Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Chronicles 22:14

"Now, behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of Jehovah a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver, and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto." — 1 Chronicles 22:14 (ASV)

In my trouble. —Rather, by my toil or pains. (Compare to 1 Chronicles 29:2: I have prepared with all my might.) In Genesis 31:42 the same expression is equated with the labour of my hands. The Septuagint and Vulgate wrongly render “in” or “according to my poverty.”

A hundred thousand talents of gold, and a million talents of silver. —The gold talent is usually valued at £6,000, and the silver talent at £400 sterling. If this reckoning is approximately correct, the numbers in the text are incredibly large.

It is noticeable that the sums are given as round numbers and expressed in thousands. Furthermore, the figures are such—one hundred thousand and one million—as might easily and naturally be used in a rhetorical fashion to suggest amounts of extraordinary magnitude.

Just as David is said to have amassed 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver, so he is said, in the same hyperbolical style, to have hoarded iron and bronze without weight, and gold and silver without number (1 Chronicles 22:16)—phrases that nobody would think of taking literally.

Doubtless, a modern historian would not handle exact numbers in this free manner; but we are not, therefore, bound to construe these vivid Oriental exaggerations according to the strict letter rather than the spirit and general intention.

Of course, the numerals may have been corrupted in transmission, but their symmetry is against this hypothesis. (Genesis 24:60; Micah 6:7, for a similar rhetorical use of “thousands.”)

To take an Egyptian illustration, in the famous poem of Pentaur, Ramses II, when beset by the Hittites, calls upon his god Amen as follows: “Have I not built you houses for millions of years?

I have slain for you 30,000 bulls.” When the god helps him, he exclaims: “I find Amen worth more than millions of soldiers, one hundred thousand cavalry, and ten thousand brothers, even if they were all joined in one.” There are plenty of numerals here, but who would insist on taking them literally?

And you may add to them. —i.e., to the stores of timber and stone. Solomon did so (2 Chronicles 2:3; 2 Chronicles 2:8).

Hewers. —See 1 Chronicles 22:2.

Workers of stone and timber —See 1 Chronicles 22:4 and 2 Chronicles 2:7.

All kinds of cunning men ... work. —Literally, and every skillful one in every work. The word rendered “cunning” is the technical term for a master-craftsman, like Bezaleel, the architect of the Tabernacle (Exodus 31:3, hâkâm; compare to Turkish hakim, a doctor).