1 Chronicles 22:8

1Ch 22:8 But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.

Ver. 8. Thou hast shed much blood upon tho earth in my sight,] i.e., Me sciente et vidente: haply God here meaneth the blood of Uriah, and of those that fell with him.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ch 22:8. Thou hast shed blood, &c.; thou shalt not build a house unto my name — Not that wars are simply unlawful, but to teach us that the church (whereof the temple was an illustrious type) should be built by Christ, the Prince of peace, Isa 9:6, and that it should be gathered and built up, not by might or power, but by God’s Spirit, Zec 4:6, and by the preaching the gospel of peace. David therefore was less fit for that service, than one who had not been called to such bloody work. Likewise, by setting him aside for this reason, God showed how precious human life is to him.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22:8 God did not allow David to build the Temple because he had shed so much blood (cp. 1 Kgs 5:3-4). David’s wars were not unethical, and God had blessed and supported them. However, David had been tainted with a kind of ceremonial uncleanness from the blood he had shed and the deaths he had caused in battle (see 1 Chr 28:3; cp. Gen 4:10-12; Lev 17:3-4; Deut 21:1-9; Matt 27:24-25). Accordingly, he could not build a holy sanctuary for the Lord.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

This declareth how greatly God detesteth the shedding of blood, seeing David for this cause is stayed to build the Temple of the Lord, albeit he enterprised no war, but by God’s commandment and against his enemies.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 8. Thou hast shed blood abundantly] Heathens, Jews, and Christians, have all agreed that soldiers of any kind should have nothing to do with Divine offices. Shedding of human blood but ill comports with the benevolence of God or the spirit of the Gospel.

AEneas, overpowered by his enemies, while fighting for his parents, his family, and his country, finding farther resistance hopeless, endeavours to carry off his aged father, his wife, young son, and his household gods; but as he was just come from slaughter, he would not even handle these objects of superstition, but confided them to his father, whom he took on his shoulders, and carried out of the burning of Troy.

Tu, genitor, cape sacra manu, patriosque penates:

Me bello tanto digressum, et caede recenti,

Attrectare nefas; donec me flumine vivo

Abluero.

AEN. ii., ver. 717.

"Our country gods, our relics, and the bands,

Hold you, my father, in your guiltless hands:

In me 'tis impious holy things to bear,

Red as I am with slaughter, new from war;

Till, in some living stream, I cleanse the guilt

Of dire debate, and blood in battle spilt."

DRYDEN.

See the note at the end of 2Sa 7:25.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(8) But the word of the Lord came to me (upon me).—Literally, And a word of Jehovah became upon me. There is a partial correspondence between this “word of the Lord” and that which Nathan is represented as delivering (1Ch_17:4-14). There, however, David is promised success in war, without any hint that warfare, as such, would unfit him for the sacred task which he longed to undertake. And in 1Ki_5:3, Solomon implies that David’s wars left him no leisure for the work.

Thou hast shed blood.—The emphatic word is “blood.” Literally, Blood in abundance hast thou shed, and great wars hast thou made.

Because thou hast shed much blood.—Better. for torrents of blood (plural) hast thou shed earthward before me. The author of this narrative may well have remembered Gen_9:5-6, and the denunciations of the prophets against men of blood. (Comp. especially Amo_1:3; Amo_1:13; Amo_2:1, with David’s treatment of the conquered Ammonites, 1Ch_20:3. And see also Hosea’s denunciation of vengeance upon the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel: Hos_1:4; Hos_7:7). Or the verse may express the interpretation which David’s own conscience put upon the oracle forbidding him to build the Temple.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. Thou hast shed blood abundantly] Cp. 1Ch_28:3; in 1Ki_5:3 Solomon tells Hiram that David wished to build a temple, but was hindered from his design by war.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the word of the Lord came to me,.... The word of prophecy, as the Targum, by the mouth of Nathan the prophet:

saying; as follows, which though not expressed in the book of Samuel before referred to, is here recorded by divine inspiration:

thou hast shed blood abundantly; Kimchi thinks this refers to the blood of Uriah, and those gallant men that were slain with him, and to the priests slain by the order of Saul, which David was the occasion of, or accidental cause of, Sa1 22:22 and to many good men among the Gentiles; though it was the intention of the Lord to consume the wicked among them, that they might not prevail over Israel:

and hast made great wars: with the Philistines, Moabites, &c.

thou shall not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight; an intimation this, that the church of God, of which this house was a type, was to be built by Christ, the Prince of peace, and to be supported and maintained not by force of arms, and by spilling of blood, as the religion of Mahomet, but by the preaching of the Gospel of peace.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The word of the Lord came to me ... - Not by Nathan 1Ch 17:4-15, but on some other occasion 1Ch 28:3. On the bloody character of David’s wars, see 2Sa 8:2, 2Sa 8:5; 2Sa 10:18; 2Sa 12:31; and 1Ki 11:16.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Blood, of Urias, (St. Jerome and the Rabbins) or rather, as David had already entertained the desire of building a temple before that event, (Estius) the blood which David had shed in just wars, must be understood; as even that causes a person to be regarded as unclean. The soldiers were obliged to be purified before they could enter the camp, Numbers xxxi. 19. In the Christian Church, those are deemed irregular who have contributed to the death of the guilty, even as judges or witnesses. The Pagans entertained the like sentiments. (Calmet) Æneas dares not touch the sacred vessels and household gods, when he was stained with blood, shed in his country’s defence. Tu, genitor, cape sacra manu, patriosque penates

Me bello e tanto digressum et cæde recenti

Attrectare nefas. (Virgil, Æneid ii.)

--- So. Hebrew, "much blood in my sight." (Haydock) --- This expression enhances (Du Hamel) the greatness of the bloodshed; as when a person is said to be wicked, &c., before the Lord, it means in an extraordinary degree. The wars of David are frequently assigned as the impediment to David’s building the temple, chap. xvii. 4., and xxviii. 3. (Josephus, &c.) (Calmet) --- They would not suffer him to have sufficient leisure, ver. 18., (Haydock) 3 Kings v. 3. (Salien) (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth; not that wars either now are or then were simply unlawful, or that David sinned in shedding the blood of war; for it is manifest that David’s wars were undertaken by God’s command, or with his leave, and were attended with his blessing; but partly because David’s military employments did for a good while fill his head and hands, and gave him no leisure for temple work; and principally for mystical signification, to teach us that the church (whereof the temple was a manifest and illustrious type) should be built by Christ, the Prince of peace, Isa 9:6; and that it should be gathered and built up, not by might or power, or by force of arms, but by God’s Spirit, Zec 4:6, and by the preaching the gospel of peace. In my sight; which I have taken particular notice of. And this expression may possibly be added in reference to Uriah and the rest of the Israelites, who were slain at the siege of Rabbah by David’s contrivance; which peradventure David had in his eye, Psa 51:4, where David, confessing this sin, useth this very expression, I have done this evil in thy sight.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. The word of the Lord came to me — Probably by Nathan, but not at the time referred to in 1Ch_17:3, and 2Sa_7:4. At that time Jehovah opened to David’s prophetic eye that Messianic future which ever after was his joy and song; but at another time he sent Nathan again to explain to him the reason, as here given, why he should not build the temple of Jehovah.

Because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight — The wars of David were not carried on against God’s will. In many cases they were expressly ordered by Jehovah, and often called the “wars of the Lord.” In order to the establishment of Israel in Canaan wars and bloodshed were unavoidable. Nevertheless, the bloodshed and barbarity of war were not in harmony with the profound symbolism of peace, sabbatic quiet, and thoughtful repose, which were to be embodied in the house of Jehovah. Hence David’s unfitness to build the temple. Comp. 1Ki_5:3.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Because thou hast shed much blood. This is repeated very distinctly below, (1Ch_28:3) and appears there again as acknowledged by the lip of David himself. It seems remarkable that no previous statement of this objection, nor even allusion to it, is found. Further, there seems no very opportune place for it in either our 1Ch_17:1-15 or in 2Sa_7:1-17. Yet, if it seem impossible to resist the impression that it must have found expression on the occasion referred to in those two passages, we may fit it in best between vers. 10 and 11 of the former reference, and between vers. 11 and 12 of the latter. So far, however, as our Hebrew text goes, this is the first place in which the statement is made.

HOMILETICS, Ver. 8.

Religious enthusiasm in old age a model soliloquy.

This soliloquy exhibits the settled thought of years past. The house that is to be builded for the Lord, remaining still to old age, the imperial thought of David"s heart. And we may notice that

I THE PURPOSE THAT IS HALLOWED IN OWNING FOR ITS CHIEF OBJECT THE WELFARE OF THE CHURCH OF GOD IS ONE THAT DOES THRIVE WELL EVEN TO OLD AGE. Other designs, projects, and purposes are, it is tree, often seen to flourish to old age as matter of fact. But in innumerable instances how much better it had been if their fascination had been long before resisted, and their tyrannous demand on the force that so plainly threatens to ebb had been long since denied them! They unduly consume strength of mind and body. They inappropriately occupy the strength of the heart. They have really nothing in common with the momentous future that is so imminent. They often contrast painfully and repulsively with it. Far otherwise was it now with David"s purpose, and with such as are in any analogy with it. In his faithful heart a holy purpose had been cherished. It still stands fast, and harmonizes well with age with the thoughts appropriate to age, with the experience and correcter judgments of age, and with its near prospects.

II THE PURPOSE THAT IS HALLOWED IN HAVING FOR ITS DISTINCT OBJECT THE WELFARE OF THE CHURCH OF GOD OFFERS AMPLE ROOM FOR THE EXERCISE OF A NOBLE AMBITION. "The house must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries.

1. An exalting force in bureau character finds exercise and abundant scopeat a time when it might otherwise be on the decay, or, if not on the decay, able to find no really worthy object.

2. It finds exercise not merely healthful to the person who exhibits it, but ofwidespread usefulness. Beside personal aspiration after heaven, its beatific visions, its perfect holiness, there is distinctly an ambition which shall become a dying bed the ambition to leave with the world what will be a

continuing and growing blessing to it, and a lasting witness for God and his truth. In no way, other things being equal, is blessing so surely given as when directly given in connection with spiritual work, and with that grandest enterprise, the Church of God. Where all other grandeur of earth must fade therefore, and the eye has become passionless to all other, its brightest colours, the Church of God, as well material as spiritual, has been known to enter a successful competition with whatever else occupied a dying hour.

III PURPOSES HALLOWED THROUGH THEIR CONNECTION WITH THE CHURCH OF GOD WILL NOT TOLERATE THE RISK OF THEIR GREAT OBJECTS BEING PREJUDICED BY ANY CAUSES AVOIDABLE. Even though natural relationship might have tempted the risk, and Divine designation might have been pressed into some warrant of it, David does not for a moment yield to it. He does promptly and with guarded zealous forethought, acknowledge to the danger, and do the best to provide against it. Religious principle ought to overcome hereditary instincts, and the ties of nature ought not to override those of diviner origin. "Whoso loveth father or mother more than me," said Jesus, "is not worthy of me." David was doubtless very proud of his son, very tender of him; but he was justly prouder of the work of his God, and justly tenderer of it and its secured welfare. Genuine holy purposes seem to own to a native circumspection. They seem to possess a secret safeguard within themselves. Of these it is not true, and it is not said, that the children of nature are in their generation wiser than they. The forethought, then, that works so largely in human life, and is so fruitful of various good, shows to great advantage in such conduct as that of David at this crisis. There are, indeed, senses in which it may be said almost to belong to nature to consider and to act for following generations. For so "the husbandman plants many a tree, no berry of which he can reckon on living to behold." But it is the work of something more than nature, higher than nature, when holy purposes waken vigour, fire, enthusiasm, and zealous labour in old age. And strikingly are such purposes distinguished from those "good intentions" which have won for themselves a proverbial and a bad character.

The stain of blood.

We distinctly read here, as also in the stricter parallel of this place, (1Ch_28:3) that it was because David had "shed blood abundantly," had "shed much blood on the earth" in the sight of God, had "made great wars," that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "Thou shalt not build a house to my Name." After the death of David we find Solomon so far as we may go by his language seeming to put a somewhat different shade of interpretation on the matter. He does not, indeed, say anything different from the truth, or necessarily inconsistent with it; but perhaps moved by a son"s filial dutifulness, he purposes to omit those aspects which were the more painful aspects, and grievous to a son"s lip to enlarge upon. He says, (1Ki_5:3) "Thou knowest how that David my father could not build a house unto the Name of the Lord his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet." This version is also quite consistent with the indications of our compiler, (1Ch_17:1) and with those of 2Sa_7:1. With one fuller, however, and more plain-spoken, from the honest lip of the father himself to his son, not of the son to the outer world, we have here to do. And we are taught

I THAT AS SURELY AS JUDGMENT IS GOD"S STRANGE WORK, SO SURELY WOULD HE THAT THAT WORST JUDGMENT, WAR, AND THE SHEDDING OF FELLOW-MAN"S BLOOD SHOULD BE THE STRANGE WORK OF HIS PEOPLE. If there be times when these be necessary, yet are they intrinsically "strange work," and are emphatically by the Divine will to be so regarded. The man who has been but the bare instrument of this kind of thing among his fellow-men on earth, shall not be the man whose hands shall be honoured to rear the temple of God, the Church of love and peace, and of the perfecter brotherhood of humanity.

II THAT THE PREVAILING BENT OR HABIT, OR MERE OCCUPATION OF OUR PREVIOUS LIFE, WILL NOT UNFREQUENTLY AT SOME CRITICAL MOMENT, AND ONE WHICH WE MAY IMAGINE TO BE OF SUPREME IMPORT, DECIDE THE LOT THAT SHALL FALL TO US, OR BE FORFEITED FOR EVER. Sin may be forgiven, the tyranny of evil habit may be broken, the usurper of the heart"s throne may be dethroned, circumstance may have been almost revolutionized; but in hard fact, the things that have been cannot be made as though they had not been, nor shall we be counted as though they had not been. Some stains are very stubborn things. And they are not superstitiously but legitimately regarded such. The stain of blood is notoriously of this description. Two such contrasts as Cain and David attest it. Contrasts violent as the savage sacrifices of heathendom through unnumbered ages and those of revelation illustrate it. But the tremendous demonstration itself may be held to come from the mark, the sprinkling, the efficacy of that blood of which they once cried out, let it "be on us and on our children." On these both the dreadful stain of it, and the infinite virtue of it, have been from time to time, and still are, and shall be. Yet how many important and solemn illustrations of the same principle there are which shall fall very far short of those that bloodshed offers, David"s habit in this sort, nevertheless, our typical warning all the while! The element of doubtfulness in your profession, your business, your tactics, your line of well-known conduct awhile, may prove to lie just in this, the irresistible suspicion which they shall inevitably engender in the better part of human nature, in its higher instincts in a word, in the humaner portion of humanity. That suspicion need be voted no freak of caprice, of superstition, of mock purity. It is a suspicion of the kind safe to incur itself. And it may be distinctly noted that it is incurred:

1. By the unwelcome, unsavoury nature of the actual deeds asked or involved. Though haply it be necessary that these be done, yet in good men"s minds there shall be a veiled revulsion from the touch of the hand that is the minister of them.

2. By the quality of character, which they are plainly calculated to beget or to foster. One that may betoken disparagement of thought, of feeling, of human inalienable rights, which should be held ever sacred.

3. By their resolute owning to the endowment of an unavoidable tenacity of life. They have a name to live, though not an enviable name. They will make their name to be heard when their doer would heartily wish they had never lived at all. They insist on reappearing, and brighten out to vision at times the most inopportune.

III THAT HE WHO NOW REFUSES THE NOBLER SERVICE OF DAVID, THOUGH ACCEPTING THE PURPOSE OF HIS HEART, IS HE SOME OF WHOSE MIGHTIEST TITLES SOUND OF BATTLE AND VICTORY. The force of the lessons suggested to us by this passage certainly suffer no loss when we note an inconsistency which justifies itself in the very speaking of it. Vengeance, retribution, ultimate punishment, human blood, human life, lie all specially within the one supreme jurisdiction. And though doubtless God devolves the execution of these into the hands of others, the right of them he does not devolve. For David, for kings, for statesmen, for every man, the danger is that he encroach a hair"s breadth upon such a right. Now the Lord of hosts, the God of armies, the mighty Man of war, the Captain, the Avenger, the glorious Victor, is he alone to whom could safely attach the vast trust of human life and destiny, and the prerogative of the unquestioned disposition of them. It is he who, those titles of his own notwithstanding, pronounces the word that David shall not be the honoured builder of the temple, that olden type of the Church. Not because the object was not a good one, not because the purpose of David"s heart was an impure or mingled one, but because it had fallen so often to David to pour on the ground the life-blood of his fellows which the Church comes to save, therefore was the prohibition peremptory. Nor is any respite of allowance granted to the indisputable fact, that many of David"s wars had been under Divine sanction and by Divine command. Yet is there herein no mystery of Divine sovereignty to be pondered, no inscrutableness of "the things hidden" to be adored. For human feeling, human instinct, reason"s convictions and calmest utterances justify and approve the verdict.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shed blood - Not that wars are simply unlawful, but to teach us that the church (whereof the temple was an illustrious type) should be built by Christ, the prince of peace, Isaiah ix, 6, and that it should be gathered and built up, not by might or power but by God's spirit, Zech iv, 6, and by the preaching the Gospel of peace. David therefore was less fit for that service, than one who had not been called to such bloody work. Likewise by setting him aside for this reason, God shewed how precious human life is to him.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

But the word of the Lord came to me,.... The word of prophecy, as the Targum, by the mouth of Nathan the prophet:

saying; as follows, which though not expressed in the book of Samuel before referred to, is here recorded by divine inspiration:

thou hast shed blood abundantly; Kimchi thinks this refers to the blood of Uriah, and those gallant men that were slain with him, and to the priests slain by the order of Saul, which David was the occasion of, or accidental cause of, Sa1 22:22 and to many good men among the Gentiles; though it was the intention of the Lord to consume the wicked among them, that they might not prevail over Israel:

and hast made great wars: with the Philistines, Moabites, &c.

thou shall not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight; an intimation this, that the church of God, of which this house was a type, was to be built by Christ, the Prince of peace, and to be supported and maintained not by force of arms, and by spilling of blood, as the religion of Mahomet, but by the preaching of the Gospel of peace.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)