Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Chronicles 22:5

"And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for Jehovah must be exceeding magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death." — 1 Chronicles 22:5 (ASV)

Solomon my son is young and tender — that is, an inexperienced young man. David repeats the expression (1 Chronicles 29:1); and it is applied to Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 13:7) at the age of forty-one. The word here translated as "young," literally, "youth" (na’ar), is even more vague than the Latin adolescens. It may mean a newborn baby (Exodus 2:6), a young child (Isaiah 7:16; Isaiah 8:4), a youth (Isaiah 3:5; 1 Samuel 17:55), or a man in the prime of life (1 Samuel 30:17; Exodus 33:11). Solomon calls himself "a young child" (na‘ar qâtôn) even after his accession to the throne (1 Kings 3:7), though he was born soon after the time of the Syro-Ammonite war (2 Samuel 12:24).

Tender. — Timid (Deuteronomy 20:8).

The house that is to be built ... exceeding magnificent. —Literally, the house to build ... (one is) to make great exceedingly. For the infinitive construction, compare 1 Chronicles 5:1; 1 Chronicles 13:4; 1 Chronicles 9:25; 1 Chronicles 15:2.

Exceeding. —Literally, to height, upwards; an adverbial expression, which frequently occurs in the Chronicles. (See 1 Chronicles 14:2: On high.)

Of fame and of glory throughout all countries. —Literally, for a name and for a glory (tiph’ereth) for all the lands. (Isaiah 60:3 and following, Isaiah 62:2–3.)

In similar terms, the famous Assyrian Sennacherib (Sin-ahi-irba) speaks of his palace as built "for the lodging (taprati) of multitudes of men." And of his temple of Nergal he says: "The house of Nergal, within the city of Tarbiçu, I caused to be made, and like day I caused it to shine" (usnammir).

I will therefore now make preparation for it. —Literally, Let me now prepare for him —the expression of an earnest desire, and self-encouragement to an arduous task, rather than of mere resolve.

We need not suppose that the verse relates to any actual utterance of David’s. It is not said when or to whom he spoke. The historian is merely representing the king’s motive for these preparations.

"To say" in Hebrew often means to think, by an elliptical construction. (Compare Exodus 2:14 with Genesis 17:17.)

So David prepared. —It is strange, but instructive, to remember that there have been critics so destitute of the historical faculty as to allege that "the whole episode about David’s preparations is a fiction of the chronicler’s" (Gramberg), because the Books of Samuel and Kings are silent on the subject.