Bible Commentaries
1 Chronicles 22

Verses 1-5

Material and Money Gathered by David

v. 1. Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, he selected the threshing-floor of Ornan as the site for the Temple, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel. The miraculous sign of the fire from heaven was to David an indication that the Lord wanted the national place of worship erected at this place.

v. 2. And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel, partly descendants of the former Canaanite nations, partly war captives, as all these people were to be laborers in building the projected Temple; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.

v. 3. And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates and for the joinings, for braces and angle-irons; and brass in abundance without weight, all that he had brought to Jerusalem as the plunder of his wars, 1 Chronicles 18:8;

v. 4. also cedar-trees in abundance; for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar-wood to David, first as an ordinary article of commerce, later by contract, to furnish lumber for building the Temple.

v. 5. And David said, Solomon, my son, is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical, great above measure, above comparison, of fame and of glory throughout all countries, tending to establish and to spread the glory of the Lord wherever men would hear of it; I will therefore now make preparation for it, in providing materials in both lumber and metals for the construction of the Temple. So David prepared abundantly before his death. All of which should encourage and stimulate the believers of the New Testament to sacrifice freely for the spread of the kingdom of Christ.

Verses 6-19

David's Instructions to Solomon

v. 6. Then he called for Solomon, his son, while he was still in possession of all his faculties, and charged him, with all earnestness and solemnity, to build an house for the Lord God of Israel.

v. 7. And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the Lord, my God; he emphasizes this point as one of the supreme desires of his life, the one great unfulfilled wish of his career;

v. 8. 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. Cf 1 Chronicles 28:3; 1 Kings 5:3.

v. 9. Behold, a son shall be born to thee who shall be a man of rest, not chiefly a warrior, as David had been; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Solomon ("peaceful"), and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.

v. 10. He shall build an 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. Here the prophecy of 2 Samuel 7:12-14 is taken in its narrower sense, although the Messianic element is not wanting.

v. 11. Now, my son, the Lord be with thee, and prosper thou, and build the house of the Lord, thy God, as He hath said of thee. It was a sacred duty which was hereby laid upon Solomon as David's heir and successor.

v. 12. Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, both the right knowledge and the faculty to apply it properly, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the Law of the Lord, thy God, as the leader of the people also in this respect.

v. 13. Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel, not only the special precepts of the covenant, but also those pertaining to the general duties toward all mankind. Be strong and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed. Since the undertaking was to be made to the glory of God alone, therefore the trust of Solomon was to be placed in Him with steadfast faith, and he was to be confident of success.

v. 14. Now, behold, in my trouble, in spite of the fact that the wars in which he was engaged often interfered with his pet hope and desire, I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold and a thousand thousand talents of silver, the total sum being estimated between two and four billions of dollars, and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance, largely taken from people whom he had conquered and from cities which he had sacked. Timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.

v. 15. Moreover, there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, both masons and carpenters, all selected chiefly from the conquered people living in the midst of Israel, v. 2, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work.

v. 16. of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron there is no number; the amounts were so incredibly large that ordinary methods of keeping track of the mass were inadequate. Arise, therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee! Solomon was even now to make his plans and to estimate the costs of the entire building with all its equipment.

v. 18. Is not the Lord, your God, with you? And hath He not given you rest on every side? For He hath given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand; and the land is subdued before the Lord and before His people, and therefore the remembrance of all God's former grace was the chief reason for this urgent invitation.

v. 19. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord, your God, that being the basis of a Christian life in all true believers. Arise, therefore, and build ye the Sanctuary of the Lord God to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord. With this same zeal to inspire them, the believers of the New Testament will make it the object of their lives to build the Lord's temple, the Church of Christ, to the glory of God's holy name.