1 Chronicles 22

22:2-19 God had promised David that his kingdom would be permanent and that his son would build a temple for the Lord (17:11-12). Now that the site had been chosen (21:18–22:1), David made preparations for building the Temple of God. He gathered the materials (22:2-5), and he charged both Solomon (22:6-16) and the leaders of Israel (22:17-19) with the task of building the Temple after his death.

22:5 While Solomon was young and inexperienced (see also 29:1; cp. 1 Kgs 3:7; 2 Chr 13:7), David had the wisdom and skill to make preparations for building the Temple; David also designed the Temple (1 Chr 28:11-12). Later, God provided Solomon with the wisdom he needed to build the Temple and to govern well (see 2 Chr 1:7-12).

22:8 God did not allow David to build the Temple because he had shed so much blood (cp. 1 Kgs 5:3-4). David’s wars were not unethical, and God had blessed and supported them. However, David had been tainted with a kind of ceremonial uncleanness from the blood he had shed and the deaths he had caused in battle (see 1 Chr 28:3; cp. Gen 4:10-12; Lev 17:3-4; Deut 21:1-9; Matt 27:24-25). Accordingly, he could not build a holy sanctuary for the Lord.

22:9-10 Solomon was a man of peace, free from war and from shedding blood in battle. The Temple was built during his peaceful reign (see 2 Chr 2–7). • The Hebrew deliberately uses two different words to describe conditions during Solomon’s reign: peace (Hebrew shalom, related to Solomon’s name), and quiet (Hebrew menukhah, related to the idea of redemption).