1 Chronicleschapter 14
17 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him an house.
It stands in A palace, a household, and a kingdom lifted up, verses 1 to 7.
The chapter
Chapter summary
An interlude of confirmation. Hiram of Tyre sends cedar and masons and carpenters to build David a house, and David perceives 'that Jehovah had established him king over Israel.' His children born in Jerusalem are listed, Solomon among them. Then the Philistines come up twice, and twice David asks God before he moves: the discipline the ark episode taught. The first time he is told to go up, and he breaks them at Baal-perazim like a breach of waters. The second time the answer is different: circle behind, and when thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then go out. His fame goes into all lands.
Context
History · Ezra · 1 Chronicles overview
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 14The history
1 Chronicles names no author, and it names its own sources at 29:29, the histories of Samuel the seer, Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer. The Babylonian Talmud at tractate Bava Batra 15a assigns the book to Ezra the scribe, and C. F. Keil follows that tradition. Sara Japhet, H. G. M. Williamson and Gary Knoppers hold instead that an anonymous writer of the Persian period compiled it. The chapter covers the years of the new palace and the Philistine campaigns, about 1003 to 1000 BC on that same reckoning. The places are Jerusalem and the valley of Rephaim, which runs southwest from the city toward the coastal plain and is the natural approach for an army coming up from Philistia. A first hearer knew that Hiram's cedar, masons and carpenters were diplomacy in the form of building materials. Tyre was a merchant city on the Phoenician coast with the timber of Lebanon behind it and no farmland of its own, while Israel had grain, oil and the inland trade routes. Cedar logs were floated down the coast in rafts and hauled inland, which only a state could manage. A large household of wives and sons was standard royal policy, since each marriage bound another family or town to the crown. He also knew that capturing an enemy's images and keeping them was the usual practice, so burning them, as the law required, is what makes the end of the chapter striking.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
What it meant to them
Twice the Philistines spread out in the same valley, twice David asked God before moving, and the two answers differed, the second being a flanking move behind them to the balsam trees. For a people rebuilding under watchful neighbours the lesson was to ask every time, since each occasion carried its own order. The chapter ends with David's fame going out into all lands and the LORD bringing the fear of him on all nations. A small province surrounded by hostile officials heard that God can make a name for a people who cannot make one for themselves.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- This site's published dossier for 1 Chronicles
Where the chapter sits
1 Chronicles 14 falls in David's reign: temple-framed (chapters 10–29). Saul's death framed as judgment; David's consolidation; the ark brought to Jerusalem; the Davidic covenant (ch. 17); the military victories; the census and the threshing-floor site (ch. 21); temple preparation; Solomon's charge; David's doxology.
Before it: Genealogies from Adam to Saul, chapters 1–9.
The whole shape of 1 Chronicles→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. A palace, a household, and a kingdom lifted up
1. (vv. 1-2)
1 Chronicles 14:1
“Compare 2Sa 5:11-25, the only important variations from which are in 1Ch 14:4-7, the list of the sons of David (see 1Ch 3:1 note), and in 1Ch 14:12, where the fact is added that the idols taken from the Philistines were burned.”
1 Chronicles 14:2
“David's kingdom was lifted up on high, not for his own sake, that he might look great, but because of his people Israel, that he might be a guide and protector to them. We are blessed in order that we may be blessings. We are not born, nor do we live, for ourselves.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers: Chronicles places Hiram's cedar and this whole interlude after the ark's failed first attempt in chapter 13, where Samuel narrates the same material in 2 Sam 5:11-25 before the ark is ever brought up in 2 Sam 6. Keil reads the sequence as thematic rather than strictly chronological, since the Philistine wars of verses 8-16 answer verse 8's report that David was anointed king over all Israel, an event that sits earlier than Uzza's death. Barnes notes the parallel runs close to Samuel's wording throughout, with the differences confined to the children's list and the burned idols. Verse 2 states outright what the chapter then proves twice on the battlefield, that the Lord had confirmed David king, lifted up for the sake of his people.
2. (vv. 3-7)
1 Chronicles 14:3
“David took more wives at Jerusalem--(See on 2Sa 3:5). His concubines are mentioned (1Ch 3:9), where also is given a list of his children (1Ch 14:5-8), and those born in Jerusalem (2Sa 5:14-16).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 14:4
“These are the names of his children - In 2Sa 5:14-16 (note), eleven persons only are mentioned in the Hebrew text, but the Septuagint has twenty-four, here there are thirteen, and all the versions have the same number, with certain varieties in the names. - See the notes there.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
took more wives at Jerusalem: The list of sons born in Jerusalem repeats the record already given at 1 Chr 3:5-8, Chronicles keeping the roster twice where Samuel gives it only once at 2 Sam 5:14-16. Clarke counts the spread across the witnesses, eleven names in the Hebrew of Samuel, thirteen here, and twenty-four in the Septuagint, a variance he leaves to the versions rather than resolving. The doubling fits the book's practice of laying every line of David's house on record for a remnant checking its own descent. Solomon's name stands third among the Jerusalem sons, already marked out before a word is said of his reign.
B. The Philistines broken at Baal-perazim
1. (vv. 8-9)
1 Chronicles 14:8
“The Philistines went up to seek David - See on 2Sa 5:17 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
went up to seek David: The Philistines move only once David is anointed king over all Israel, not merely over Judah, and they choose the valley of Rephaim southwest of Jerusalem, ground the giant traditions of 2 Sam 21:16-20 name again. Chronicles carries the notice essentially as Samuel gives it in 2 Sam 5:17-18, adding nothing of its own at these two verses. The timing matters for the chapter's placement: a Philistine army testing the new king belongs early in the reign, before the ark was ever carried toward Jerusalem.
2. (vv. 10-12)
1 Chronicles 14:10
“David inquired of God - “David consulted the Word of the Lord.” - T.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 14:11
“Like the breaking forth of waters - “And David said, The Lord hath broken the enemies of David like to the breaking of a potter’s vessel full of water.” - T.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 14:12
“When they had left their gods there - The practice of carrying images of the gods to battle was common among the nations of antiquity, and arose from the belief that there was virtue in the images themselves, and that military success would be obtained by means of them.”
enquired of God, saying: David enquires of God before marching, and the Lord's own answer, Go up, for I will deliver them into thine hand, is the ground the name Baal-perazim gets in verse 11, the Lord who breaks forth. At verse 12 Chronicles departs from its source: 2 Sam 5:21 says David and his men took the abandoned idols away, while here they were burned with fire, the fuller obedience Deut 7:5 and 7:25 command against the gods of a conquered people. Barnes names the addition directly, and the readings differ only on whether Samuel's taking already implied destruction or whether Chronicles corrects an incomplete report. Either way the gods that could not save their own worshippers end as fuel.
C. Waiting for the sound of marching in the mulberry trees
1. (vv. 13-16)
1 Chronicles 14:14
“Go not up after them--The text in 2Sa 5:23, more correctly has, "Go not up." turn away from them--that is, by stealing round a baca-grove, come upon their rear.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 14:15
“A sound of going - “When thou shalt hear the sound of the angels coming to thy assistance, then go out to battle; for an angel is sent from the presence of God, that he may render thy way prosperous.” - T.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 14:16
“The line from this to Gazer was intersected by the roads which led from Judah to the cities of the Philistines. To recover possession of it, therefore, as was effected by this decisive battle, was equivalent to setting free the whole mountain region of Judah as far as their most westerly slope [BERTHEAU].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
yet again spread themselves abroad: The Philistines regroup in the same valley, and this second inquiry gets a different order: not a direct advance but a wide turn to come upon them from behind the mulberry trees. The instruction to wait for a sound of going in the treetops before advancing runs word for word with 2 Sam 5:23-25, already carried by the Samuel exposition, and Chronicles adds nothing to the wording here. Clarke records an older reading that took the sound as an army sent ahead of David, going before to render his way prosperous, a tradition he names rather than asserts. David's obedience is total, from Gibeon clear to Gazer, and this second victory earns no place-name of its own the way the first earned Baal-perazim.
2. (v. 17)
1 Chronicles 14:17
“Into all lands - That is, all the surrounding or neighboring lands and nations, for no others can possibly be intended.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
fame of David went out into all lands: Verse 17 has no counterpart in 2 Sam 5, which ends its parallel account at the battle report; Chronicles adds this closing sentence as its own summary before returning to the ark in chapter 15. Fame and fear stand together, the pairing the conquest narratives use of Israel's neighbors, and here it rests on David rather than on the nation entering the land. Henry reads the verse as the chapter's verdict on everything since verse 1, cedar, sons and two victories all serving to lift up a king the Lord himself had confirmed. The sentence closes the interlude and hands the narrative back to Uzza's unfinished business.
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 14. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. H. Bennett, The Books of Chronicles (Expositor's Bible).