1 Chronicles 28:2

2 And king David stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren and my people! I had in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and for the footstool of our God, and I have prepared to build.

1 Chronicles 28:2 Meaning and Commentary

1 Chronicles 28:2

Then David the king stood up upon his feet
Rose from the bed or couch on which he lay, as Kimchi thinks, being somewhat recovered of his paralytic disorder, and being willing to exert himself on this occasion; or he rose up from the seat or throne, on which he before sat, in honour to this august assembly before him, and that he might be the more easily heard; for which reason we are told F18 it was a custom with the ancients even for kings to stand up when they had a number of people about them they spoke to; and if anyone sat it was reckoned a new and strange thing; so Agamemnon, when wounded, did not speak sitting, until he had made an excuse for it:

and said, hear me, my brethren, and my people;
having something of moment and importance to say unto them, and which required their diligent attention; and though they were his subjects, he calls them his brethren, being of the same nation and religion, and to show his modesty and humility; in which he was a type of Christ, the King of kings, see ( Hebrews 2:11 )

as for me, I had it in my heart to build an house of rest for the ark
of the covenant of the Lord;
where it might abide, and not be removed from place to place; the same he had told Solomon, ( 1 Chronicles 22:7 )

and for the footstool of our God;
or "even for it", for the ark is meant, which is so called, ( Psalms 99:5 ) ( Psalms 132:7 Psalms 132:8 ) for as the Lord sat between the cherubim over the mercy seat, the lid of the ark, it was, speaking after the manner of men, a footstool to him:

and had made ready for the building;
prepared materials for it; see ( 1 Chronicles 22:4 1 Chronicles 22:14-16 ) ( 29:2-5 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F18 Eustathius in Homer. Iliald. 1. p. 46. Vid, Iliad. 19. ver. 77, 79.

1 Chronicles 28:2 In-Context

1 And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the princes of the divisions that ministered to the king, and the captains over thousands, and the captains over hundreds, and the comptrollers of all the substance and possessions of the king and of his sons, with the chamberlains, and the mighty men, and all the men of valour, unto Jerusalem.
2 And king David stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren and my people! I had in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and for the footstool of our God, and I have prepared to build.
3 But God said to me, Thou shalt not build a house unto my name, for thou art a man of war, and hast shed blood.
4 And Jehovah the God of Israel chose me out of all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever; for he has chosen Judah to be the prince; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel;
5 and of all my sons, (for Jehovah has given me many sons,) he has chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of Jehovah over Israel.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.