1 Chronicles 22:14

6-16 David gives Solomon the reason why he should build the temple. Because God named him. Nothing is more powerful to engage us in any service for God, than to know that we are appointed thereto. Because he would have leisure and opportunity to do it. He should have peace and quietness. Where God gives rest, he expects work. Because God had promised to establish his kingdom. God's gracious promises should quicken and strengthen our religious service. David delivered to Solomon an account of the vast preparations he had made for this building; not from pride and vain-glory, but to encourage Solomon to engage cheerfully in the great work. He must not think, by building the temple, to purchase a dispensation to sin; on the contrary, his doing that would not be accepted, if he did not take heed to fulfil the statutes of the Lord. In our spiritual work, as well as in our spiritual warfare, w...

Verse 1 Chronicles 22:14. _IN MY TROUBLE I HAVE PREPARED_] Notwithstanding ail the wars in which I have been engaged, all the treacheries with which I have been surrounded, all the domestic troubles with which I have been overwhelmed, I never lost sight of this great object, the building of a house for God, that his worship might be established in the land. I have curtailed my expenses, and have lived in comparative poverty that I might save all I possibly could for this building. _A HUNDRED THOUSAND TALENTS OF GOLD_] A talent of gold weighed three thousand shekels, and was worth five thousand and seventy-five pounds, fifteen shillings, and seven pence half-penny. One hundred thousand such talents would therefore amount to five hundred and seven millions, five hundred and seventy-eight thousand, one hundred and twenty-five pounds sterling. These

IN MY TROUBLE - See the margin. David refers to the manifold troubles of his reign, which had prevented him from accumulating very much treasure. AN HUNDRED THOUSAND TALENTS OF GOLD ... - We do not know the value of the Hebrew talent at this period, and therefore these numbers may be sound. But in that case we must suppose an enormous difference between the pre-Babylonian and the post-Babylonian talents. According to the value of the post-Babylonian Hebrew talent, the gold here spoken of would be worth more than 1 billion of our British pounds sterling, while the silver would be worth ahove 400 million pounds. Accumulations to anything like this amount are inconceivable under the circumstances, and we must therefore either suppose the talents of David’s time to have been little more than the 100th part of the later talents, or regard the numbers of this verse as augmentcd at least a hund...

EXPOSITION From the commencement of this chapter to the close of the First Book of the Chronicles we again travel alone, and, with the exception of parallel passages of a merely ordinary character, have no longer the assistance of comparing different descriptions of the same stretches of history. The present chapter relates David's interested and zealous preparations for the building of the temple (1 Chronicles 22:1); his exhortations and solemn charge to his son and successor (1 Chronicles 22:6); and afterwards his injunctions to the "princes of Israel" (1 Chronicles 22:17-13) to help Solomon....

NOW, BEHOLD, IN MY TROUBLE,.... Or affliction, which had attended him, through the greater part of his reign, partly through wars abroad, and partly through rebellions and insurrections at home: or, IN MY POVERTY a; living in a frugal way, as if he had been a poor man, in order to lay up money for this purpose: I HAVE PREPARED FOR THE HOUSE OF THE LORD; for the building of it, and for things to be used in it: AN HUNDRED THOUSAND TALENTS OF GOLD, AND A THOUSAND THOUSAND TALENTS OF SILVER; a prodigious sum, be it reckoned as it will; the gold, according to Scheuchzer b was answerable to 1,222,000,000 ducats of gold; according to Waserus c the talents of gold made six hundred millions of Hungarian pieces of gold, or 6000 tons of gold; our Brerewood d makes them to amount to 450,000,000 pounds; but this being a sum so excessive large as what exceeds the riches of any monarch read of in hi...

1 Chronicles 22:1 _Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel._ Now he knew where the temple was to be built; and of a certainty he had discovered that long-predestined site of which God said, «Here will I dwell.» This was the very hill whereon Abraham offered up his son Isaac; a hill, therefore, most sacred by covenant to the living God. He delighted to remember the believing obedience of his servant Abraham, and there he would have his temple built. 1 Chronicles 22:2. _And 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._ Observe here a very gracious eye to us who are Gentiles. The tem

IV. PREPARATIONS FOR THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE 1. The Preparations and Charge to Solomon CHAPTER 22 _ 1. The material (1 Chronicles 22:1)_ 2. The charge to Solomon (1 Chronicles 22:6) 3. The charge to the princes (1 Chronicles 22:17) God had accepted the sacrifice. The judgment had passed. Prayer had been answered and David, therefore, could truthfully say “this is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel.” The place had therefore been pointed out on which the temple was to be reared. And from now on up to the twenty-eighth verse of chapter 26 all concerns the house which is to be built. The temple is

1 CHRONICLES 22:2 TO 1 CHRONICLES 29:30. The whole of this section is the work of the Chronicler, though it is probable that he utilised some earlier sources in compiling it; a good deal of OT material is woven into it, but it has no parallel in earlier books, as in the case of the Chapter s so far considered. 1 CHRONICLES 22:2. DAVID'S PREPARATION FOR THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. This is an imaginative elaboration of 2 Samuel 7:1; 2 Samuel 7:13....

IN MY TROUBLE: i.e. in the unsettled years of his warlike reign; and of the trouble brought on by his sin with Bath-sheba, and by Absalom's rebellion. The Septuagint reads "according to my poverty". PREPARED FOR THE HOUSE. The Tabernacle was built with the spoils of Egypt: the Temple _from_ spoils of David's wars (2 Samuel 8:7; 2 Samuel 18:7)....

David's Charge to Solomon 7. _said to Solomon, My son_ R.V. SAID TO SOLOMON HIS SON (so C'thîb); A.V. follows the K'rî. _unto the name_ Cp. Deuteronomy 12:5; 2 Samuel 7:13....