1 Chronicles 28: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

David gathers Israel's leaders to Jerusalem and tells them that God refused to let him build the temple because he was a man of war, and chose his son Solomon to build it instead. He charges the assembly to keep God's commandments, and charges Solomon to serve God wholeheartedly and to be strong and do the work. David then hands Solomon the written plans for the temple, its rooms and courts, the weights of gold and silver for each object, and the arrangement of the priests and Levites, and promises him God's presence and the help of skilled workers and the whole nation.

Claim by Claim

1. 28:1
   • David assembled all the officials of Israel at Jerusalem.
   • Those assembled included the leaders of the tribes.
   • Those assembled included the commanders of the divisions that served the king.
   • Those assembled included the commanders of thousands.
   • Those assembled included the commanders of hundreds.
   • Those assembled included the officials in charge of all the property and livestock of the king and of his sons.
   • Those assembled included the court officials.
   • Those assembled included the mighty men.
   • Those assembled included every warrior of valor.
2. 28:2
   • King David rose to his feet.
   • David said, Hear me, my brothers and my people.
   • David said that it had been in his heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD.
   • David said the house was also to be for the footstool of our God.
   • David said he had made preparations to build it.
3. 28:3
   • David said that God had said to him, You shall not build a house for my name.
   • David said God gave as the reason that David was a man of wars.
   • David said God gave as a further reason that David had shed blood.
4. 28:4
   • David said the LORD, the God of Israel, chose him out of all his father's house to be king over Israel forever.
   • David said the LORD chose Judah to be ruler.
   • David said that within the house of Judah the LORD chose David's father's house.
   • David said that among his father's sons the LORD was pleased with him, to make him king over all Israel.
5. 28:5
   • David said the LORD had given him many sons.
   • David said that out of all his sons the LORD chose Solomon his son.
   • David said Solomon was chosen to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.
6. 28:6
   • David said God said to him, Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts.
   • David said God gave as the reason that God had chosen Solomon to be his son.
   • David said God said, I will be his father.
7. 28:7
   • David reported God saying, I will establish his kingdom forever.
   • The establishing is conditional on Solomon being resolute to do God's commandments and judgments.
   • The condition is qualified as being done as at this day.
8. 28:8
   • David charged the people in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the LORD.
   • David charged them in the hearing of our God.
   • David told them to keep and seek out all the commandments of the LORD their God.
   • David said the purpose was that they might possess the good land.
   • David said the further purpose was that they might leave it as an inheritance to their children after them forever.
9. 28:9
   • David told Solomon his son to know the God of his father.
   • David told Solomon to serve God with a whole heart.
   • David told Solomon to serve God with a willing mind.
   • David said the LORD searches all hearts.
   • David said the LORD understands every inclination of the thoughts.
   • David said that if Solomon seeks God, God will be found by him.
   • David said that if Solomon forsakes God, God will reject him forever.
10. 28:10
    • David told Solomon to consider now that the LORD had chosen him to build a house for the sanctuary.
    • David told Solomon to be strong.
    • David told Solomon to do it.
11. 28:11
    • David gave Solomon his son the plan of the porch.
    • The plan included its buildings.
    • The plan included its storehouses.
    • The plan included its upper rooms.
    • The plan included its inner rooms.
    • The plan included the room of the mercy seat.
12. 28:12
    • David gave the plan of all that he had by the spirit with him, which may mean by the Spirit or in his own mind.
    • The plan covered the courts of the house of the LORD.
    • The plan covered all the surrounding chambers.
    • The plan covered the treasuries of the house of God.
    • The plan covered the treasuries of the dedicated things.
13. 28:13
    • The plan covered the divisions of the priests and the Levites.
    • The plan covered all the work of the service of the house of the LORD.
    • The plan covered all the vessels of service of the house of the LORD.
14. 28:14
    • David specified gold by weight for the gold articles, for every kind of service.
    • David specified silver by weight for all the silver articles, for every kind of service.
15. 28:15
    • David specified the weight for the gold lampstands and their gold lamps.
    • The weight was given for each lampstand and its lamps individually.
    • David specified the weight for the silver lampstands, for each lampstand and its lamps.
    • The silver weights were assigned according to the use of each lampstand.
16. 28:16
    • David specified the weight of gold for the tables of the showbread, table by table.
    • David specified silver for the silver tables.
17. 28:17
    • David specified pure gold for the forks, the sprinkling bowls, and the pitchers.
    • David specified the weight of gold for each gold basin.
    • David specified the weight of silver for each silver basin.
18. 28:18
    • David specified refined gold by weight for the altar of incense.
    • David specified gold for the pattern of the chariot, that is, the cherubim.
    • The cherubim spread out their wings.
    • The cherubim covered the ark of the covenant of the LORD.
19. 28:19
    • David said all this was made clear to him in writing from the hand of the LORD upon him.
    • David said this included all the works of the pattern.
20. 28:20
    • David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it.
    • David told Solomon not to fear.
    • David told Solomon not to be dismayed.
    • David said the LORD God, his own God, would be with Solomon.
    • David said God would not fail Solomon.
    • David said God would not forsake Solomon.
    • David said God would be with him until all the work for the service of the house of the LORD was finished.
21. 28:21
    • David said the divisions of the priests and the Levites were there for all the service of the house of God.
    • David said every willing skilled man would be with Solomon for every kind of work and service.
    • David said the officials and all the people would be wholly at Solomon's command.

Words Worth Explaining

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

28:1

The "divisions that served the king in turn" were groups on a rota, each taking a month of duty at a time. "Commanders of thousands and of hundreds" were army officers over units of those nominal sizes, much as "regiment" or "company" name a rank rather than an exact head count. The "mighty men" were David's elite corps of warriors, a recognized standing body with its own roll of names.

28:2

The ark of the covenant was a gold-covered wooden chest holding the stone tablets of the law. It was the most sacred object of Israel's worship, and since the time of Moses it had been kept in a tent and moved from place to place, which is why a permanent building is called a resting place for it. Calling it God's footstool draws on the picture of God enthroned above the ark, with the chest itself at his feet.

28:3

"A house for my name" is the ordinary Hebrew way of saying a temple: a building on which God's name is placed, marking it as his and as the place where he may be addressed.

28:4

Israel was made up of twelve tribes descended from the twelve sons of Jacob. Judah was one of them, and David's own. Choosing Judah as the leading tribe means the kingship was to come from that tribe rather than any other.

28:5

The king in Jerusalem was regarded as ruling on God's behalf, so the royal throne could be spoken of as the throne of the LORD's own kingdom.

28:6

"I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father" is the formal language of adoption. Across the ancient Near East it was the standard wording for the relationship between a god and a reigning king, and it describes the king's office rather than his birth.

28:7

"Constant" here means steady and persistent, keeping at it over time, rather than the modern sense of unchanging. The promise in this verse is conditional: it depends on Solomon continuing.

28:8

"The assembly of the LORD" is the whole nation formally gathered. Here it serves as a legal witness to what David says, the way witnesses were called at the making of a contract or a treaty. An "inheritance" or possession is land permanently allotted to a family and handed down through it, not property that could simply be sold off.

28:9

In Hebrew, to "know" a person covers far more than knowing facts about them: it takes in recognizing them and staying loyal to them. The same verb is used of the bond between a master and a servant, or a husband and wife.

28:10

The "sanctuary" is the holy inner part of the temple, the room set apart for God's presence, as distinct from the surrounding courtyards and storerooms.

28:11

The porch was a covered entrance hall across the front of the temple. The mercy seat was the solid gold lid of the ark, with a winged figure at either end; the Hebrew word simply means a cover, and the familiar English name comes from Tyndale's translation. It was the spot where blood was sprinkled on the yearly Day of Atonement.

28:12

The phrase behind "in his spirit" can mean the plan David had formed in his own mind, or a plan put into him by the Spirit of God; the Hebrew allows both, and translations have long differed. "Things set apart as gifts to God" were objects dedicated to the sanctuary, often plunder taken in war or goods pledged in a vow, and kept in the temple treasury.

28:13

The priests were the descendants of Aaron, who alone handled the altar and the sacrifices. The Levites were the wider tribe of Levi, who did the rest of the temple work: music, guarding the gates, carrying, slaughtering, and maintenance. Both were organized into "working groups", rotas that came on duty in turn.

28:14

There were no coins in Israel in David's time. Gold and silver were valued by weight, so specifying the weight of each object was the way of specifying both its size and its cost.

28:15

The King James "candlesticks" are lampstands: branched metal stands holding open bowls of olive oil with wicks floating in them. Candles did not exist in this setting.

28:16

The bread set out before God, older English "shewbread" and literally "bread of the presence", was twelve loaves kept on a table inside the sanctuary. They were replaced with fresh loaves each sabbath, and the old ones were eaten by the priests.

28:17

The meat forks (King James "fleshhooks") were used to lift portions of sacrificial meat out of the cooking pots. The sprinkling bowls held blood or wine to be thrown against the altar, and the pitchers and dishes were for pouring out drink offerings and carrying incense or flour.

28:18

Incense was a mixture of aromatic gums burned to make fragrant smoke; it had its own small altar inside the temple, used morning and evening. The cherubim were not chubby infants but powerful winged creatures, familiar in the art of the region as guardians standing beside a throne. Calling them a chariot reflects the picture of God riding on winged creatures, with the ark below as his seat.

28:19

The Hebrew here is compressed and has been read in more than one way: either that the entire plan reached David already in writing from God's hand, or that David wrote it down himself while the LORD's hand rested on him. "The hand of the LORD upon" a person is the standard idiom for a moment of prophetic inspiration.

28:20

"Be strong and brave, do not be afraid or lose heart, he will not fail you nor forsake you" is a set formula used when one leader hands a commission to his successor. Almost the same words were spoken when Moses handed his task to Joshua, and an Israelite hearer would catch the echo.

28:21

"Skilful" here means trained in a craft: stonemasons, carpenters, metalworkers, weavers. "Wholly at thy commandment" means completely under your authority, not merely willing to help.