1 And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him a house.
And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house. And David perceived that Jehovah had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom because of his people Israel. And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David. And these are the names of those that were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia, and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet.
And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have heard the things which thou sentest to me for: I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of cypress. My servants shall bring [them] down from Lebanon to the sea; and I will convey them by sea [in] rafts to the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and thou shalt receive them. And thou shalt accomplish my desire in giving food for my household. So Hiram gave Solomon cedar-trees and cypress-trees [according to] all his desire. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat as food for his household, and twenty measures of beaten oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year. And Jehovah gave Solomon wisdom as he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league.
And Solomon was thirteen years building his own house; and he finished all his house. And he built the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was a hundred cubits, and its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar-pillars, with cedar-beams upon the pillars; and it was covered with cedar above upon the side-chambers, which were on forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row. And there were cross-beams in three rows, and window was against window in three ranks. And all the doors and posts were square, with an architrave; and window was against window in three ranks. And he made the porch of pillars; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth thirty cubits; and there was a porch in front of them; and there were pillars, and steps in front of them. And he made the porch for the throne where he judged, the porch of judgment; and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor. And his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. And he made, like to this porch, a house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken. All these [buildings] were of costly stones, hewn stones, according to the measures, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation to the coping, and on the outside as far as the great court. And the foundations were of costly stones, great stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits. And above were costly stones, hewn stones, according to the measures, and cedar. And the great court round about had three rows of hewn stones, and a row of cedar-beams; and so it was for the inner court of the house of Jehovah, and the porch of the house.
Send me also cedar-trees, cypress-trees, and sandal-wood trees, out of Lebanon; for I know that thy servants are experienced in cutting timber in Lebanon; and behold, my servants shall be with thy servants, even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house that I build shall be great and wonderful. And behold, I will give to thy servants the hewers that fell timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil. And Huram king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because Jehovah loved his people, he made thee king over them. And Huram said, Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, that made the heavens and the earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, endued with prudence and understanding, who will build a house for Jehovah and a house for his kingdom.
Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his upper chambers by injustice; that taketh his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not his earning; that saith, I will build me a wide house, and spacious upper chambers; and he cutteth out for himself windows; and it is wainscoted with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, because thou viest with the cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice? Then it was well with him.
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Commentary on 1 Chronicles 14 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
David's palace-building, wives and children , 1 Chronicles 14:1-7; cf. 2 Samuel 5:11-16. Two victories over the Philistines , 1 Chronicles 14:8-17; cf. 2 Samuel 5:17-25. - The position in which the narrative of these events stands, between the removal of the ark from Kirjath-jearim and its being brought to Jerusalem, is not to be supposed to indicate that they happened in the interval of three months, curing which the ark was left in the house of Obed-edom. The explanation of it rather is, that the author of our Chronicle, for the reasons given in page 170, desired to represent David's design to bring the ark into the capital city of his kingdom as his first undertaking after he had won Jerusalem, and was consequently compelled to bring in the events of our chapter at a later period, and for that purpose this interval of three months seemed to offer him the fittest opportunity. The whole contents of our chapter have already been commented upon in 2 Samuel 5:1, so that we need not here do more than refer to a few subordinate points.
Instead of נשּׂא כּי , that He (Jahve) had lifted up ( נשּׂא , perf. Pi.), as in 2 Samuel 5:12, in the Chronicle we read למעלה נשּׂאת כּי , that his kingdom had been lifted up on high. The unusual form נשּׂאת may be, according to the context, the third pers. fem. perf. Niph., nisaa't having first been changed into נשּׂאת , and thus contracted into נשּׂאת ; cf. Ew. §194, b. In 2 Samuel 19:43 the same form is the infin. abs. Niph. למעלה is here, as frequently in the Chronicles, used to intensify the expression: cf. 1 Chronicles 22:5; 1 Chronicles 23:17; 1 Chronicles 29:3, 1 Chronicles 29:25; 2 Chronicles 1:1; 2 Chronicles 17:12. With regard to the sons of David, see on 1 Chronicles 3:5-8.
In the account of the victories over the Philistines, the statement (2 Samuel 5:17) that David went down to the mountain-hold, which has no important connection with the main fact, and would have been for the readers of the Chronicle somewhat obscure, is exchanged in 1 Chronicles 14:8 for the more general expression לפניהם ויּצא , “he went forth against them.” In 1 Chronicles 14:14, the divine answer to David's question, whether he should march against the Philistines, runs thus: מעליהם הסב אחריהם תּעלה לא , Thou shalt not go up after them; turn away from them, and come upon them over against the baca-bushes; - while in 2 Samuel 5:23, on the contrary, we read: אל־אחריהם הסב תעלה הסב אל־א לע , Thou shalt not go up (i.e., advance against the enemy to attack them in front); turn thee behind them (i.e., to their rear), and come upon them over against the baca-bushes. Bertheau endeavours to get rid of the discrepancy, by supposing that into both texts corruptions have crept through transcribers' errors. He conjectures that the text of Samuel was originally אחריהם תּעלה לא , while in the Chronicle a transposition of the words עליהם and אחריהם was occasioned by a copyist's error, which in turn resulted in the alteration of עליהם into מעליהם . This supposition, however, stands or falls with the presumption that by תּעלה לא (Sam.) an attack is forbidden; but for that presumption no tenable grounds exist: it would rather involve a contradiction between the first part of the divine answer and the second. The last clause, “Come upon them from over against the baca-bushes,” shows that the attack was not forbidden; all that was forbidden was the making of the attack by advancing straight forward: instead of that, they were to try to fall upon them in the rear, by making a circuit. The chronicler consequently gives us an explanation of the ambiguous words of 2 Samuel, which might easily be misunderstood. As David's question was doubtless expressed as it is in 1 Chronicles 14:10, הפל על האעלה , the answer תּעלה לא might be understood to mean, “Go not up against them, attack them not, but go away behind them;” but with that the following וגו להם וּבאת , “Come upon them from the baca-bushes,” did not seem to harmonize. The chronicler consequently explains the first clauses of the answer thus: “Go not up straight behind them,” i.e., advance not against them so as to attack them openly, “but turn thyself away from them,” i.e., strike off in such a direction as to turn their flank, and come upon them from the front of the baca-bushes. In this way the apparently contradictory texts are reconciled without the alteration of a word. In 1 Chronicles 14:17, which is wanting in Samuel, the author concludes the account of these victories by the remark that they tended greatly to exalt the name of David among the nations. For similar reflections, cf. 2 Chronicles 17:10; 2 Chronicles 20:29; 2 Chronicles 14:13; and for שׁם ויּצא , 2 Chronicles 26:15.