²⁹For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. =29.= _For_] The beginning of a parenthesis. _the tabernacle of the LORD_] See the prefatory note to chapter xiii.; also compare xvi. 1, 39, and 2 Chronicles i. 3. ³⁰But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD. =30.= _he was afraid_] Or, =he was terrified=. The Hebrew word is unusual. CHAPTER XXII. ¹Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel. =1.= _Then_] The word refers back to xxi. 28, _At that time_. _David said_] The king acts in conformity with the law contained in Deuteronomy xii. 5, 6. _This is the house of the LORD_, etc.] Hence the necessity for relating the story of David’s sinful action in taking the census. The Chronicler’s desire to show only the idealistic aspect of David’s life has frequently been pointed out. The present section, then, is notable as showing very clearly how even this desire was made to yield to the supreme object of relating the Divinely-guided origin and growth of the Temple and its worship. =2‒19.= DAVID’S PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING THE TEMPLE. HIS CHARGE TO SOLOMON AND TO THE PRINCES. It is of course quite probable that preparations for a Temple were begun in David’s time, but the picture given in this chapter must not be taken as historically true, the material being of a general character such as the imagination could readily supply, and the figures mentioned in verse 14 being impossibly exaggerated. The chapter in fact is the outcome of the Chronicler’s zealous but uncritical mind working in the belief that, not Solomon, but the pious David was the “moving spirit in the great enterprise.” As Moses led Israel to Jordan’s brink, so David (he thought) must stop short only at the actual building of the Temple. ²And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. ³And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the couplings; and brass in abundance without weight; =2.= _the strangers_] Compare 2 Chronicles ii. 17; viii. 7‒9. Hewing of stone was regarded as task-work unfit for free men. This verse is simply an anticipation of the preparations recorded in Solomon’s reign: see 2 Chronicles ii. 1, 17. _wrought stones_] All the stone used for the building of the Temple was previously cut to the right size; compare 1 Kings vi. 7. ⁴and cedar trees without number: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought cedar trees in abundance to David. =4.= _Zidonians and they of Tyre_] Compare 1 Kings v. 1‒6 (15‒20, Hebrew).