21 And what other nation in the earth, like your people Israel, did a god go out to take for himself, to be his people, making his name great and to be feared, driving out the nations from before your people whom you made free and took out of Egypt?
And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean before the eyes of the nations among whom they were, and before whose eyes I gave them knowledge of myself, by taking them out of the land of Egypt. So I made them go out of the land of Egypt and took them into the waste land.
You will give us an answer in righteousness by great acts of power, O God of our salvation; you who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, and of the far-off lands of the sea;
The ear has not had news of, or the eye seen, ... any God but you, working for the man who is waiting for him.
He who made the arm of his glory go at the right hand of Moses, by whom the waters were parted before them, to make himself an eternal name;
Because of my name I will put away my wrath, and for my praise I will keep myself from cutting you off.
He has not done these things for any other nation: and as for his laws, they have no knowledge of them. Let the Lord be praised.
The sea saw it, and went in flight; Jordan was turned back. The mountains were jumping like goats, and the little hills like lambs. What was wrong with you, O sea, that you went in flight? O Jordan, that you were turned back? You mountains, why were you jumping like goats, and you little hills like lambs? Be troubled, O earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob; Who made the rock into a water-spring, and the hard stone into a fountain.
He has sent salvation to his people; he has given his word for ever: holy is his name and greatly to be feared.
Let those whose cause the Lord has taken up say so, his people whom he has taken out of the hands of their haters;
Say to God, How greatly to be feared are your works! because of your great power your haters are forced to put themselves under your feet. Let all the earth give you worship, and make songs to you; let them make songs to your name. (Selah.) Come and see the works of God: he is to be feared in all he does to the children of men. The sea was turned into dry land: they went through the river on foot: there did we have joy in him. He is ruling in power for ever; his eyes are watching the nations: may his haters have no strength against him. (Selah.)
And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows; And I have come down to take them out of the hands of the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.
Uprooting the nations with your hand, and planting our fathers in their place; cutting down the nations, but increasing the growth of your people. For they did not make the land theirs by their swords, and it was not their arms which kept them safe; but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face, because you had pleasure in them.
And you did signs and wonders on Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land; for you saw how cruel they were to them. So you got yourself a name as it is today.
Then you went over Jordan and came to Jericho: and the men of Jericho made war on you, the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivites and the Jebusites: and I gave them up into your hands. And I sent the hornet before you, driving out the two kings of the Amorites before you, not with your sword and your bow.
So the Lord gave to Israel all the land which he gave by oath to their fathers; so it became their heritage and their living-place. And the Lord gave them peace on every side, as he had said to their fathers: all those who were against them gave way before them, for the Lord gave them all up into their hands. The Lord kept faith with the house of Israel about all the good which he said he would do for them, and all his words came true.
And all these kings and their land Joshua took at the same time, because the Lord, the God of Israel, was fighting for Israel.
No other is like the God of Jeshurun, coming on the heavens to your help, and letting his glory be seen in the skies. The God of your fathers is your safe resting-place, and under you are his eternal arms: driving out the forces of your haters from before you, he said, Let destruction overtake them. And Israel is living in peace, the fountain of Jacob by himself, in a land of grain and wine, with dew dropping from the heavens. Happy are you, O Israel: who is like you, a people whose saviour is the Lord, whose help is your cover, whose sword is your strength! All those who are against you will put themselves under your rule, and your feet will be planted on their high places.
When the Lord your God takes you into the land where you are going, which is to be your heritage, and has sent out the nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you; And when the Lord has given them up into your hands and you have overcome them, give them up to complete destruction: make no agreement with them, and have no mercy on them:
Give thought now to the days which are past, before your time, from the day when God first gave life to man on the earth, and searching from one end of heaven to the other, see if such a great thing as this has ever been, or if anything like it has been talked of in story. Has any people ever gone on living after hearing the voice of God out of the heart of the fire as you did? Has God ever before taken a nation for himself from out of another nation, by punishments and signs and wonders, by war and by a strong hand and a stretched-out arm and great acts of wonder and fear, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes?
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I took you, as on eagles' wings, guiding you to myself. If now you will truly give ear to my voice and keep my agreement, you will be my special property out of all the peoples: for all the earth is mine: And you will be a kingdom of priests to me, and a holy nation. These are the words which you are to say to the children of Israel.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on 1 Chronicles 17
Commentary on 1 Chronicles 17 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 17
1Ch 17:1-10. David Forbidden to Build God a House.
1. as David sat in his house—The details of this chapter were given in nearly similar terms (2Sa 7:1-29). The date was towards the latter end of David's reign, for it is expressly said in the former book to have been at the cessation of all his wars. But as to narrate the preparations for the removal of the ark and the erection of the temple was the principal object of the historian, the exact chronology is not followed.
5. I … have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another—The literal rendering is, "I was walking in a tent and in a dwelling." The evident intention (as we may see from 1Ch 17:6) was to lay stress upon the fact that God was a Mithhatlek (a travelling God) and went from one place to another with His tent and His entire dwelling (the dwelling included not merely the tent, but the fore-courts with the altar of burnt offerings, &c.) [Bertheau].
6. spake I a word to any of the judges—In 2Sa 7:7 it is "any of the tribes" of Israel. Both are included. But the judges "who were commanded to feed the people," form the more suitable antithesis to David.
Why have ye not built me an house of cedars?—that is, a solid and magnificent temple.
7. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote—a round tower of rude construction, high walled, but open at the top, in which sheep are often enclosed at night to protect them from wild beasts. The meaning is, I elevated you to the throne from a humble condition solely by an act of divine grace, and not from any antecedent merits of your own (see on 1Sa 16:11), and I enabled you to acquire renown, equal or superior to any other monarch. Your reign will ever be afterwards regarded as the best and brightest era in the history of Israel, for it will secure to the nation a settled inheritance of prosperity and peace, without any of the oppressions or disorders that afflicted them in early times.
9, 10. at the beginning, and since the time that I commanded judges—that is, including the whole period from Joshua to Saul.
I tell thee that the Lord will build thee an house—This was the language of Nathan himself, who was specially directed to assure David, not only of personal blessing and prosperity, but of a continuous line of royal descendants.
11. I will raise up thy seed—(See on 2Sa 7:12).
13. I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee—My procedure in dealing with him will be different from My disposal of Saul. Should his misconduct call for personal chastisement, I shall spare his family. If I see it necessary to withdraw My favor and help for a time, it will be a corrective discipline only to reform and restore, not to destroy. (On this passage some have founded an argument for Solomon's repentance and return to God).
14. I will settle him in my house—over My people Israel.
and in my kingdom for ever—God here asserts His right of supreme sovereignty in Israel. David and Solomon, with their successors, were only the vicegerents whom He nominated, or, in His providence, permitted.
his throne shall be established for evermore—The posterity of David inherited the throne in a long succession—but not always. In such a connection as this, the phrase "for evermore" is employed in a restricted sense (see on La 3:31). We naturally expect the prophet to revert to David before concluding, after having spoken (1Ch 17:12) of the building of Solomon's temple. The promise that his house should be blessed was intended as a compensation for the disappointment of his wish to build the temple, and hence this assurance is appropriately repeated at the conclusion of the prophet's address [Bertheau].
15. According to all … this vision—The revelation of the divine will was made to the prophet in a dream.
16. David the king … sat before the Lord, and said—(See on 2Sa 7:18).