6 Then he called for Solomon his son, and commanded him to build a house for Yahweh, the God of Israel.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Solomon - is young and tender - He is as yet without complete knowledge and due experience; and it is necessary that I should make as much preparation for the work as I possibly can; especially as the house is to be exceedingly magnificent.
Then he called for Solomon his son,.... To be brought before him:
and charged him to build an house for the Lord God of Israel; which charge was given a little before his death, after he had made great preparations for this work, as appears from 1-Chronicles 22:5.
David gives Solomon the reason why he should build the temple. Because God named him. Nothing is more powerful to engage us in any service for God, than to know that we are appointed thereto. Because he would have leisure and opportunity to do it. He should have peace and quietness. Where God gives rest, he expects work. Because God had promised to establish his kingdom. God's gracious promises should quicken and strengthen our religious service. David delivered to Solomon an account of the vast preparations he had made for this building; not from pride and vain-glory, but to encourage Solomon to engage cheerfully in the great work. He must not think, by building the temple, to purchase a dispensation to sin; on the contrary, his doing that would not be accepted, if he did not take heed to fulfil the statutes of the Lord. In our spiritual work, as well as in our spiritual warfare, we have need of courage and resolution.
HE INSTRUCTS SOLOMON. (1-Chronicles 22:6-19)
Then he called for Solomon . . . and charged him--The earnestness and solemnity of this address creates an impression that it was given a little before the old king's decease. He unfolded his great and long cherished plan, enjoined the building of God's house as a sacred duty on him as his son and successor, and described the resources that were at command for carrying on the work. The vast amount of personal property he had accumulated in the precious metals [1-Chronicles 22:14] must have been spoil taken from the people he had conquered, and the cities he had sacked.
Solomon commissioned to build the temple. - 1-Chronicles 22:6. Before his death (1-Chronicles 22:5) David called his son Solomon, in order to commit to him the building of the temple, and to press it strongly upon him, 1-Chronicles 22:7-10. With this design, he informs him that it had been his intention to build a temple to the Lord, but the Lord had not permitted him to carry out this resolve, but had committed it to his son. The Keri בּני (1-Chronicles 22:7) is, notwithstanding the general worthlessness of the corrections in the Keri, probably to be preferred here to the Keth. בּנו, for בּנו might have easily arisen by the copyist's eye having wandered to בּנו לשׁלמה, 1-Chronicles 22:6. David's addressing him as בּני is very fitting, nay, even necessary, and not contrary to the following אני. לבבי עם, it was with my heart, i.e., I had intended, occurs indeed very often in the Chronicle, e.g., 1-Chronicles 28:2; 2-Chronicles 1:11; 2-Chronicles 6:7., 1-Chronicles 9:1; 1-Chronicles 24:4; 1-Chronicles 29:10, but is also found in other books where the sense demands it, e.g., Joshua 14:7; 1-Kings 8:17., 1-Chronicles 10:2. In עלי ויהי, There came to me the word of Jahve (1-Chronicles 22:8), it is implied that the divine word was given to him as a command. The reason which David gives why the Lord did not allow him to build the temple is not stated in 1 Chron 17 (2 Sam 7), to which David here refers; instead of the reason, only the promise is there communicated, that the Lord would first build him a house, and enduringly establish his throne. This promise does not exclude the reason stated here and in 1-Chronicles 28:3, but rather implies it. As the temple was only to be built when God had enduringly established the throne of David, David could not execute this work, for he still had to conduct wars - wars, too, of the Lord - for the establishment of his kingdom, as Solomon also states it in his embassy to Hiram. Wars and bloodshed, however, are unavoidable and necessary in this earth for the establishment of the kingdom of God in opposition to its enemies, but are not consonant with its nature, as it was to receive a visible embodiment and expression in the temple. For the kingdom of God is in its essence a kingdom of peace; and battle, or war, or struggle, are only means for the restoration of peace, the reconciliation of mankind with God after the conquest of sin and all that is hostile to God in this world. See on 2-Samuel 7:11. David, therefore, the man of war, is not to build the temple, but (1-Chronicles 22:9.) his son; and to him the Lord will give peace from all his enemies, so that he shall be מנוּחה אישׁ, a man of rest, and shall rightly bear the name Shelomo (Solomon), i.e., Friederich (rich in peace, Eng. Frederick), for God would give to Israel in his days, i.e., in his reign, peace and rest (שׁקט). The participle נולד after הנּה has the signification of the future, shall be born; cf. 1-Kings 13:2. מנוּחה אישׁ, not a man who procures peace (Jeremiah 51:59), but one who enjoys peace, as the following לו והניחותי shows. As to the name שׁלמה, see on 2-Samuel 12:24. Into 1-Chronicles 22:10 David compresses the promise contained in 1-Chronicles 17:12 and 1-Chronicles 17:13.
*More commentary available at chapter level.