Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Chronicles · About this commentary
This Is the House: David's Charge
1 Chronicles 22:1-19
1 Then David said, “This is the house of Yahweh God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.” · WEB
The man forbidden to build does everything for the building except build it, and the reason he is refused is fitness rather than guilt.
This is the house of Yahweh God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel 1 Chronicles 22:1. One sentence names a threshing floor as both, and the division that had kept the ark in one town and the altar in another is over.
What follows is a decade of logistics compressed into a paragraph. Resident foreigners are set to quarrying 1 Chronicles 22:2, iron and bronze are stockpiled, cedar comes down from the coast in quantities the writer will not put a number to. David gives the reason: Solomon is young and tender, and the house must be magnificent, I will therefore make preparation for it 1 Chronicles 22:5.
A man prepares in detail for work he will not see, on behalf of someone not yet ready to do it. That is the chapter in a sentence.
The refusal is then explained, and by David rather than by the narrator. You have shed blood abundantly and have made great wars. You shall not build a house to my name 1 Chronicles 22:8.
It is important to see what this does not say. The wars are never condemned in this book; they were won for him, twice with the note that God gave the victory 1 Chronicles 18:6, and their spoil is dedicated to this very building. The disqualification is not a verdict on his conduct. It is a statement about fit.
The next verses make that explicit by describing the man who will build. He will be a man of peace, given rest from all his enemies all around, and his name is tied to the word for peace, shalom `H7965`, from which Shelomoh `H8010` is formed 1 Chronicles 22:9. A house belonging to a God who gives rest is built by a man whose name means rest, in the years when there is some. The builder is chosen to match what the building says.
The charge to Solomon then borrows its words from somewhere unexpected. Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid and don't be dismayed 1 Chronicles 22:13 is what Joshua was told before crossing into a land held by armies Joshua 1:6–9. The same nerve is demanded for a construction project as for a conquest, and in both cases the condition attached is the same: keep the law that was given to Moses.
David's own words about the cost are three: in my affliction I have prepared 1 Chronicles 22:14. The stores are then listed, with materials, craftsmen, and an invitation to add to them.
The closing charge to the princes puts the two halves in order. First set your heart and your soul to follow Yahweh your God, and then arise therefore, and build 1 Chronicles 22:19. The building is second, and the sentence does not let the order be reversed.
settled What this mark means