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.