25. such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel] Strictly speaking, the comparison is limited to Solomon on the one side, and his predecessors, David and Saul (Ishbosheth is ignored in Chronicles) on the other, but we may suppose that the Chronicler is writing somewhat loosely from his own standpoint, and really means to say that Solomon was surpassed in glory by no king of Israel. It is just possible (compare Job xxxiv. 19) to render the Hebrew royal majesty which was not on any king more than on him in Israel.
In Chronicles the character of Solomon is idealised somewhat in the same fashion as that of David. He is depicted as the monarch who attained the ideal of inspired wisdom and of royal splendour, and whose piety was supremely manifested in the privilege permitted him of building and dedicating the Temple. In this last fact the Chronicler doubtless felt that Solomon had a claim to the praises of posterity which completely outweighed any sinister traits of his character revealed in Kings. Elsewhere he refers to Solomon’s failings in order to point a moral; “Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things?... Even him did strange women cause to sin” (Nehemiah xiii. 26). But here, where he relates his reign as a whole, the darker aspects—his many wives and his tolerance of their idolatrous worship—are passed over and only the king’s zeal for Jehovah and the glories of Israel in his day are allowed to appear.
26–30.
A Summary of David’s Reign.
²⁶Now David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. ²⁷And the time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. ²⁸And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead.
27. forty years] Compare 2 Samuel v. 4, 5; 1 Kings ii. 11.
²⁹Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the history[¹] of Samuel the seer, and in the history[¹] of Nathan the prophet, and in the history[¹] of Gad the seer;
[¹] Hebrew words.
29. On the “histories” cited in this verse, see the Introduction, § 5, pp. [xxx]–xxxii. Compare 2 Chronicles ix. 29.
in the history] literally words. The Book of Chronicles itself is called in Hebrew, The words (or the acts) of the days.
Samuel the seer] Compare 1 Samuel ix. 9, 19.