1 Chronicles Chapter 28    

“David assembled all the officials of Israel.” The records of David and Solomon in Kings and Chronicles are considerably different in what they cover, but they can be fit together. Chronicles does not mention the rebellion of Adonijah when he asserted himself to be king (1 Kings 1:5-10) but it would have had to have been earlier than this account in Chronicles. According to 1 Kings 1:9, Adonijah had called “all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah, the king’s servants” and he also had Joab the commander of the army and Abiathar the priest supporting him, and he was proclaiming himself to be king. There is no mention of that in Chronicles.

According to Chronicles, David assembled to Jerusalem “all the officials of Israel, the leaders of the tribes and the commanders of the companies who served the king by division, and the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, and the rulers over all the substance and possessions of the king and of his sons, with the officers and the mighty men, even all the mighty men of valor,” and he told them that Solomon would be king (1 Chron. 28:5). This event in Chronicles could have only happened after Adonijah’s rebellion because there is no way that “all the men of Judah, the king’s servants” would have attended a coronation for Adonijah if they knew that David had announced that Solomon would be the next king.

“the commanders of the divisions who served the king.” See 1 Chronicles 27:1-15.

“officials over all the property.” See 1 Chronicles 27:31.

“a permanent house.” The Hebrew is literally “a house of rest.” This was not “rest” in the modern English sense of “rest and relaxation,” but “rest” in the sense of a place where God could “settle down” and not move about from place to place as He did in the Tabernacle. David had it in his heart to build a permanent home for God. The word “rest” also contains the idea of peace, that God would not have to go out and fight battles, but would have a peaceful place to settle down.

“that there would be a king over Israel forever.” David sees the kingship over Israel continuing through his sons. The ultimate “Son of David” was the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The NET adds to the Hebrew text but gets the idea correct: “The LORD God of Israel chose me out of my father's entire family to become king over Israel and have a permanent dynasty.”

“over all Israel.” David is speaking about “all Israel” being a kingdom; he sees the vision of a unified kingdom of Israel.

“he has chosen Solomon.” Yahweh told David that Solomon was to be king, but for reasons unknown to us, David did not tell people about it (1 Kings 1:11-27). This almost caused a rebellion by Adonijah that was stopped in the nick of time.

“I have chosen him to be my son.” So Solomon is a son of David and a son of God, pointing to the greater Son of David and Son of God in the genealogy of David.

“I will establish his kingdom.” That is, the rule under Solomon depends on his obedience.

“continually.” The Hebrew phrase sometimes means “forever,” but often does not. It can refer to a long time. In this case, God makes it clear that if Solomon is obedient, God will establish his kingdom “continually,” that is, throughout Solomon’s whole life. But if Solomon disobeys then this promise does not apply to him. God’s promise supersedes the obedience and disobedience of any particular king and the action of any particular king will not change God’s overarching promise that the Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah and the person, David.

“as a Holy Place.” The Hebrew text is likely miscopied here. The Septuagint preserves the “for him,” but it is put in italics since it is not in the Masoretic text.

“David gave to Solomon his son the pattern.” Hundreds of years earlier, God gave the pattern of the Tabernacle to Moses (Exod. 25:9, 40).

“by the spirit in him.” The Hebrew is more literally “with him,” but “in him” catches the sense and fits with the scope of Scripture which speaks of the spirit being “in” or “upon” some people in the Old Testament.

“the treasuries of the house of God and for the treasuries of the dedicated gifts.” It is possible in the Hebrew to understand the “and” as “even,” and thus the verse would read, “the treasuries of the house of God, even for the treasuries of the dedicated gifts” (cp. 1 Chron. 26:20).

“for every menorah.” The Temple had ten menorahs of gold.

“And for the menorahs of silver, he gave by weight for every menorah and for its lamps.” The silver menorahs, the silver lamps, and the silver tables (1 Chron. 28:16) are not mentioned anywhere else in the Scripture, even in the description of building the Tabernacle and the Temple. Silver items associated with the Temple are mentioned in 2 Kings 25:15 when they were carried away by the Babylonians, but the Scripture does not say what those items were. Some scholars conjecture that the silver tables and silver menorahs were used by the priests when they cut up and prepared the sacrifices before they were offered if it had gotten dark outside, and the job of cutting up and offering sacrifices could go on until after dark on some occasions.

“the Bread of the Presence.” The Bread of the Presence was large cakes of bread that were in the Tabernacle and Temple (see commentary on Exod. 25:30).

“the chariot, that is, the cherubim.” For why the cherubim would be called God’s chariot, we have to understand that God sometimes rode on a cherubim-powered chariot. This is how God traveled in Ezekiel (cp. Ezek. 1).

[For more information on God’s cherubim-chariot, see commentary on Ezekiel 1:26.]

“will be entirely at your command.” The Hebrew is very idiomatic, literally, “to your words.”