1 Chronicles 22: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

David declares that the threshing floor he bought is where the LORD's house and the altar for burnt offerings will stand, and he begins gathering stone, iron, bronze, and cedar for the building. He tells Solomon that God would not let him build the temple because he had shed much blood in war, and that Solomon, a man of peace, will build it instead. David charges Solomon to keep God's law, lists the enormous supplies and skilled workers he has assembled, and tells him to begin. He then orders Israel's leaders to help Solomon build the sanctuary so the ark and the holy objects can be brought into it.

Claim by Claim

1. 22:1
   • David said that this place is the house of the LORD God.
   • David said that this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.
2. 22:2
   • David gave orders to gather the resident foreigners in the land of Israel.
   • David appointed stonecutters.
   • The stonecutters were to cut dressed stones for building the house of God.
3. 22:3
   • David prepared iron in abundance for nails for the doors of the gates.
   • David prepared iron for the clamps that join the timbers.
   • David prepared bronze in abundance, too much to be weighed.
4. 22:4
   • Cedar timber was prepared beyond counting.
   • The Sidonians and the Tyrians brought abundant cedar timber to David.
5. 22:5
   • David said that his son Solomon was young and inexperienced.
   • David said the house to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly great.
   • David said the house must be famous and glorious throughout all lands.
   • David said he would therefore make preparation for it.
   • David prepared abundantly before his death.
6. 22:6
   • David called for Solomon his son.
   • David charged Solomon to build a house for the LORD, the God of Israel.
7. 22:7
   • David said to Solomon that it had been in his heart to build a house for the name of the LORD his God.
8. 22:8
   • David said the word of the LORD came to him.
   • The LORD said to David that David had shed blood in abundance.
   • The LORD said that David had waged great wars.
   • The LORD said David would not build a house for the LORD's name.
   • The LORD gave as the reason that David had shed much blood on the ground before him.
9. 22:9
   • The LORD said a son would be born to David.
   • The LORD said that son would be a man of rest.
   • The LORD said he would give that son rest from all his enemies on every side.
   • The LORD said the son's name would be Solomon.
   • The LORD said he would give peace and quiet to Israel in the son's days.
10. 22:10
    • The LORD said that son would build a house for the LORD's name.
    • The LORD said that son would be his son.
    • The LORD said he would be a father to him.
    • The LORD said he would establish the throne of that son's kingdom over Israel forever.
11. 22:11
    • David said, may the LORD be with you, my son.
    • David said, may you prosper.
    • David said, may you build the house of the LORD your God.
    • David said this would be as the LORD had spoken concerning Solomon.
12. 22:12
    • David said, may the LORD give you insight and understanding.
    • David said, may the LORD give you charge over Israel.
    • David said the purpose was that Solomon would keep the law of the LORD his God.
13. 22:13
    • David said Solomon would then prosper.
    • David said this was conditional on Solomon taking care to carry out the statutes and judgments.
    • David said the LORD commanded those statutes and judgments to Moses concerning Israel.
    • David told Solomon to be strong and courageous.
    • David told Solomon not to fear.
    • David told Solomon not to be dismayed.
14. 22:14
    • David said that in his trouble he had prepared for the house of the LORD one hundred thousand talents of gold.
    • David said he had prepared a thousand thousand talents of silver.
    • David said the bronze and iron were without weight.
    • David said the bronze and iron were without weight because they were in abundance.
    • David said he had prepared timber and stone.
    • David said Solomon could add to what he had prepared.
15. 22:15
    • David said there were workmen with Solomon in abundance.
    • David said these included stonecutters and craftsmen in stone and wood.
    • David said these included every kind of skilled man for every kind of work.
16. 22:16
    • David said the gold, silver, bronze and iron were beyond number.
    • David told Solomon to arise and act.
    • David said, may the LORD be with you.
17. 22:17
    • David commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son.
18. 22:18
    • David asked whether the LORD their God was not with them.
    • David asked whether the LORD had not given them rest on every side.
    • David said the LORD had given the inhabitants of the land into his hand.
    • David said the land was subdued before the LORD and before his people.
19. 22:19
    • David told them to set their heart and soul to seek the LORD their God.
    • David told them to arise and build the sanctuary of the LORD God.
    • David said the purpose was to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD into the house.
    • David said the purpose was to bring the holy vessels of God into the house.
    • David said the house was to be built for the name of the LORD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

22:1

"This is where" points to the spot David has just bought and marked out at the end of the previous chapter, a threshing floor on a hill outside Jerusalem. "The house of the LORD" is the temple, the permanent building meant to replace the portable tent that had housed Israel's worship until then. A burnt offering was a sacrifice in which the whole animal was burned on the altar rather than any part of it being eaten.

22:2

These "foreigners" were non-Israelites settled long-term in Israel, mostly descendants of the region's earlier populations. Kings routinely drafted such residents into forced labor gangs for state building projects; the word does not mean visitors or travelers.

22:3

The King James "brass" means bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, brass as we know it was not made in this period. "Without weight" is an idiom for a quantity too large to bother measuring.

22:4

Sidon and Tyre were wealthy trading cities on the Mediterranean coast north of Israel, in what is now Lebanon. The cedar forests of their mountains produced the most prized building timber in the ancient Near East: tall, straight, fragrant, and resistant to rot and insects. Importing it was a mark of royal expense.

22:5

The King James calls Solomon "young and tender." That does not mean soft-hearted. It means he was young and had not learned the job yet.

22:7

"A house for the name of the LORD" is a standard Hebrew way of speaking. Putting a name on a building meant declaring whose it was and who could be met there, the temple was the place where the LORD's name was set, not a house he was thought to live in like a person.

22:8

"Blood on the ground" is a legal image: in Hebrew thought, spilled blood soaked into the earth remained visible and unanswered until it was dealt with. The point is not that David's wars were crimes, but that a man whose hands were that heavily involved in killing was not the one to build this particular building.

22:9

The Hebrew name Shelomoh (Solomon) sounds like shalom, the word for peace and wholeness. The sentence is a play on words that only works in Hebrew: he will be called Peaceful, and there will be peace.

22:10

"He will be my son, and I will be his father" was the formal language used across the ancient Near East for the relationship between a god and a reigning king. It is adoption wording marking the king's official status, not a statement about his birth.

22:12

"The law of the LORD" here means the body of commands and instructions attributed to Moses, the material now found in the first five books of the Bible.

22:13

"Statutes and judgments" are two kinds of legal material: fixed standing rules, and case decisions of the kind a judge hands down. Together the pair is a way of saying "the whole law."

22:14

A talent was a weight of roughly 75 pounds (about 34 kilograms). The figures given here (100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 of silver) would come to thousands of tons, far more precious metal than any ancient kingdom possessed. Numbers on this scale in Hebrew writing work as a picture of overwhelming abundance rather than as an accountant's tally.

22:15

"Cunning" in 1611 English meant skilled, expert, knowing your craft. It carried none of the modern suggestion of slyness or deception. A "cunning man" was a master craftsman.

22:17

The "leaders" are the heads of the tribes and the senior officials of David's administration, the men whose cooperation any large state project required.

22:18

"Rest on every side" is a set phrase meaning freedom from war and from raiding neighbors: not relaxation, but security within settled borders.

22:19

The ark of the covenant was a gold-covered wooden chest, carried on poles, holding the stone tablets of the agreement made at Sinai; it was the most sacred object in Israel's worship and had been kept in a tent since the nation entered the land. The "holy objects" are the equipment used in worship, basins, lamps, shovels, dishes and the like. "Covenant" means a binding agreement, sworn between two parties with obligations on both sides.