Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/200

136 without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and 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 cunning in any manner of work; of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number; arise and be doing, and the be with thee. David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, Is not the your God with you? and hath he not given you rest on every side? for he hath delivered the inhabitants of the land into mine hand; and the land is subdued before the, and before his people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek after the your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the  God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the. Now David was old and full of days; and he made Solomon his son king over Israel. And he gathered to-

and further the sum assigned to Solomon as his yearly revenue is fantastically large, see note 2 Chr. ix. 13. The passage illustrates the exaggeration which is so characteristic of midrashic style; cp. xxix. 4, and the note on 2 Chr. xvii. 14.

15, 16. any manner of work; of the gold there is no number] Render in every work of gold  without number; i.e. the two verses are to be read in close connection.

18. the inhabitants of the land] Cp. xi. 4, the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land. The remnant of the earlier inhabitants of Canaan is meant.

19. and the holy vessels of God] Cp. 1 Kin. viii. 4.

The Chronicler unhistorically ignores the struggle between the parties of Solomon and of Adonijah for the throne (cp. xxix. 22 f.; 1 Kin. i. 5 ff), and makes the reign of David culminate in the appointment of Solomon as David's successor and in a grand organisation of the ecclesiastical and other authorities of the realm. Ch. xxiii. 1 intimates the appointment of Solomon and the assembling by royal command of the princes, priests, and Levites of Israel. The topics thus suggested are then, after the prevailing fashion of Chron., treated in the reverse order; first the Levites, ch. xxiii.; then the priests, xxiv. (followed by the