CHAPTER XXII.
¹Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.
=1.= _Then_] The word refers back to xxi. 28, _At that time_.
_David said_] The king acts in conformity with the law contained in Deuteronomy xii. 5, 6.
_This is the house of the LORD_, etc.] Hence the necessity for relating the story of David’s sinful action in taking the census. The Chronicler’s desire to show only the idealistic aspect of David’s life has frequently been pointed out. The present section, then, is notable as showing very clearly how even this desire was made to yield to the supreme object of relating the Divinely-guided origin and growth of the Temple and its worship.
=2‒19.= DAVID’S PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING THE TEMPLE. HIS CHARGE TO SOLOMON AND TO THE PRINCES.
It is of course quite probable that preparations for a Temple were begun in David’s time, but the picture given in this chapter must not be taken as historically true, the material being of a general character such as the imagination could readily supply, and the figures mentioned in verse 14 being impossibly exaggerated. The chapter in fact is the outcome of the Chronicler’s zealous but uncritical mind working in the belief that, not Solomon, but the pious David was the “moving spirit in the great enterprise.” As Moses led Israel to Jordan’s brink, so David (he thought) must stop short only at the actual building of the Temple.
²And 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. ³And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the couplings; and brass in abundance without weight;
=2.= _the strangers_] Compare 2 Chronicles ii. 17; viii. 7‒9. Hewing of stone was regarded as task-work unfit for free men. This verse is simply an anticipation of the preparations recorded in Solomon’s reign: see 2 Chronicles ii. 1, 17.
_wrought stones_] All the stone used for the building of the Temple was previously cut to the right size; compare 1 Kings vi. 7.
⁴and cedar trees without number: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought cedar trees in abundance to David.
=4.= _Zidonians and they of Tyre_] Compare 1 Kings v. 1‒6 (15‒20, Hebrew).
⁵And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death. ⁶Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the LORD, the God of Israel.
=5.= _exceeding magnifical_] The Temple took seven years in building, and it was richly overlaid with gold, but its proportions were small, viz., about 90 ft. × 45 ft. × 30 ft. These small proportions, are not surprising, for the Temple itself required only to be big enough to hold its furniture. The courts, however, were of large extent, that they might afford room for worshippers at the times of the great feasts.
Note the archaic _magnifical_ = _splendid_, _stately_ (magnificent). It is found of course in the Authorized Version (1611), and also in the Geneva Bible (1560); compare Starkey, _England_, ii. i. 176 (1538), “Gudly cytes and townys wyth magnyfycal and gudly housys.”
⁷And David said to Solomon his son¹, As for me, it was in my heart to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God.
¹ According to another reading, _My son, as for me &c._
=7.= _said to Solomon his son_] So _Kethīb_; the margin, =said to Solomon, My son=, follows the _Ḳerī_.
_unto the name_] Compare Deuteronomy xii. 5; 2 Samuel vii. 13.
⁸But 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:
=8.= _Thou hast shed blood abundantly_] Compare xxviii. 3; in 1 Kings