1 Chronicles 17:20-27

20 Lord, none is like thee, and none other God is without thee, of all which we have heard with our ears. (Lord, no one is like thee, and there is no other God besides thee, out of all which we have heard with our ears.)

21 For who is another (such) as thy people Israel, (this) one folk in [the] earth, to whom God went, to deliver and make a people to himself, and to cast out by his greatness and dreads nations from the face thereof, the which people he delivered from Egypt? (For who is another such as thy people Israel, this one nation in all the earth, to whom God went, and delivered from servitude, or from slavery, to make them his people, and to make a great and fearful name for himself, by throwing out nations from before them, yea, the people whom he rescued from Egypt?)

22 And thou hast set thy people Israel into a people to thee into without end, and thou, Lord, art made the God thereof (and thou, Lord, art made their God).

23 Now therefore (And so now), Lord, the word which thou hast spoken to thy servant, and on his house, be it confirmed without end, and do, as thou hast spoken;

24 and thy name dwell, and be (it) magnified without end; and be it said, The Lord of hosts is God of Israel, and the house of David, his servant, dwelling before him (and the house of his servant David shall live before him).

25 For thou, my Lord God, hast made revelation in the ear of thy servant, that thou wouldest build to him an house (that thou wouldest build a house for him); and therefore thy servant hath found trust, that he pray before thee.

26 Now therefore, Lord, thou art God, and hast spoken to thy servant so great benificences; (And so now, Lord, thou art God, and hast promised to thy servant such good and great things;)

27 and thou hast begun to bless the house of thy servant, that it be ever[more] before thee; for, Lord, for thou blessest, it shall be blessed without end. (and thou hast begun to bless the house of thy servant, that it be before thee forevermore; for, Lord, because thou blessest, it shall be blessed forevermore.)

1 Chronicles 17:20-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CHRONICLES 17

This chapter contains an account of David's intention to build an house for God, which, he signified to Nathan the prophet, who first encouraged him to it; but afterwards was sent by the Lord to him with an order to desist from it, assuring him, at the same time, that his son should build it, and that his own house and kingdom should be established for ever; for which David expressed great thankfulness, the whole of which is related in 2Sa 7:1-29 with some little variation, see the notes there; only one thing has since occurred, which I would just take notice of, that here, 1Ch 17:5 as there also, it is said by the Lord, that he had "not dwelt in an house since the day he brought up Israel out of Egypt"; which seems to suggest that he had dwelt in one before, as has been hinted on 2Sa 7:6 even while the people of Israel were in Egypt, though it is nowhere mentioned by Moses, or any other writer; yet it is not unreasonable to suppose it; for as the ancestors of the Israelites, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when only travellers from place to place, built altars for God wherever they came; so their posterity, it is highly probable, not only did the same, but when they found themselves settled in Egypt, in the land of Goshen, might build places of worship; and when we consider the wealth of Joseph, and his family, and indeed of all Israel, who enjoyed for many years great plenty, prosperity, and liberty, before their servitude, the vast numbers they increased to and the long continuance of them in Egypt, more than two hundred years; it will not seem strange that they should build houses for religious worship, and even one grand and splendid for public service, to which also they might be led by the example of the Egyptians; who, as Herodotus says {i}, were the first that erected altars, images, and temples to the gods, and who in the times of Joseph had one at On, where his father-in-law officiated as priest, Ge 41:45 or rather to this they might be directed by some hints and instructions of their father Jacob before his death, who it is certain had a notion of a Bethel, an house for the public worship of God, Ge 28:17,19,22, 35:1 and I find a learned man {k} of our own nation of this opinion, and which he founds upon this passage; and he supposes the house God dwelt in, in Egypt, was not a tent of goats' hair, as in the wilderness, but a structure of stones or bricks, a firm and stable house, such an one as Abraham built at Damascus when settled there; which continued to the times of Augustus Caesar, as related by Nicholas of Damascus {l}. See 2Sa 7:1-29.

{i} Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 4. {k} Dickinson. Physic. vet. & vera, c. 19. sect. 24. {l} Apud. Joseph. Antiqu. l. 1. c. 7. sect. 2. 18823-950102-2024-1Ch17.2