Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 22:12
Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the LORD thy God.
12. wisdom ] R.V. discretion.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Give thee charge concerning Israel, i.e. give thee instructions or direction rightly to manage and rule his people Israel. Or, and set thee over Israel, as the Syriac renders it, whom the Arabic follows. Or, when (as the Hebrew vau is oft used) he shall set thee over Israel, i.e. when thou shalt be king; for then Solomon would need this wisdom, for which therefore he prayeth, 1Ki 3:9.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding,…. To manage and conduct an affair of such importance, as well as to govern the people, as follows:
and give thee charge concerning Israel; or, when he gives, commits the charge of them to thee, sets thee king over them:
that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God; have wisdom and understanding to do that, and make that the rule of all thine actions, private and public, in thine own house, in the house of God, and in all things relative to that, and in the government of the nation.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(12) Only the Lord give thee wisdom.Better, at least may the Lord give, &c.; restricting the wish to one supremely important point. (For Solomons wisdom, comp. 1Ki. 3:9-15.)
And give thee charge concerning Israel.Rather, and appoint thee over Israel (2Sa. 7:11). Solomon had been indicated as Davids successor, and David intended it so; yet his wish and prayer for the Divine ratification of this Divine appointment was by no means superfluous, unless Solomon were exempt from human liability to err.
That thou mayest keep.Rather, and mayest thou keep (the infinitive construct): a favourite continuative construction with the chronicler.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1Ch 22:12 Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the LORD thy God.
Ver. 12. Only the Lord give thee wisdom. ] Solomon remembered what his father had prayed, and prayed himself accordingly. 1Ki 3:9 ; 1Ki 3:12
And give thee charge concerning Israel,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
give thee wisdom. This was Solomon’s prayer in 1Ki 3:5-15.
the law The whole Levitical code.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Ch 22:12-16
1Ch 22:12-16
DAVID’S FURTHER CHARGE TO SOLOMON
“Only Jehovah give thee discretion and understanding, and give the charge concerning Israel; that so thou mayest keep the law of Jehovah thy God. Then shalt thou prosper, if thou observe to do the statutes and the ordinances which Jehovah charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong and of good courage; fear not, neither be dismayed. Now, behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of Jehovah a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver, and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: amber also and of stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto. Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all men that are skillful in every manner of work: of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, for Jehovah is with thee.”
The significance here is the reference to the Law of God through Moses, a reference to Exo 20:1, and the direct quotations from Exo 3:4 and Jos 1:6-9 and Deu 31:24, thus providing incontrovertible evidence of the prior existence of the Pentateuch long centuries prior to the discovery of that allegedly `false document’ in the reign of Josiah. No wonder the radical critics hate Chronicles. An example of that hatred is the following.
“This chapter is full of general and exaggerated statements. No statement suggests a trustworthy historian. That David contemplated building a temple is likely, and he might have made some preparations for it, but the Chronicler’s description must have been drawn by inference … assisted by a vivid imagination … a careless list of such things as happened to occur to the writer.”
Regarding the tremendous amounts of gold and silver mentioned here, Elmslie referred to the passage as hyperbole, There is also the question of exactly what constituted a talent in the times of Solomon. “Any accurate calculation of the value of the silver and gold mentioned here is a hopeless task, because of the uncertainly of our data, our uncertain knowledge of the Hebrew weights of money, and our total ignorance of the relative value of those precious metals to the commodities of life.”
The Roman historian Pliny wrote that Cyrus in his subjugation of Asia took half a million talents of silver and 34,000 pounds of gold, a sum not too very far from the immense amount mentioned here.
E.M. Zerr:
1Ch 22:12-13. Wisdom and understanding. There is very little difference between these words. If a technical distinction is made, the first means the natural intelligence, the second the information a person has acquired by the proper use of the natural intellect. The three words, law, statutes and judgments are used in this paragraph. There are some more words with slight difference, yet with some minor distinction. The first pertains to the government as a whole; the second means the formal enactments of the governments; the third has special reference to the decisions of God, made necessary by some issue arising from the indefiniteness of the statutes. This paragraph closes with an encouraging word of cheer, and inviting his son to take courage for the great work before him.
1Ch 22:14. In my trouble. The last word is from ONI and is defined by Strong, “depression, i. e. misery.” He further says it is from another Hebrew word that means, to depress, literally or figuratively,” and has been rendered in the A. V. by, “abase self, deal hardly with, submit self.” The statement in 1Ch 29:3 should also be considered in this connection, where David is speaking on the same subject, and where he distinguishes between his personal assets and those of his royal income. The central thought in the passage of this paragraph is, David was disappointed in not being permitted to build the house of God. But he would not let that slow him down any in doing what be could to prepare stuff for Solomon’s use. In the midst of his concern, and at great sacrifice from his private possessions, he had “earmarked” the amounts named to be used by his son in the work of the temple. Without weight means he did not take the time to weigh the brass; just got together a vast amount of it regardless of its weight, since it was so plentiful. David did not expect what he had collected to be all that might be needed, he therefore suggested that Solomon might add to it.
1Ch 22:15. The workmen of Tyre and Zidon had offered their services to David in some other building projects, now they may be available for Solomon when needed.
1Ch 22:16. No number is a figurative expression, meaning there was no end to the resources for all these materials. With such an opportunity, Solomon was urged by his father to set himself about the task before him.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Only the: 1Ki 3:9-12, 2Ch 1:10, Psa 72:1, Pro 2:6, Pro 2:7, Luk 21:15, Jam 1:5
that thou mayest: Deu 4:6, 1Ki 11:1-10, Pro 14:8, 1Jo 2:3
Reciprocal: Num 20:28 – put them 1Sa 15:1 – hearken 1Ki 2:3 – And keep 1Ki 3:14 – if thou Ezr 7:25 – the wisdom Psa 119:73 – give me Psa 119:169 – give me Pro 2:3 – if Dan 2:21 – he giveth 2Ti 2:7 – and Jam 1:17 – good Jam 3:17 – the wisdom
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
22:12 Only the LORD give thee {f} wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the LORD thy God.
(f) These are only the means by which kings govern their subjects correctly, and by which the realms prosper and flourish.