one.” There are plenty of numerals here, but who would insist on taking them literally?

And thou mayest add thereto.—i.e., to the stores of timber and stone. Solomon did so (2 Chronicles 2:3; 2 Chronicles 2:8).

Hewers.—See 1 Chronicles 22:2.

Workers of stone and timber—See 1 Chronicles 22:4 and 2 Chronicles 2:7.

All manner of cunning men . . . work.—Literally, and every skilful one in every work. The word rendered “cunning” is the technical term for a master-craftsman, like Bezaleel, the architect of the Tabernacle (Exodus 31:3, hâkâm; comp. Turkish hakim, a doctor).

WHEDON, " 14. In my trouble I have prepared for the house — Margin, in my poverty. So also Septuagint and Vulgate. Bertheau and Keil, by my painful labour;

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that is, by great toil and effort on my part. The word thus variously rendered generally means affliction, distress; and such is, probably, the sense in which it should here be taken. David means to say that under varied circumstances of trouble, warfare, and distress, he had accumulated the treasures he here enumerates.

A hundred thousand talents of gold — About $5,690,000,000.

A thousand thousand talents of silver — About

$1,660,000,000. These numbers are incredibly large, and unless the value of the talent in question was vastly less than that at which the Hebrew talent is commonly estimated, the statement of the text is probably extravagant. Bertheau thinks the writer merely meant to designate an extraordinary amount, and made a free use of numbers without any close estimate of the precise amount. Keil, however, thinks the numbers may not be exaggerated; but, reckoning the talent at half the usual standard, (“according to the king’s weight,” 2 Samuel 14:26,) and appealing to the enormous amounts of treasure often accumulated in ancient kingdoms, he concludes that the “shields of gold,” and other similar spoil which David captured in war, (2 Samuel 8:7-11; 1 Chronicles 18:11,) may not have been improperly valued at the figures here used.

GUZIK, "3. (1 Chronicles 22:14-16) What David did to prepare for the building of the temple.

“Indeed I have taken much trouble to prepare for the house of the LORD one hundred thousand talents of gold and one million talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond measure, for it is so abundant. I have prepared timber and stone also, and you may add to them. Moreover there are workmen with you in abundance: woodsmen and stonecutters, and all types of skillful men for every kind of work. Of gold and silver and bronze and iron there is no limit. Arise and begin working, and the LORD be with you.”

a. I have taken much trouble to prepare for the house of the LORD: David took seriously his mission to prepare the way by bringing both security and treasure to Israel and his successor Solomon. With these two resources he could build the house of the LORD.

i. The Bible tells us that Jesus - the greater Son of David - is also building a temple (Ephesians 2:19-22). He could only do this after security and treasure were won; but

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the greater Son of David made this peace and plundered the enemy Himself at the cross. Jesus could also say that He took much trouble to prepare for the house of the LORD and that He has prepared the building materials (his people, according to Ephesians 2:19-22).

b. One hundred thousand talents of gold: This is an enormous amount of gold. Some Bible commentators believe this large number is accurate and some feel it is a scribal error. Even allowing for possible scribal error, David clearly amassed significant resources for a temple he would never build.

i. Even so, David also told Solomon to receive these enormous resources and add to them. “Save as I have saved, out of the revenues of the state, and thou mayest also add something for the erection and splendour of his this house. This was a gentle though pointed hint, which was not lost on Solomon.” (Clarke)

ii. “Cannot I put my hand on some young man’s shoulder, and say to him, ‘Thou mayest add thereto; thou hast a good voice; thou hast an active brain; begin to speak for God; there are numbers of godly men in the gospel ministry; if thou art called of God, thou mayest add thereto’?” (Spurgeon)

c. Arise and begin working, and the LORD be with you: David made all the preparation, but it was in vain if Solomon did not begin working. He had to actually do the work, and do it with the confidence that the LORD was with him.

i. David is an example of someone who works in the background, who receives none or little credit for his work, but the job cannot be done without him.

· David gathered the materials for the temple

· David prepared some of those materials

· David won the peace with surrounding nations that Israel needed to build the temple

· David found and purchased the site to build the temple

· David established the plans for the temple

· David organized and commanded the administration and servants of the temple

ii. Yet no one calls it “David’s temple.” It seems that all the credit, all the name, all the glory goes to Solomon. It doesn’t seem to have bothered David, because he was a man after God’s heart.

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iii. “So, if you go to a country town or village, and you preach the gospel to a few poor folk, you may never have seemed very successful; but you have been preparing the way for somebody else who is coming after you.” (Spurgeon)

iv. “But this is a terrible blow at self. Self says, ‘I like to begin something of my own, and I like to carry it out; I do not want any interference from other people.’ A friend proposed, the other day, to give you a little help in your service. You looked at him as if he had been a thief. You do not want any help; you are quite up to the mark; you are like a wagon and four horses, and a dog under the wagon as well! There is everything about you that is wanted; you need no help from anybody; you can do all things almost without the help of God! I am very sorry for you if that is your opinion.” (Spurgeon)

PARKER, ""Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto."— 1 Chronicles 22:14.

For the word "trouble" the margin reads "poverty."—One commentator reads, "by my strenuous labour I have prepared;" another, "by my toil or pains I have prepared."—In all these senses there is pathetic meaning.—Say that David prepared out of his poverty, which of course would in his case be a relative term, we have here the spirit of sacrifice.—Say that he prepared by strenuous labour, here is an acceptable spirit of complete devotedness.—Say that it was by toil and pain that he brought the preparation to an end, here we have that self-denial without which there can be no real piety—We must not measure David"s words literally; an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver, are terms we cannot accurately estimate.—According to the value of the post-Babylonian Hebrew talent, the gold here spoken of has been calculated to be worth more than a thousand millions of English pounds sterling, and the silver has been calculated to be worth more than four hundred millions.—Do not regard these as arithmetical sums; look upon them as indicating that nothing had been spared, nothing had been withheld in the service of the house of the Lord.—Why will men be so literal in reading the divine word?—The literalist has never made the Bible a book of music and light and true help to the soul.—We must bring something other than grammar to bear upon the interpretation of the divine word.—From the very beginning of the book, time is treated with indifference, and words are used with a largeness of

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meaning to which we have become accustomed after long and profound reading of the book itself.—Throughout the Bible this spirit of expansiveness of thought prevails.—So we return to the doctrine that we find the Bible within the Bible, and again and again is proved the utter worthlessness of words as exhaustive symbols.—"Passeth understanding" must be our comment upon many a passage, and yet although we cannot understand in an intellectual sense, we can understand as it were emotionally, our whole soul rising in noble rapture in response to sacred appeals, to heavenly music, to calls which can reach the heart without the medium of words.—How anxious was David to build a house for the Lord!—How willingly and with what ineffable gladness Solomon devoted himself to the execution of his father"s will, and how through all the human planning and preparing there runs a divine decree, the very call of God from heaven!—Is not all this predictive of the uprearing of a temple not made with hands? Is not God himself the great temple builder? What are we but hewers of wood and drawers of water? Squaring the stones, preparing the gold and the silver; yet at the last the servant shall be as his Lord, and they who have toiled faithfully, lovingly, self-sacrificingly, shall not be denied a place of honour in the eternal temple.

PULPIT, "Now, behold, in my trouble. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Luther's translation adopt here our marginal reading, "poverty." Keil, Bertheau, and others translate, with much greater probability, "by severe effort," which translation may be fortified, not only by such references as Genesis 31:43 and Psalms 132:1 (where the same root is found in Pual infinitive), but by the expression evidently answering to the present one in 1 Chronicles 29:2 ( בכל־כוח ), "with all my strength." Moreover, David could not with correctness speak of poverty as characterizing his condition during the time that he had been collecting for the object of his heart's desire. And scarcely with any greater correctness could he speak of the necessary anxieties and responsibilities of his royal office as at all specially marking this period. A hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver. Our sense of dissatisfaction in being able neither heartily to accept nor conclusively to reject this statement of the quantities of gold and silver prepared by David, may be lessened in some degree by the statement found in 1 Chronicles 29:16, that "of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number." Milman, in his 'History of the Jews', says upon the general subject of this verse, "But enormous as this wealth (i.e. that of Solomon) appears, the statement of his expenditure on the temple, and of his annual revenue, so passes all credibility, that any attempt at forming a calculation, on the uncertain data we possess, may at once be abandoned as a hopeless task. No better proof can be given of the uncertainty of our authorities, of

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our imperfect knowledge of the Hebrew weights of money, and, above all, of our total ignorance of the relative value which the precious metals bore to the commodities of life, than the estimate made by Dr. Prideaux of the treasures left by David, amounting to eight hundred millions, nearly the capital of our national debt." It must be noted, however, that Milman himself proceeds, when speaking of "the sources of the vast wealth which Solomon undoubtedly possessed," to bring very enormous sums (whether somewhat less or even somewhat more than the above estimate of Dr. Prideaux) more within the range of the possible, to our imagination. He justly remarks, for instance, that it is to be remembered that "the treasures of David were accumulated rather by conquest than traffic, that some of the nations he subdued, particularly the Edomites, were very wealthy. All the tribes seem to have worn a great deal of gold and silver, both in their ornaments and in their armour; their idols were often of gold; and the treasuries of their temples, perhaps, contained considerable wealth. But during the reign of Solomon, almost the whole commerce of the world passed into his territories." After substantiating by details these and similar positions, he sums up, "It was from these various sources of wealth that the precious metals and all other valuable commodities were in such abundance that, in the figurative language of the sacred historian, 'silver was in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar trees as sycamores.'" Since the date of Milman's words just quoted, however, investigation of ancient weights and measures, and of those of Scripture, has made some advance, yet not sufficient to enable us to arrive at any certainty as to those of our present passage. Assuming that the text of our present verse is not corrupt, and that the figures which it gives are correct, the weight and the value of the gold and silver mentioned are very great, whatever the talent in question. This assumption, however, cannot be relied upon, and it seems scarcely legitimate to interpret the talent as any than the Hebrew talent, considering the silence observed as regards any other. It need not be said here that the exchanges of money value were estimated in these times by so much weight of gold or silver. Further, "the shekel of the sanctuary" (Exodus 30:13; Le Exodus 27:3), possibly the same with "the shekel after the king's weight" (2 Samuel 23-16:1 :26), and which was kept in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple—was presumably the standard. The gold talent was double the weight of the silver talent. It weighed 1,320,000 grains, instead of 660,000. The silver talent contained 50 manehs, of 60 shekels each; but the gold talent contained 100 manehs, of 100 shekels each. The modern money equivalents of these weights are very uncertain. Both the silver and the gold talent have been very variously calculated in this relation. Some of the best authorities put

the silver talent at £342 3s. 9d; and the gold at £5475. This would make the

money value described by this verse nearly nine hundred millions of our

money. Other estimates are considerably in excess of this sum, and but few

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fall below it. Vast as the sum is, we may be helped in some degree to accept

it by the statement of Pliny, who ('Nat. Hist.,' 32:15) tells us that Cyrus, in

his subjugation of Asia, took half as many talents of silver as are here

mentioned, and thirty-four thousand pounds of gold (see articles in Smith's

'Bible Dictionary,' on "Money," and on" Weights and Measures"). Among the

most valuable works on these subjects are De Saulcy's 'Numismatique

Judaique,' and F. Madden's 'Jewish Coinage.'

15 You have many workers: stonecutters,

masons and carpenters, as well as those skilled

in every kind of work

GILL, "Moreover, there are workmen with thee in abundance,.... All the strangers in the land being gathered by the order of David, 1Ch_22:2 who were skilled in all manner of work, as follows:

hewers and workers of stone and timber; masons and carpenters:

and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work; joiners, carvers, &c.

K&D, "1Ch_22:15-16

David then turns to the workmen, the carpenters and stone-cutters, whom he had appointed (1Ch_22:2) for the building. חצבים, properly hewers, in 1Ch_22:2 limited

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to stone-hewers, is here, with the addition חרשי אבן ועץ, used of the workers in stone

and wood, stonemasons and carpenters. כל־חכם, all manner of understanding persons

in each work, in contradistinction to עשי מלעכה, includes the idea of thorough mastery and skill in the kind of labour. These workmen, whom David had levied for the building of the temple, are mentioned by Solomon, 2Ch_2:6. - In 1Ch_22:16 all the metals, as being the main thing, are again grouped together, in order that the exhortation to proceed with the erection of the building may be introduced. The ל before each word serves to bring the thing once more into prominence; cf. Ew. §310, a. “As for the gold, it cannot be numbered.” “Arise and be doing! and Jahve be with thee” (1Ch_22:17-19).

16 in gold and silver, bronze and iron—craftsmen beyond number. Now begin the work, and the Lord be with you.”

GILL, "Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron,.... That is, the cunning artificers were skilful to work in each of these, some in gold and silver, others in brass and iron:

there is no number; either of the workmen, or of these materials; which yet must be restrained to the brass and iron, for the gold and silver are numbered, but not the brass and iron, 1Ch_22:14,

arise therefore, and be doing: not that he should set about and begin the building the temple directly; but as soon as he could after he came to the throne, and not neglect and delay it:

and the Lord be with thee; as in 1Ch_22:11 and here, as there, the Targum is,"may the Word of the Lord be thy help.''

BENSON, "1 Chronicles 22:16. Of the brass and the iron there is no number — The meaning is, the quantity of brass and iron was not numbered, as that of the gold and

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silver was. Arise, therefore, and be doing — When thou shalt come to the throne. The sense of God’s presence must not slacken our endeavours; because he is with us, we must rise and be doing. Then he will be with us even to the end. Work out your salvation, and God will work in you.

17 Then David ordered all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon.

GILL, "David also commanded all the princes of Israel,.... His courtiers and nobles that were about him:

to help Solomon his son; by their advice, and with their purses, should he need them, and by overlooking the workmen, directing and encouraging them:

saying; as follows.

HENRY 17-19id here engages the princes of Israel to assist Solomon in the great work he had to do, and every one to lend him a hand towards the carrying of it on. Those that are in the throne cannot do the good they would, unless those about the throne set in with them. David would therefore have the princes to advise Solomon and quicken him, and make the work as easy to him as they could, by promoting it every one in his place. 1. He shows them what obligations they lay under to be zealous in this matter, in gratitude to God for the great things he had done for them. He had given them victory, and rest, and a good land for an inheritance, 1Ch_22:18. The more God has done for us the more we should study to do for him. 2. He presses that upon them which should make them zealous in it (1Ch_22:19): “Set your heart and soul to seek God, place your happiness in his favour, and keep your eye upon his glory. Seek him as your chief good and highest end, and this with your heart and soul. Make religion your choice and business; and then you will grudge no pains nor cost to promote the building of his sanctuary.” Let but the heart be sincerely engaged for God, and the head and hand, the estate and interest, and all will be cheerfully employed for him.

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K&D, "Exhortation to the princes of Israel to assist in the building of the temple. - David supports his exhortation by calling to remembrance the proofs of his favour which the Lord had showed His people. The speech in 1Ch_22:18 is introduced without לאמר,

because it is clear from the preceding ויצו דויד that the words are spoken by David: “The Lord has given you peace round about; for He has given the inhabitants of the land into my hands, and the land is subdued before Jahve and before His people.” The subdued land is Canaan: the inhabitants of the land are, however, not the Israelites over whom the Lord had set David as king, for the words נתן בידי cannot apply to them, cf. 1Ch_14:10., Jos_2:24; it is the Canaanites still left in the land in the time of David, and other enemies, who, like the Philistines, possessed parts of the land, and had been subdued by David. On נככשה הארץ, cf. Jos_18:1; Num_32:22, Num_32:29. This safety which the Lord had granted them binds them in duty to seek Him with all their heart, and to build the sanctuary, that the ark and the sacred vessels may be brought into it. The ל in לבית

is not a sign of the accusative (Berth.), for הביא is not construed with accus. loci, but

generally with אל, for which, however, so early as Jos_4:5, ל is used, or it is construed

with the acc. and ה locale - הביתה, Gen_19:10; Gen_43:17.

GUZIK, "4. (1 Chronicles 22:17-19) David’s command to the leaders of Israel.

David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, “Is not the LORD your God with you? And has He not given you rest on every side? For He has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the LORD and before His people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God. Therefore arise and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the holy articles of God into the house that is to be built for the name of the LORD.”

a. David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son: David knew that one leader - even a great leader - was not enough to get a great work done. When God calls a leader He also calls other leaders . . . to help.

b. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God: This command of David’s is interesting in its context. David gave this command in the context of work, not the context of leisurely repose before God. David knew that it was possible to keep one’s heart set on seeking God even in the midst of doing a great work before the LORD.

i. “They must seek the LORD (1 Chronicles 22:19) as David had sought him (cf. 1 Chronicles 13:3; 1 Chronicles 14:10; 1 Chronicles 14:14). David explains how to seek (‘devote your heart and soul’; cf. REB, NEB, JB) and what it meant in practice

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(Build the sanctuary). As elsewhere, ‘seeking’ is an act of obedience rather than a search for guidance, and David will yet again underline its importance (1 Chronicles 28:8-9).” (Selman)

ii. “Thus Solomon came to the Jewish throne with every possible advantage. Had he made a proper use of his state and of his talents, he would have been the greatest as well as the wisest of sovereigns. But alas! How soon did this pure gold become dim! He began with an unlawful matrimonial connection; this led him to a commerce that was positively forbidden by the law of God: he then multiplied his matrimonial connections with pagan women; they turned his heart away from God, and the once wise and holy Solomon died a fool and an idolater.” (Clarke)

iii. “Did David live in vain? Can it be truly said that he failed in the grandest project of his life? Assuredly not; he did all that he was permitted to do, and by making those elaborate preparations, he was really the means of the building of the temple.” (Spurgeon)

iv. “God buries the workman, but the devil himself cannot bury the work. The work is everlasting, though the workmen die. We pass away, as star by star grows dim; but the eternal light is never-fading. God shall have the victory.” (Spurgeon)

18 He said to them, “Is not the Lord your God with you? And has he not granted you rest on every side? For he has given the inhabitants of the land into my hands, and the land is subject to the Lord and to his people.

CLARKE, "Is not the Lord your God with you? - “Is not the Word of the Lord your God your assistant?” - T.

Hath he not given you rest on every side? - David at this time was not only king of Judea, but had also subdued most of the surrounding nations.

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Thus Solomon came to the Jewish throne with every possible advantage. Had he made a proper use of his state and of his talents, he would have been the greatest as well as the wisest of sovereigns. But alas! how soon did this pure gold become dim! He began with an unlawful matrimonial connection; this led him to a commerce that was positively forbidden by the law of God: he then multiplied his matrimonial connections with heathen women; they turned his heart away from God, and the once wise and holy Solomon died a fool and an idolater.

GILL, "Is not the Lord your God with you?.... Blessing them with wealth and riches:

and hath he not given you rest on every side? from all enemies within and without; so that they had peace and quietness, and leisure to attend the service he recommended to them:

for he hath given the inhabitants of the land into my hand; meaning the rest of the Canaanites, who before were unsubdued, as even the Jebusites in Jerusalem:

and the land is subdued before the Lord, and before his people; and the extent of it carried to its utmost bounds, as God had promised.

BENSON, "1 Chronicles 22:18. The land is subdued before the Lord, and before his people — It is brought under the command of God, and of you his people, all the enemies of God and of Israel, in it or near it, being now perfectly subdued.

ELLICOTT, " (18) Is not the Lord your God with you?—The proof appears in what follows.

And hath he not?—Rather, and he hath given you rest (1 Chronicles 22:9).

He hath given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand.—The surrounding people, whose reduction is described in 1 Chronicles 18-20 (Comp. for the phrase, Joshua 2:24.)

And the land is subdued before the Lord . . .—The chronicler, or his authority, thinks of passages like Numbers 32:22; Numbers 32:29, and Joshua 18:1.

PULPIT, "The whole of this verse should have been suggestive of memories thrilling with interest. What David says here is equivalent to the declaration of the perfect

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fulfilment of the promises of nine hundred years ago. By faith of those very promises how many generations had lived! What journeyings, suspense, punishment, and struggle, the intervening centuries had witnessed! And now at last it is given to the lip of the aged David to pronounce the termination of a nation's prolonged conflict, its entrance into peace, and the fulfilment of the most impassioned wishes, ima-ginings, end prayers of the patriarchs, of Moses, and of a long line of the faithful. It was well for David that he could not foresee and did not know how near the culminating of a nation's glory and prosperity might be to its woeful fall and prolonged decay. The analogy that obtains in this respect between the history of an individual and of a nation is as remarkable as it should be instructive and turned to the uses of warning.

19 Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the Lord.”

GILL, "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God,.... His honour and glory, most sincerely and cordially, and to the utmost of their power:

arise ye, and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God; assist therein, and encourage the work as much as they were able, without delay:

to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord; which was now in a tent of David's erecting and pitching:

and the holy vessels of God: which were in the tabernacle at Gibeon: into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord: that so they might be together, and made use of; which in times past had been separated, and much neglected.

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HENRY, "He presses that upon them which should make them zealous in it (1Ch_22:19): “Set your heart and soul to seek God, place your happiness in his favour, and keep your eye upon his glory. Seek him as your chief good and highest end, and this with your heart and soul. Make religion your choice and business; and then you will grudge no pains nor cost to promote the building of his sanctuary.” Let but the heart be sincerely engaged for God, and the head and hand, the estate and interest, and all will be cheerfully employed for him.

ELLICOTT, " (19) To seek the Lord.—Hebrew, “to seek unto the Lord,” as in 2 Chronicles 17:4; Ezra 4:2. The older construction, with a simple accusative, occurred in 1 Chronicles 16:12; 1 Chronicles 21:30.

Arise therefore, and build.—Rather, And arise ye, and build. The second clause explains how the first was to be carried out. Building the Lord a fair and noble sanctuary was equivalent to seeking His favour. Professions cost nothing, and they were not to serve the Lord “without cost” (1 Chronicles 21:24).

To bring the ark.—From its temporary abode on Mount Zion (1 Chronicles 15:1).

The holy vessels of God—e.g., the altar of burnt offering.

That is to be built.—The same participal form as in 1 Chronicles 22:9 : “shall be born.”

PULPIT, "To bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God. To settle these in a fixed home had now been of a long time the consuming desire of David's heart (so 1 Chronicles 15:1; 2 Chronicles 5:2-4). Into the house that is to be built. The preposition ל instead of אל, before "the house," is to be noticed here (1 Chronicles 25:26; Nehemiah 10:35). Also the Niphal participle, הגבנה, here translated "that is to be built," is to be noticed. The meaning of David would be

better met probably thus: "Arise, build the sanctuary… to bring the ark… into

the house (then) builded to the Name of the Lord."

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Footnotes:

1 Chronicles 22:9 Solomon sounds like and

may be derived from the Hebrew for peace.

1 Chronicles 22:14 That is, about 3,750

tons or about 3,400 metric tons

1 Chronicles 22:14 That is, about 37,500

tons or about 34,000 metric tons

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