1 Chronicleschapter 29
30 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.
It stands in All things come of Thee: David blesses the LORD aloud, verses 10 to 19.
The chapter
Chapter summary
David gives first, out of his own treasure of gold of Ophir and refined silver, then asks, 'Who then offereth willingly to consecrate himself this day unto Jehovah?' The princes and rulers give by the talent and the daric, and the people rejoice because they offered willingly. The closing prayer is the summit of the book: 'Thine, O Jehovah, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty… But who am I, and what is my people… for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.' We are strangers and sojourners, our days as a shadow. Solomon is made king, and David dies full of days, riches, and honor.
Context
History · Ezra · 1 Chronicles overview
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 29The history
The chapter is David's last, and it closes a reign the text itself sums up as forty years, seven in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem.
The place is the assembly in Jerusalem, with the gathered materials laid out in front of the people.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The occasion is a freewill offering. David gives from his own treasure first and then asks who will volunteer to consecrate himself to the LORD that day. The leaders of the households, the officers of the tribes and the commanders answer. The writer lists what came in, gold, silver, bronze, iron and precious stones, handed to Jehiel the Gershonite who kept the treasury.
One unit in that list is a window into the writer's own day, and a first hearer would have read it without pausing. Beside the ancient talents the text names darics, a Persian gold coin struck centuries after David. The old weights meant little to a farmer in Persian Judah, so the amounts appear in the money in his own pocket. An old sum is quoted in the currency a reader actually handles.
The gold of Ophir at verse 4 names a real source. Ophir was a trading destination reached by sea from the Gulf of Aqaba, most likely on the Arabian or East African coast. A shipping label found at an Israelite site records a consignment of gold of Ophir, so the phrase worked as a grade.
Solomon is then designated a second time and anointed before the LORD as ruler, with Zadok anointed as priest. The first anointing, and the palace crisis that forced it, belongs to the account in Kings. Here the writer shows the public and orderly ceremony in which all Israel obeyed and the officials and David's own sons pledged their allegiance.
What it meant to them
David's prayer is the theology of every offering the first hearers ever brought, that everything comes from God and that from His own hand they had given to Him. Their gifts were small and the sentence still fitted exactly.
The next line fitted as well, that they were foreigners and strangers in His presence, as all their forefathers had been, and that their days on earth were like a shadow. A people who had been literal strangers in Babylon heard the greatest king in their history describe himself the same way.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
1 Chronicles 29 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.
David's doxology. ‘Thine, O LORD, is the greatness’; Solomon made king.
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. The people offer willingly, and rejoice to see it
1. (vv. 1-2)
1 Chronicles 29:1
“The palace - The original word here used is the Hebrew form of a Persian word, and generally designates the residence of the Persian monarch Est 1:2, Est 1:5; Est 2:3, Est 2:8; Neh 1:1; Dan 8:2. It is only here and in 1Ch 29:19 that it is applied to the temple.”
1 Chronicles 29:2
“And marble stones - אבני שיש abney shayish, which the Vulgate translates marmor Parium, Parian marble. Paros was one of the Cyclade islands, and produced the whitest and finest marble, that of which most of the finest works of antiquity have been made. That the word shaish means marble is probable from the Chaldee, which has אבני מרמורייה abney marmoraiyah, marble stones. Josephus says that the temple was built of large blocks of white marble, beautifully polished, so as to produce a most splendid appearance. - Jos., De Bell. Jud., lib. v., c. 5, s. 2.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
is yet young and tender: David tells the whole congregation what he had already told Solomon alone at 22:5, that the work is great and Solomon is young and tender, and now the burden is spoken before the nation rather than kept private. The palace under construction is not for man but for the Lord God, the claim chapters 22 through 28 have already built, that the temple's plans came from the Lord's own hand and its builder answers to a house greater than his kingdom. The catalogue of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood and stone in verse 2 is David's own inventory of what he has gathered before he asks anyone else to give.
2. (vv. 3-5)
1 Chronicles 29:3
“Of mine own proper good - i. e., from his own private estate. He makes the offering publicly in order to provoke others by his example 1Ch 29:5.”
1 Chronicles 29:4
The numbers here have also suffered to some extent from the carelessness of copyists (compare the 1Ch 22:14 note). The amount of silver is not indeed improbable, since its value would not exceed three millions of our money; but as the gold would probably exceed in value thirty millions, we may suspect an error in the words “three thousand.”
1 Chronicles 29:5
“To consecrate his service - literally, as in the margin, “to fill his hand,” i. e., “to come with full hands to Yahweh.” The words contain an appeal to the assembly for voluntary offerings.”
of mine own proper good: Beyond the provision already listed, David adds gold and silver from his own private estate, given because he has set his affection to the house of his God. Barnes reads the personal gift as deliberately public, meant to draw others into giving by example rather than to outshine them. The chapter turns on the question that follows at once, who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord, the appeal that opens the freewill offering the rest of the chapter records.
3. (vv. 6-9)
1 Chronicles 29:6
“Then the chief of the fathers and princes of the tribes of Israel,.... The princes of the twelve tribes: and the captains of thousands, and of hundreds, with the rulers over the king's work; who were now assembled, 1Ch 28:1. offered willingly; and cheerfully; needed no more arguments to press them to it, but at once readily communicated.”
1 Chronicles 29:7
“It is estimated as equal in value to 25s. of British currency. of brass eighteen thousand talents, and one hundred thousand talents of iron--In Scripture, iron is always referred to as an article of comparatively low value, and of greater abundance and cheaper than bronze [NAPIER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 29:7
“The word here translated “dram” is regarded by most critics as the Hebrew equivalent of the Persian “daric,” or ordinary gold coin, worth about 22 shillings of British money (circa 1880’s). Not, however, that the Jews possessed darics in David’s time: the writer wished to express, in language that would be intelligible to his readers, the value of the gold subscribed, and therefore he translated the terms employed in his documents, whatever they were, into terms that were in use in his own day.”
1 Chronicles 29:8
“And they with whom precious stones were found,.... Such as are mentioned 1Ch 29:2. gave them to the treasure of the house of the Lord; to be laid up there: by the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite; who, and his sons, had the care of that treasury, 1Ch 27:21.”
1 Chronicles 29:9
“The people rejoiced for that they offered willingly - i. e., the munificence of the princes and officers 1Ch 29:6 caused general joy among the people.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 29:9
“Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly,....”
the chief of the fathers and princes: The chief of the fathers, the princes of the tribes, the captains and the rulers of the king's work answer first, and Gill notes they needed no more argument to press them, they gave at once and cheerfully. Verse 9 names the two things Chronicles measures every offering by, that they gave willingly and that they gave with a perfect heart, the same perfect heart David will ask for Solomon in verse 19. The people's rejoicing and David's own great joy answer each other, joy following willing giving rather than causing it.
B. All things come of Thee: David blesses the LORD aloud
1. (vv. 10-13)
1 Chronicles 29:10
“Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation,....”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 29:10
“Wherefore David blessed the Lord--This beautiful thanksgiving prayer was the effusion overflowing with gratitude and delight at seeing the warm and widespread interest that was now taken in forwarding the favorite project of his life.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 29:11
“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness - This verse is thus paraphrased by the Targum: “Thine, O Lord, is the magnificence; for thou hast created the world by thy great power, and by thy might hast led our fathers out of Egypt, and with great signs hast caused them to pass through the Red Sea. Thou hast appeared gloriously on Mount Sinai, with troops of angels, in giving law to thy people. Thou hast gained the victory over Amalek; over Sihon and Og, kings of Canaan.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 29:11
“The nearer we come to the world of everlasting praise the more we should speak the language and do the work of that world. He adores God, and ascribes glory to him as the God of Israel, blessed for ever and ever. Our Lord's prayer ends with a doxology much like this which David here begins with-- for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Chronicles 29:12
“Both riches and honour come of thee,....”
Blessed be thou: David blesses the Lord before the whole assembly, and the doxology that follows at verse 11, thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, thine is the kingdom, is the same shape of words the church has prayed at the close of the Lord's Prayer since the earliest liturgies, a use later generations gave it rather than a line the verse itself claims. Adam Clarke notes the Targum's paraphrase widens the doxology into a recital of the exodus and Sinai, reading David's ascription against the whole span of God's dealing with Israel. Verses 12 and 13 turn the doxology to gratitude, riches and honour and strength are the Lord's to give, and the assembly can only thank him and praise his name.
2. (vv. 14-15)
1 Chronicles 29:14
“Of thine own have we given thee - “For from thy presence all good comes, and of the blessings of thy hands have we given thee.” - Targum.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 29:15
“For we are strangers - We have here neither right nor property. And sojourners - Lodging as it were for a night, in the mansion of another. As were all our fathers - These were, as we are supported by thy bounty, and tenants at will to thee. Our days on the earth are as a shadow - They are continually declining, fading, and passing away. This is the place of our sojourning, and here we have no substantial, permanent residence.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
But who am I: David's question turns the whole offering back to its source, of thine own have we given thee, so that even willing generosity is credited to God rather than to the givers. Verse 15 states the doctrine plainly, we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers, and Adam Clarke reads the shadow of that verse as the ordinary word for something continually declining and passing, not a poetic flourish. The assembly that has just poured out gold and silver by the thousand talents owns in the same breath that it possesses nothing of its own to give.
3. (vv. 16-19)
1 Chronicles 29:16
"We have it from thee as a free gift, and therefore are bound to use it for thee; and what we present to thee is but rent or interest from thy own." "In like manner" (says bishop Patrick) "we ought to acknowledge God in all spiritual things, referring every good thought, good purpose, good work, to his grace, from whom we receive it." Let him that glories therefore glory in the Lord.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 29:16
“Omitting the brass and iron, and precious stones, which, though specified partly (1Ch 29:7), are represented in other portions as "without weight" (1Ch 22:3, 14), we shall give in this table only the amount of gold and silver; and taking the talent of gold as worth £5475 (the talent being 125 pounds in weight), the value of the gold will be about 73s. per ounce.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 29:17
“In this prayer he addresses God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a God in covenant with them and with us for their sakes. Lord, give us grace to make good our part of the covenant, that we may not forfeit the benefit of it. Or thus: they were kept in their integrity by the grace of God establishing their way; let the same grace that was sufficient for them be so for us.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Chronicles 29:18
“Keep this for ever - All the good dispositions which myself and my people have, came from thee; continue to support and strengthen them by the same grace by which they have been inspired!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 29:19
"Lord, give him a perfect heart, not only in general to keep thy commandments, but in particular to build the palace, that he may do that service with a single eye." Yet his building the house would not prove him to have a perfect heart unless he made conscience of keeping God's commandments.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
all this store: The store gathered for the temple cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own, David says, repeating in verse 16 what verse 14 already confessed. Verse 17 names the ground of true giving, thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness, and David claims that his own offering and the people's were made in the uprightness of mine heart. The prayer closes at verse 19 by asking for Solomon exactly what verse 9 already found in the people, a perfect heart, so the son who will build the house first receives what his father has just seen given.
C. Solomon anointed and magnified before all Israel
1. (v. 20)
1 Chronicles 29:20
“Worshipped the Lord, and the king - The same outward signs of reverence were accorded by the customs of the Jews (as of the Oriental nations generally) to God and to their monarchs (see 1Ki 1:31). But the application of the terms to both in the same passage, which occurs nowhere in Scripture but here, is thought to indicate a time when a long servitude under despotic lords had orientalized men’s mode of speech.”
Now bless the Lord your God: David calls the whole congregation to bless the Lord, and they do, bowing their heads and worshipping the Lord, and the king, in the same clause. Barnes flags the pairing as unusual, the only place in Scripture where one verb of worship covers both God and a human ruler in one sentence, and reads it as the ordinary court gesture of bowing rather than any claim that David received honour due to God alone. The bow to the king answers what the Lord has done through him, not a second object of worship beside the Lord.
2. (vv. 21-22)
1 Chronicles 29:21
“With their drink offerings - i. e., with the drink-offerings appropriate to each kind of burnt-offering, and required by the Law to accompany them (see Num 15:5, Num 15:7,Num 15:10, etc.). Sacrifices - or, “thank-offerings,” as the same word is translated in 2Ch 29:31; 2Ch 33:16. Of “peace-offerings for thanksgivings” only a small part was the priest’s; the sacrificer and his friends feasted on the remainder Lev 7:15, Lev 7:29, Lev 7:34.”
a thousand bullocks: The sacrifices offered the next day, a thousand bullocks, a thousand rams and a thousand lambs with their drink offerings, are made for the whole nation at once, a scale Chronicles reserves for its largest national moments. Solomon is anointed the second time, a phrase Adam Clarke ties back to the hurried, contested anointing at Adonijah's attempt in 1 Kings 1, now replaced by an anointing done in the open before the assembled nation. Zadok is anointed priest in the same ceremony, the line that will hold the high priesthood through Solomon's reign.
3. (v. 23)
1 Chronicles 29:23
“Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord,.... Who had given it to him, and established him on it, and whose vicegerent he was, and over whose people he ruled: as king instead of David; he was viceroy to him in his life time, and succeeded him at his death, when he had the full power of government: and prospered; his reign was happy and peaceable: and all Israel obeyed him; at once; whereas it was some time, even years, before all Israel obeyed David.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 29:23
“The throne of David is called here “the throne of the Lord,” as in 1Ch 28:5 it is called “the throne of the kingdom of the Lord,” because God had set it up and had promised to establish it.”
1 Chronicles 29:23
“The municipal laws of their kingdom were divine. Urim and prophets were the privy counsellors of their princes; therefore is their throne called the throne of the Lord. Solomon's kingdom typified the kingdom of the Messiah, and his is indeed the throne of the Lord; for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to him; hence he calls him his King, Ps. ii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
sat on the throne of the Lord: Solomon sits on the throne of the Lord as king, the sentence Chronicles has been building toward since 28:5 called it the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel, a phrase that occurs nowhere else in Scripture. Barnes and Gill both read the title as stating what kind of kingdom Israel's monarchy always was, David's throne held in trust from God rather than owned outright by the dynasty. Read from the far side of the exile, when no son of David sat on any throne, the naming keeps the promise alive by locating it in the Lord who gave the throne rather than in the king who currently held it.
4. (vv. 24-25)
1 Chronicles 29:24
“Submitted themselves - נתנו יד תחת שלמה nathenu yad tachath Shelomoh. “They gave the hand under Solomon;” they swore fealty to him. We have already seen that putting the hand under the thigh (super sectionem circumcisionis) was the form of taking an oath. See the note on Gen 24:9.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 29:25
“And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly before all Israel,.... By giving him such a large share of wisdom and understanding in government: and bestowed upon him such royal majesty; not only such wealth and riches, but such honour and reverence: as had not been on any king before him in Israel; not on Saul, nor even on David.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 29:25
“All he said and all he did commanded respect. None of all the judges or kings of Israel, his predecessors, made such a figure as he did nor lived in such splendour. Here is David's setting, that great man going off the stage.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
submitted themselves unto Solomon: The princes, the mighty men and David's own surviving sons submit to Solomon, gave the hand under him in the ceremony of an oath, and Chronicles records the succession as uncontested, with Adonijah's rival bid from 1 Kings 1 left out entirely. Verse 25 credits the Lord, not Solomon's own standing, with magnifying him exceedingly in the sight of all Israel and giving him royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel, greater than Saul's or even David's own. Chronicles tells a peaceful handover where Kings told a contested one, the same selective retelling that runs through the whole book.
D. David dies full of days, riches, and honor
1. (vv. 26-28)
1 Chronicles 29:27
“And the time that he reigned over Israel was forty years,.... See 1Ki 2:11.”
1 Chronicles 29:28
“And he died in a good old age,.... Being seventy years of age: full of days, riches, and honour; had as much of either of them as he could wish for; and having enough, he sought after, and was taken to the possession of, eternal life, durable riches, and honours, and glory, that fade not away: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead; in full power and authority.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 29:28
“And he died - David, at his death, had every thing that his heart could wish. 1. A good old age, having lived as long as living could be desirable, and having in the main enjoyed good health. 2. Full of days; having lived till he saw every thing that he lived for either accomplished or in a state of forwardness. 3. Full of riches; witness the immense sums left for the temple.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 29:28
“He was very old, and very rich, and very much honoured both of God and man. He had been a man of war from his youth, and, as such, had his soul continually in his hand; yet he was not cut off in the midst of his days, but was preserved through all dangers of a military life, lived to a good old age, and died in peace, died in his bed, and yet in the bed of honour.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the son of Jesse reigned: The regnal summary gives David's reign as forty years, seven in Hebron and thirty three in Jerusalem, the same figures 2 Samuel 5:4-5 already recorded. Where 1 Kings 2 closes David's life with a deathbed charge to Solomon naming Joab and Shimei for reckoning, Chronicles leaves that scene out and says only that David died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour. Adam Clarke reads the three phrases as everything a man could ask at the end of a life, years enough, purposes accomplished, and wealth left for the temple his son would build.
2. (vv. 29-30)
1 Chronicles 29:29
“The book - In the chronicles of the kingdom, which were written by Nathan and Gad, who were not only prophets, but historiographers out of which either they or some other prophets took by the direction of God's spirit such passages, as were most important and useful for the church in succeeding ages.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 29:29
“These registers were then in being, but are now lost. Note, Good use may be made of those histories of the church which are authentic though not sacred or of divine inspiration.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Chronicles 29:30
“With all his reign and his might,.... The whole of it, and the mighty valiant acts done by him, the battles he fought, and the victories he obtained: and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and all the kingdoms of the countries; things that were done in his time in Israel, and in the nations round about subdued by him, as Moab, Ammon, Syria, and Philistia.”
the book of Samuel the seer: The book closes by naming its own sources, the book of Samuel the seer, the book of Nathan the prophet, and the book of Gad the seer, three prophetic records the Chronicler cites rather than invents, the same practice 2 Chronicles 20:34 will use for the book of Jehu the son of Hanani. Henry notes that these registers were still in being when Chronicles was written though they are lost to every later reader, histories of the church that were authentic without being counted among the sacred books. The chapter, and the first half of Chronicles with it, ends by pointing past itself to records David's own contemporaries kept.
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 29. 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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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