Commentaria in I Paralipomenon
Chapter 22. Synopsis of the Chapter
David prepares all the material for the building of the temple, and delivers the plan of it, received from God, to Solomon; and exhorts him always to worship God religiously, and admonishes the princes to help him in the building.
1. And David said: This is the house of God, and this is the altar for the holocaust of Israel. 2. And he commanded that all the strangers should be gathered together out of the land of Israel, and appointed masons of them to hew and polish stones for the building of the house of God. 3. David also prepared a great quantity of iron for the nails of the doors, and for the clamps and joinings: and of brass an immense weight. 4. Cedar trees also could not be numbered, which the Sidonians and Tyrians brought to David. 5. And David said: Solomon my son is a child, young and delicate; and the house that I would have built to the Lord must be such as to be renowned in all countries: I will therefore prepare necessaries for it. And for this cause before his death he prepared all the charges. 6. And he called Solomon his son: and commanded him to build a house to the Lord God of Israel. 7. And David said to Solomon: My son, it was my desire to build a house to the name of the Lord my God; 8. but the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Thou hast shed much blood, and fought many battles; thou canst not build a house to my name, having shed so much blood before me; 9. the son that shall be born to thee shall be a most quiet man: for I will make him rest from all his enemies round about; and for this cause he shall be called Peaceable; and I will give peace and quietness in Israel all his days. 10. He shall build a house to my name, and he shall be a son to me, and I will be a father to him, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever. 11. Now therefore, my son, the Lord be with thee, and mayest thou prosper, and build a house to the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken of thee. 12. The Lord also give thee wisdom and understanding, that thou mayest be able to rule Israel, and keep the law of the Lord thy God. 13. For then thou shalt be able to prosper, if thou keep the commandments and judgments which the Lord commanded Moses to teach Israel: take courage and act manfully, fear not, nor be dismayed. 14. Behold I in my poverty have prepared the charges of the house of the Lord, of gold a hundred thousand talents, and of silver a thousand thousand talents: and of brass and iron there is no weight, for the quantity exceeds number: timber and stones I have prepared for all the charges. 15. Thou hast also many workmen, hewers of stone, and masons, and carpenters, and craftsmen most skilful in all arts to do the work. 16. In gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, whereof there is no number. Arise, therefore, and do, and the Lord will be with thee. 17. David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son. 18. You see, saith he, that the Lord your God is with you, and hath given you rest round about, and hath delivered all your enemies into your hands, and the land is subdued before the Lord, and before his people. 19. Give therefore your hearts and your souls to seek the Lord your God, and arise, and build a sanctuary to the Lord God, that the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the vessels consecrated to the Lord, may be brought into the house that is built to the name of
1. This is the house of God,—as if to say: In this place, namely in the threshing floor of Ornan, which is on mount Moria, God commands the temple to be built.
5. Solomon is a child, young,—as if to say: Solomon, in respect of so great and magnificent a building as the temple, is like a young child: for otherwise he was himself already twenty years old.
14. A hundred thousand talents of gold, (that is, twelve and a half millions of pounds of gold, which make twelve hundred millions of gold French crowns; as much he left him in silver, namely) a thousand thousand talents of silver,—because they make as many, namely twelve hundred millions of gold French crowns; for formerly one pound of gold was worth ten pounds of silver: in all, therefore, he left him twice a thousand and four hundred millions of gold crowns. See what I said on coins and measures at the end of the Pentateuch. This sum of gold and silver seems immense and almost incredible, but to God nothing is impossible, nothing difficult; wherefore it was easy for him to supply David with all this abundance for the building of so magnificent a temple; hence he himself, wishing this temple, burned by the Chaldeans, to be restored by Zorobabel and the Jews, encourages them, poor as they were, to the building, saying: “Mine is the silver, and mine is the gold,” Aggeus 2:9. So St. Francis of Assisi, and the other of Paula, the one the founder of the Minors, the other of the Minims, each poor, being ordered by God to build a temple, built it for God, God promising and providing the expenses for it by the alms of the pious. Much more, if we are called by God to build the mystic temple of perfection in our soul or in our neighbours’, let us cheerfully accomplish it, trusting in his help; for God will be at hand, and will give strength and courage: “For the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,” and, as St. Leo says: “He justly presses on at the command who anticipates it with help.”
Moreover our Vilalpandus, near the end of volume 2 on Ezechiel, in several chapters holds that David collected such great wealth partly from revenues, partly from Ophir, partly from the spoils and tribute of enemies, partly from the annual census of Israel, by which each man paid yearly to the temple half a sicle according to the law, Exodus 30:13. Wherefore the Israelites, even those living outside Judea, dispersed throughout the whole world, sent this poll-tax yearly to Jerusalem; and since their number was immense, they made up an immense sum of gold.
Vilalpandus adds that David and Solomon surpassed in annual revenue and wealth the tributes and wealth of the Romans, Chaldeans, Persians, and of all kings and monarchs.
You will say: How then does David in this verse say that he collected these things “in poverty”? I answer: First, because all these things were small and few in comparison with the dignity and majesty of God. Secondly, “in poverty,” that is, in much labour and affliction. Thirdly and chiefly, because, as follows, all these things were God’s; wherefore they were not David’s, because he of himself was poor, and had nothing except what he had received from God.
For all the charges.—The Hebrew and Chaldee have, and add to these. The Septuagint, and put to these. Vatablus, to which thou canst add. Hence Solomon and the people added many gifts to what David left, to furnish and adorn more magnificently the building of so magnificent a temple.