1 Chronicles 22
David prepares Solomon to build the Temple
Land for the Temple
1David, standing on the land he just bought from the grain farmer, said, “This is where the LORD’s Temple will be built. Here is where we will burn sacrifices on the altar.” [1]David stockpiles Temple building supplies
2David drafted an army of non-Israelites as construction workers. Like it or not, they would cut stone blocks for the Temple. These people lived in Israel as immigrants. [2]3David stockpiled iron for nails, door hinges, and gates. He collected more bronze than anyone wanted to try weighing. 4He created a massive lumberyard of cedar, which he got from the cities of Tyre and Sidon in Lebanon.
5David said, “I need to help my son Solomon get ready to build the Temple. He’s young and doesn’t have much experience in this sort of thing. But it’s important for him to build a Temple so magnificent that people everywhere will come to see it and start talking about how beautiful it is. So I’m going to do what I can to help him get ready to build it.” And that’s what David did for the final years of his life.
David’s advice to his son Solomon
6David called in his son Solomon for a meeting. He assigned his son the job of building a temple devoted to the LORD, the God of Israel. 7David said, “Son, I wanted to build a temple to honor the LORD, my God. 8But many years ago he told me this:‘You’ve fought in a lot of battles, and you’ve killed a lot of people. So, I don’t want you to build a temple devoted to me. You have too much blood on your hands.
9But you’ll have a son who will live in a time of peace. I will give him peace with all the neighboring countries. The son is Solomon. [3] There will be peace in the land during his lifetime. 10He will build the Temple to honor me. I will treat him like a father treats his son. He will follow you as king of Israel. From now on, Israel’s only true kings will come from his descendants.’11Son, I’m hoping and praying that the LORD will help you build the Temple, like he said. 12May God give you the wisdom and insight to obey his laws, especially when it comes time for you to rule Israel. 13You’ll succeed if you respect and obey the laws God gave us through Moses. Don’t be afraid to do the right thing. Don’t be confused about it, either. Show your courage and strength.
14I’ve gone to a lot of trouble and expense to stockpile supplies you’ll need to build the LORD’s Temple.
- Almost 4,000 tons [4] of gold
- 40,000 tons of silver
- More iron and bronze than you could weigh
- Lumber
- Stone.
David’s advice to leaders of Israel
17David ordered the leaders of Israel to back his son and help him out. 18He said, “Listen, can’t you tell the LORD is blessing our nation? Look in any direction. North, south, east, west. We’re at peace. We’ve already conquered the people who lived here. Now the land belongs to the people of the LORD.19So get your head and heart in a good place with God. Obey him. Then go help my son build the LORD’s Temple so we have a place to keep the sacred Chest of God’s Law [5] and the utensils we use in our worship rituals.”
Footnotes
Solomon would build the Temple on farmland on the hill above the City of David. The land included a flat threshing field, where the former owner brought the wheat stalks he cut. There, he used different techniques to shake the wheat kernels loose from the stalks. David reportedly bought the land for 600 shekels of gold (1 Chronicles 21:25) or 50 shekels of silver (2 Samuel 24:24). The stories don’t agree at that point. (See the footnote for 1 Chronicles 21:25.) A shekel weighs about half an ounce or 11 grams. So, we’re talking about the difference between 4 ounces of silver (570 grams) and 15 pounds of gold (6,600 grams). Value of silver and gold differs, but this could be the difference between about $100 in silver and perhaps half a million dollars in gold (92-450,000 euros).
Non-Israelites living in Israel were apparently free citizens, but without the same rights as the Israelite ancestors of today’s Jewish people. David ordered these lower-class people to perform some of the most difficult manual labor required for the Temple. It may not have been much different than the United States using slaves to build the White House in Washington DC.
Solomon’s name sounds a bit like the Hebrew word for peace: shalom. His name may have come from that word.
The ancient Hebrew weight was in terms of “talents.” One talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms. One ton is 2,000 pounds and 907 kilograms; 40,000 tons is 4,427 metric tons.
The chest is better known among people of faith as the Ark of the Covenant, Israel’s most sacred relic. It was a wooden chest plated with gold all over. Inside that chest was a golden jar with some manna, Aaron’s almond wood staff that budded, and stone tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments. Covering the chest was a lid with figures representing glorious celestial beings called cherubim. This was the place where God’s people found forgiveness (Exodus 25:10-22; Hebrews 9:4-5). It was lost to history, perhaps stolen by invaders such as the Assyrians from what is now northern Iraq or the Babylonians of southern Iraq who leveled Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC. In the Jewish Bible, which Christians usually call the Old Testament, there’s no mention of the chest’s existence after that.
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