1 Chronicleschapter 28
21 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for people rebuilding a house of God from written records and old specifications. It gathers every leader of the kingdom to one assembly in Jerusalem. The old king rises to his feet and speaks, first to the nation and then to his son. What he said in private in an earlier chapter is now said before witnesses. Then he hands over a written plan, and the first hearers knew exactly how much such a document was worth. Listen for where David says the plan came from. Then listen for the charge he gives Solomon before the work begins.
Context
- Who
- People rebuilding a house from written records and old specifications
- What
- A narrative of David's address to the assembled leaders, his charge to Solomon, and his handing over of the written plan of the temple.
- Where
- A national assembly in Jerusalem, with the plans of the temple laid out before the officials.
- When
- The last year of David's reign, about 970 BC, a date held as approximate.
- Why
- To transfer the building of the temple to Solomon in public and to ground its design in a plan from God.
Historical context
The chapter is David's, speaking as an aged king who rose to his feet to address the assembly. Standing mattered, since a king who could have spoken sitting chose otherwise.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The time is the close of the reign, about 970 BC, and the place is Jerusalem.
The occasion is a formal transfer of power staged before witnesses. Every official, commander, steward and mighty man is summoned, and what chapter 22 said to Solomon in private is now said in public.
A first hearer knew what was being handed over and a reader today has to be shown it. David gives Solomon the plans for the portico, the buildings, the storehouses, the upper rooms, the inner rooms and the room for the mercy seat. The same document carries the divisions of the priests and Levites and all the work of the service. It is an architectural drawing and a staffing plan in one document.
The specifications run down to weights. The text gives the weight of gold for each lampstand and its lamps, and the weight of silver for each table. It gives the weights of the forks, sprinkling bowls and pitchers, and the refined gold for the altar of incense and for the chariot of the gold cherubim. A builder could commission every fitting from this record.
David then says where the plan came from, that the LORD made all its details clear to him in writing by His hand upon him. The same word for pattern is used of the design God showed Moses on the mountain for the tabernacle, so both houses were built to shown plans.
Significance
The second temple was raised on the first one's footprint, from records like these, by men arguing over dimensions and fittings. The sentence that it stood in writing was the most practical line in the book for them.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The charge to Solomon was equally practical. He was to know the God of his father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, because the LORD searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
1 Chronicles carries no weekly portion and no Haftarah, and no part of it is read in the synagogue service on any Sabbath of the year. In the Hebrew Bible Chronicles stands among the Writings, and the Haftarah is drawn from the Prophets, so the yearly cycle passes this book over entirely. This site's own table of synagogue readings records the same absence. It holds no portion, no Haftarah use and no festival reading for any of the twenty-nine chapters of the book.
One phrase of this chapter did reach the service, again by way of a poem. David charges Solomon to serve God with a whole heart, and Rashi builds his note on the singular form of the Hebrew word. The text uses the form that means a single heart turned to God, in place of the form that would suggest two hearts. He then cites the liturgical poet who put the same reading into the Kedushah of Musaf for the first day of Rosh Hashanah, "You have two hearts like one for the One". He brings the same point from Solomon's own prayer in Kings and from the wording used to the angels in Genesis (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:9:1). The verse is read in the synagogue on the New Year in the shape a commentator gave it, though the chapter itself is never read there.
How it is read
The corpus carries sixteen kept notes of Rashi for this chapter in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, under CC-BY. He opens by identifying the assembly from the register of the chapter before, the leaders of the tribes and the twelve monthly divisions of the king (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:1:1 and 28:1:2). At the eighth verse he reads the whole congregation addressed as including "the stranger like the native" (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:8:1).
The charge to build draws the chapter's most careful note, and it guards against two mistakes at once. Rashi says the house is chosen to be built as a sanctuary rather than as a dwelling, since the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain God. He explains the word for sanctuary from the Torah's own use of it for the ark the Kohathites carried. Then he turns to the man. Solomon was chosen for God's own sake and his mercies, rather than for being more praiseworthy than other men. That is why the verse ends by telling him to be strong and act (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:10:1). At the twentieth he reads the same encouragement as tied to the promise of a lasting kingdom, on the condition the seventh verse names (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:20:1). At the twenty-first he hears David saying that everything has been arranged and the workmen provided, so that the building should begin at once (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:21:1).
The pattern David hands over is read as something he received rather than designed. At the twelfth verse Rashi says it was shown him by Samuel the Seer, and he supports it from the notice earlier in this book about what David and Samuel established. He then brings what the Rabbis said in the tractate Zevachim about the two of them at Naioth in Ramah. They were engaged in the building of the world, which Rashi takes to mean the temple. Samuel taught David there in that time what a faithful student could not learn in many years (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:12:1). At the nineteenth he reads the writing of the pattern the same way. The sum of every weight of every vessel was set down for Solomon from Samuel the Seer (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:19:1). This is the classical commentary's account of where the plan came from, and it is reported here as the commentary's.
The rest of the notes work through the inventory as an architect and a metalworker would. The pattern of the porch means its length, width and height, matched to the measurement in Kings (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:11:1). The divisions handed over are the twenty-four watches of the earlier chapters (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:13:1). Then come the weights, of gold and silver for every vessel of every service (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:14:1), and of each lampstand and its lamps (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:15:1). On the tables Rashi distinguishes the ten golden tables of the sanctuary from the silver tables of the forecourt, on which the sacrifices were flayed. He adds the forks and the basins (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:16:1). The basins themselves he explains as vessels for wiping blood from the other vessels, and he takes the root of the word to mean wiping and cleansing throughout Scripture (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:17:1). At the eighteenth he glosses the term for refined gold from the parallel term for refined silver (Rashi on I Chronicles 28:18:1).
Metzudat David carries the promise in the middle of the chapter, where the kept text of Rashi stops, with Radak and Malbim beside him. Their refs are carried with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand here cited and unquoted. Metzudat David comments at I Chronicles 28:2:1, 28:3:1, 28:4:1, 28:5:1, 28:6:1 and 28:7:1. Radak comments at I Chronicles 28:2:1. Malbim comments at I Chronicles 28:4:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-nine rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Eleven of the thirty-nine stand on the nineteenth verse, the one verse in Scripture that says the plan of the house was given in writing by the hand of the LORD. In the Babylonian Talmud they are Bekhorot 17b:4, Chullin 83b:6, Eruvin 104a:8, Sukkah 51b:12, and Zevachim 33a:5 and 62a:2. Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sukkah 5:4 and Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 3:1 stand beside them. In the Jerusalem Talmud they are Megillah 1:1:3 and Pesachim 7:8:4, with Midrash Shmuel 15:3.
Eight stand on the ninth verse, the charge to know the God of one's father and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind. They are Aggadat Bereshit 2:1, Bereshit Rabbah 9:3, Midrash Shmuel 5:5, and Midrash Tehillim 14:1, 45:4 and 119:6. Two more stand with them, Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Psalms, Addendum to Psalm 118 8, and Shemot Rabbah 21:3. Eight stand on the fourth, where God chose Judah as leader and within Judah the house of David. Four of them are Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:19, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 2:25, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 34:2:1, and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 34:2:8. The others are Otzar Midrashim, Yaakov Our Father, Yaakov Our Father's Blessing to His Sons 6, Sifrei Devarim 357:16, and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 823:1 and 964:13.
Seven stand on the second, where David rises to his feet and calls the assembly his brothers and his people. They are Aggadat Bereshit 69:1, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 7:31, and Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 1:16. The rest are Kohelet Rabbah 10:4:1, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 17:15:5, Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:1:6, and Sotah 40a:14.
Five remain. Two stand on the eleventh, the plan of the porch and the chambers and the room of the mercy seat. They are Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:2:20 and Pesachim 86a:4, with Aggadat Bereshit 38:1 carried across the eleventh and twelfth together. Otzar Midrashim, Various 'Megilot', Megillat Beit Hamikdash 4 stands on the twelfth, and Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 4:4:5 on the eighteenth, the refined gold of the chariot of the cherubim. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Chronicles 28:1:1 to 28:21:1, sixteen kept notes in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 28:2:1, 28:3:1, 28:4:1, 28:5:1, 28:6:1 and 28:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 28:2:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 28:4:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/28.json, the 39 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; This site's table of synagogue readings, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, which records no portion, no Haftarah use and no festival reading for 1 Chronicles.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
David stands on his feet to charge the assembly
1 Chronicles 28:1-2
summoned all the leaders of Israel: David summons the national leadership to Jerusalem. This scene moves the charge to Solomon from the private setting of chapter 22 into a public assembly. He calls the coming house “a house as a resting place for the ark” and “a footstool for our God”.
1 Chronicles 28:1
“David assembled all the princes of Israel--that is, the representatives of the people, the leading men of the kingdom, who are enumerated in this verse according to their respective rank or degree of authority. princes of the tribes-- (1Ch 27:16-22).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Chronicles 28:1
“Officer - literally, as in the margin. This is the only occasion in which eunuchs are mentioned in connection with David’s reign; and it is to be remarked that they occupy, during the earlier period of the Jewish kingdom, a very subordinate position.”
rose to his feet and: King David rises to his feet. Adam Clarke notes that David was old and mostly kept to his bed, as 1 Kings 1:47 shows, yet stood to speak to the nobles. Matthew Henry reads the footstool as the earth and its temples, with heaven as God's throne of glory.
1 Chronicles 28:2
“This he had signified to Solomon before, ch. xxii. A house of rest for the ark is here said to be a house of rest for the footstool of our God; for heaven is his throne of glory; the earth, and the most magnificent temples that can be built upon it, are but his footstool: so much difference is there between the manifestations of the divine glory in the upper and lower world.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 28:2
“David - stood up upon his feet - He was now very old, and chiefly confined to his bed, (see 1Ki 1:47); and while he was addressing his son Solomon, he continued on the bed; but when all the principal nobles of his kingdom came before him he received strength to arise and address them, standing on his feet.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 28:3-4
The reason God refused David the temple repeats what chapter 22 told Solomon. The LORD chose Judah among the tribes, David's father's household within Judah, and David among his father's sons. Each step narrows the promise to one man, as chapter 1's genealogy narrowed the nations down to Abraham.
1 Chronicles 28:3
“But God said unto me, thou shalt not build an house for my name,.... This he said by Nathan the prophet, 2Sa 7:5. because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood: see 1Ch 22:8.”
He chose Judah as leader: Matthew Henry notes that Judah became the ruling tribe by God's choice, and that Jacob gave the scepter to it in Genesis 49. Adam Clarke reads king over Israel forever as a rule without end while the kings kept God's commands, and without end in Christ.
1 Chronicles 28:4
“Judah was not the eldest son of Jacob, yet God chose that tribe to be the ruling tribe; Jacob entailed the sceptre upon it, Gen. xlix. It does not appear that the family of Jesse was the senior house of that tribe; from Judah it is certain that it was not, for Shelah was before Pharez; whether from Nahshon and Salmon is not certain.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 28:4
“Over Israel for ever - The government should have no end, provided they continued to walk according to the commandments of God; see 1Ch 28:7. The government, as referring to Christ, is, and will be, without end.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 28:5-7
the throne of the kingdom of the LORD: Verse 5 alone in Scripture calls the throne of Israel “the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel”. The title returns in thought at 29:23. In Chronicles the monarchy is the LORD's own throne held in trust, so the promise can outlast every earthly king.
Solomon is the son chosen to build the LORD's house. Albert Barnes traces the choice to a second revelation beyond Nathan's, told in 22:8-10. Matthew Henry reads the words son and Father as a figure of Christ, and notes that Solomon was called Jedidiah, for the LORD loved him.
1 Chronicles 28:6
“And he said unto me, Solomon that son, he shall build my house,.... See 2Sa 7:13. and my courts; in the house or temple: for I have chosen him to be my son; predestinated him to the adoption of children, Eph 1:5. and I will be his father; see 2Sa 7:14.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 28:6
“Besides the message sent to David through Nathan, he had a revelation, of which we have only the indirect account given here and in 1Ch 22:8-10 (see the note). He was told that one of his sons should be raised up to fill his throne after him, and should build the temple. In the second revelation it was distinctly declared to him that the son intended was Solomon. My house and my courts - i. e., the temple and the courts of the temple (see 2Ch 4:9).”
1 Chronicles 28:6
“Thus he declares the decree, that the Lord had said to Solomon, as a type of Christ, Thou art my son ( Ps. ii. 7 ), the son of my love; for he was called Jedidiah, because the Lord loved him, and Christ is his beloved Son. Of him God said, as a figure of him that was to come, 1.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I will establish his kingdom: The lasting kingdom now carries a condition. John Gill takes the condition as a later word to David, given after Solomon was born. John Wesley reads the promise as absolute for the Messiah and conditional for Solomon.
1 Chronicles 28:7
“Moreover, I will establish his kingdom for ever,.... The same is said in 2Sa 7:13. if he be constant to do my commandments, and my judgments, as at this day; if he continued in the observance of them, as he had begun, and went on in until that day; this is added here, and was not spoken by Nathan, when what goes before was; for Solomon was not then born, but must be suggested to David since, and as it should seem at this time.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 28:7
“At this day - As he hath begun. This promise is absolute with regard to the Messiah, but conditional, with regard to Solomon. If we are constant in our duty, then and not otherwise, we may expect the continuance of his favour.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
keep and seek out all the commandments: David charges Israel to “keep and seek out all the commandments of the LORD your God”. He calls the assembly to witness, as Moses called heaven and earth to witness in Deuteronomy 30. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the verse as an echo of Moses's farewell exhortation.
1 Chronicles 28:8
"God is witness, and this congregation is witness, that they have good counsel given them, and fair warning; if they do not take it, it is their fault, and God and man will be witnesses against them." See 1 Tim. v. 21; Those that profess religion, as they tender the favour of God and their reputation with men, must be faithful to their profession.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Know the God of your father and serve Him with a perfect heart
If you seek Him, He will be found by you: David's charge narrows from the nation to one son. David states the book's doctrine: “If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever”. Seek is the verb Chronicles uses to measure every king that follows.
1 Chronicles 28:9
"Do you know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, him will God destroy." And in another place: "The Lord is with you as long as you are with him. If you abandon him, he also will abandon you."
Jerome · written before 420 · Against the Pelagians 3.1patristic
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 28:9
“Know thou the God of thy father - “Knowing God,” in the sense of having a religious trust in Him, is an unusual phrase in the earlier Scriptures. It scarcely occurs elsewhere in the historical books. David, however, uses the phrase in his Psalms Psa 36:10; and its occurrence here may be accepted as evidence that the entire speech is recorded in the actual words of the monarch.”
1 Chronicles 28:9
“Searcheth - If thou dost only put on a profession of religion to please me, or if thy obedience to God be unsincere, thou mayest indeed deceive me, but thou canst not deceive him, for he searcheth the motions of thy heart. Cast thee off - Notwithstanding all his promises to me and to my seed, and that great honour and favour which he hath shewed thee.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
a house for the sanctuary: The charge “to build a house for the sanctuary” closes with words David will say in full at verse 20, “Be strong and do it”. This shorter first sounding comes before the fuller statement that closes the chapter.
The pattern given by the Spirit, written by God's hand
1 Chronicles 28:11-13
the plans for the portico of the temple: David hands Solomon a full plan: the portico, buildings, storehouses, upper rooms, inner rooms and “the room for the mercy seat”. Albert Barnes reads the plan as written directions, as the chapter itself states at verse 19. Kings records the finished temple's dimensions but has no such planning scene.
1 Chronicles 28:11
“The houses - The houses of the temple, namely, the holy place, and the holy of holies. Parlors - Those rooms which were made against the wall of the house round about, 1 Kings vi, 5. The place - In what particular part of the holy of holies it was to be placed.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 28:11
“Bishop Patrick supposes that, among other things, the tabernacle which Moses reared and all the utensils of it, which there was now no further occasion for, were laid up here, signifying that in the fulness of time all the Mosaic economy, all the rites and ceremonies of that dispensation, should be respectfully laid aside, and something better come in their room.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
everything David had in mind: David's plans cover the courts, rooms and treasuries. Albert Barnes renders the Hebrew as all that was with David in the spirit, meaning his own mind. John Gill reads it as the Spirit of God, as God showed Moses the tabernacle's plan, and the Targum says the spirit of prophecy.
1 Chronicles 28:12
“By the Spirit of God, who gave him the whole form of the temple, and all things relative to it; just as God showed to Moses the pattern of the tabernacle in the mount; the Targum is, by the spirit of prophecy that was with him.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 28:12
“Christ the true temple, the church the gospel temple, and heaven the everlasting temple, are all framed according to the divine councils, and the plan laid in the divine wisdom, ordained before the world for God's glory and ours.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the divisions of the priests: The plans reach past the building to the divisions of priests and Levites. Each task and tool of service is planned too. John Gill likens the whole plan to the pattern God showed Moses for the tabernacle.
1 Chronicles 28:13
“And also for the courses of the priests and Levites,.... Where they should serve, of which, as fixed and ordered by David, see 1Ch 24:1. and for all the work of the service of the house of the Lord; they should be employed in: and for all the vessels of service in the house of the Lord; which they should use therein.”
1 Chronicles 28:14-18
the weight of all the gold articles: The gold and silver are listed down to the weight of every lampstand, table, fork, bowl and dish. The list ends with “the chariot of the gold cherubim”, David's name for the two large cherubim. Matthew Henry ties the name to Psalm 68, where the angels are God's chariots.
the gold lampstands and their: David weighs out gold for the gold lampstands and silver for the silver ones, each with its lamps. The weight of each is set by its use. John Gill notes on verse 17 that some temple vessels were silver and others gold.
1 Chronicles 28:15
“Even the weight for the candlesticks of gold, and for their lamps of gold, by weight for every candlestick, and for the lamps thereof,....”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 28:15
“For the candlesticks - There was but one chandelier in the tabernacle; there were ten in the temple. See 1Ki 7:49.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
each table of showbread: Gold is weighed for each table of showbread, and silver for the silver tables. John Wesley notes that several tables served the showbread. One stood above the rest and is usually called the table of showbread.
1 Chronicles 28:16
“The tables - There were divers tables to be used about the shew-bread; but one of them seems to have been of more eminency than the rest, and therefore it is commonly called the table of the shew-bread in the singular number.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the forks, sprinkling bowls: The forks, bowls, pitchers and dishes are the tools of sacrifice. John Gill explains the forks as flesh hooks for lifting meat from the boiling pots. He takes the basins as vessels that caught and sprinkled the blood, some of gold and some of silver.
1 Chronicles 28:17
“Also pure gold for the flesh hooks,.... To take the pieces of flesh out of the pots, in which they were boiled: and the bowls and the cups; and for the golden basins he gave gold by weight for every basin; which were vessels made use of for the receiving and sprinkling the blood of the sacrifices: likewise silver by weight for every basin of silver; for it seems some of them were of silver, as others were of gold.”
the altar of incense: Refined gold is set apart for the altar of incense. Matthew Henry explains the cherubim here as the two large ones whose wings reached from wall to wall, told in 1 Kings 6:23. He links the name chariot to Psalm 68, where the angels are God's chariots.
1 Chronicles 28:18
“Besides the two cherubim over the mercy-seat, there were two much larger, whose wings reached from wall to wall ( 1 Kings vi. 23 , &c.), and of these David here gave Solomon the pattern, called a chariot; for the angels are the chariots of God, Ps. lxviii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
David states how he received the plan: “the LORD has made clear to me in writing by His hand upon me”. Commentators set the plan beside the pattern Moses was shown on the mountain in Exodus 25:40. Spurgeon preached on the verse in his sermon titled God's Handwriting Upon David.
1 Chronicles 28:19
“THE Temple was not to be built according to the designs of David, or Solomon, or any other man. It was to be built according to a pattern which God, Himself, had formed. In the things of God we are not left to follow our own judgments and devices—we are to look to the Law and to the Testimony for our instructions. To God's Word we must always come for our orders. What God has commanded is binding upon us in His Church. What He has not commanded, we may safely leave undone.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2280: “God's Handwriting Upon David” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Be strong and do it; He will not fail you
1 Chronicles 28:20-21
David closes with the charge Moses gave in Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous”, and its promise, “He will neither fail you nor forsake you”. The LORD repeated that promise to Joshua at Joshua 1:5. Matthew Henry notes that Hebrews 13:5 applies the same promise to every believer.
1 Chronicles 28:20
“The same that was Joshua's encouragement ( Josh. i. 5 ), and Solomon's, is given to all believers, Heb. xiii. He will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
every willing man of every skill: David lists the help Solomon will have. The divisions of priests and Levites are ready, skilled workers will come of their own will, and the officials and people will follow his command. Matthew Henry's note on verse 18 shows the same care for detail in the plan for the cherubim.
1 Chronicles 28:21
“Behold, the courses of the priests - The priests and the Levites, the cunning artificers, and the princes of the people, will be at thy command. Thus David, having assigned him his work, and described the manner in which it was to be done, shows him who were to be his assistants in it, and encourages him in the great undertaking.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 28:21
“The priests and Levites will advise thee, and thou mayest consult them. Thou hast good workmen, who are both willing and skilful;" and these are two very good properties in a workman, especially in those that work at the temple.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative with three speeches, the public charge to Solomon and the handing over of the temple plan, as Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Be strong and do it | Verse 10 closes the charge to Solomon with three words, be strong and do it. Verse 20 opens the last speech with the same order at fuller length, be strong and courageous, and do it. The plan, the weights and the claim of written revelation stand between the two, so the section that carries the temple's design is bracketed by one command.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Chronicles 28:10. | 1 Chronicles 28:10, 1 Chronicles 28:20 |
| He chose, four times narrowing | Verses 4 to 6 narrow a choice in four steps: Judah out of the tribes, David's father's household out of Judah, David out of his father's sons, and Solomon out of David's many sons. The verb of choosing stands six times in the chapter, counted in the Berean text in the store. It is the same sorting the genealogy of chapter 1 performed on the nations before it reached Abraham.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Chronicles 28:4. | 1 Chronicles 28:4, 1 Chronicles 28:5, 1 Chronicles 28:6, 1 Chronicles 28:10 |
| The weight of, item by item | Verses 14 to 18 itemise the metal by weight rather than by description. The phrase the weight of stands ten times, counted in the Berean text in the store. It covers the gold and silver articles, the lampstands and their lamps, the tables, the forks and bowls and pitchers, the dishes and the altar of incense. Nothing in the account of Solomon's finished work at 1 Kings 7 matches this inventory.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Chronicles 28:14. | 1 Chronicles 28:14, 1 Chronicles 28:15, 1 Chronicles 28:16, 1 Chronicles 28:17, 1 Chronicles 28:18 |
| Three speeches, to the nation, to the son, and to the son again | David speaks to the assembly at verses 2 to 8, to Solomon at verses 9 and 10, and to Solomon once more at verses 20 and 21. The first speech ends by charging all Israel to keep and seek the commandments, and the second narrows the same verb to one man. The chapter moves from the nation to the heir and back out to the help standing ready for him.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Chronicles 28:8. | 1 Chronicles 28:2, 1 Chronicles 28:8, 1 Chronicles 28:9, 1 Chronicles 28:20 |
The structure of the choosing
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The four steps of verses 4 to 6 form a funnel, and the book page describes the genealogy of chapters 1 to 9 with the same word. There the narrowing ran from Adam to Judah and Levi and widened again at 9:1. Here it runs from the twelve tribes to one son in four moves inside three verses. The shape is the book's own, used twice at its two ends.
The historical value
Verse 5 carries a title that stands nowhere else in Scripture except in this book, the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel, which 29:23 repeats when Solomon takes the seat. In Chronicles the monarchy is God's own throne held in trust rather than a dynasty owned outright, which is why the promise can survive the loss of every earthly king.
Verses 11 to 19 have no parallel in Kings. That book records the finished temple's dimensions and never this planning scene, so the whole charge is material Chronicles alone preserves. Albert Barnes reads the pattern as a written set of directions rather than a vision seen once and remembered, which is the conclusion verse 19 states plainly.
The debated concept
The standing of David in Chronicles is contested, and the book page carries the question with two views. The critical charge reads Chronicles as a retelling that suppresses David's adultery, the killing of Uriah and the family catastrophe in order to build an uncomplicated founding hero for temple and dynasty legitimation. The response at its strongest holds that the Chronicler keeps the census and plague in full and states Saul's condemnation outright. On that reading he writes a different genre for a different pastoral need, a community without a king that needs its founder shown as the model preparer of worship. The book page's own flag states that the two accounts differ in emphasis and genre on this reading. It adds that readers who hold the critical charge weigh the omissions as more than that. This chapter is one of the places the question is felt, since the refusal at verse 3 names bloodshed and names nothing else.
The divine connection
Verse 19 is the chapter's strongest claim. David says the LORD made all the details of the plan clear to him in writing by His hand upon him, which is a claim of written revelation rather than a builder's memory. The commentators draw it to Moses receiving the tabernacle's pattern on the mountain at Exodus 25:40, a correspondence the text invites by using the same word, pattern, for both structures.
Verse 9 carries the book's own doctrine in one sentence. Solomon is told to know the God of his father and serve Him wholeheartedly, because the LORD searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought. The promise and the warning follow, that seeking finds and forsaking is answered by rejection. The verb to seek is baqash at Strong's h1245, which the book page carries as a keynote of 1 Chronicles. The sentence planted here is the refrain 2 Chronicles will use to measure king after king.
The New Testament and the later church
Three lines run forward. The pattern of verses 11 to 19 is read with Exodus 25:9 and 25:40 and with Hebrews 8:5, where the earthly sanctuary is called a copy and shadow of the heavenly one. The promise at verse 20, that the LORD will neither fail you nor forsake you, is the word Moses gave Joshua at Deuteronomy 31:6 and the LORD repeated at Joshua 1:5. Matthew Henry reads Hebrews 13:5 as applying the same promise to every believer. Charles Spurgeon preached verse 19 as a picture of a church built only by what God has commanded, in his sermon titled God's Handwriting Upon David, number 2280 of The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.
Keep studying
Places1
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 form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Chronicles 28:20; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Chronicles 28:11; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Chronicles 28:1 and The book page for 1 Chronicles, src/components/book/guides/1-chronicles/Book1ChroniclesGuide.tsx, the keystoneChapters set.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2280: God's Handwriting Upon David; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.