1 Chronicles: David and the temple prepared
1 Chronicles retells Israel's story from Adam to David for the people back from exile, showing God's faithfulness to David's house and to the worship of his temple. David brings the ark to Jerusalem, receives the promise of an everlasting throne, and prepares the temple his son Solomon will build.
About the book
Its Hebrew name means ‘the events of the days’, that is, annals. The ancient Greek Old Testament called it ‘the things left out’, taking it as a supplement to Samuel and Kings. In the Hebrew Bible 1 and 2 Chronicles are one book, the last in the usual Jewish order.
The book does not name its author. Jewish tradition says that Ezra wrote the genealogies of Chronicles Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra. Its holders note that the last two verses of 2 Chronicles are nearly the same as the opening of Ezra (2 Chronicles 36:22-23, Ezra 1:1-3), and that both books love the temple, its priests and Levites, and the law. Many scholars think instead of an unnamed writer they call the Chronicler, working about 400–350 BC: they point to the line of Zerubbabel's descendants, which runs on for several generations (3:19-24), and to the book's Hebrew. Some still place it in Ezra's day, and many take its author to have been a Levite.
David's reign falls in the era the map under the Jesus tab calls the united monarchy (c. 1050–930 BC), but the book was written for those who had come home from Babylon. Kings, finished in the exile, asked how the kingdom had come to fall. Chronicles answers the questions of the returned: who are we now, and is God still with us? Its answer: a people whose line runs back to Adam, and a God still faithful to David's house and temple.
So Chronicles does not retell David's sin with Bathsheba or Absalom's revolt. It paints a portrait; it does not cover anything up. Its readers knew the books of Samuel, and it sends them for David's acts to the records of Samuel, Nathan and Gad (1 Chronicles 29:29). It tells in full his sin in numbering the people, and his confession: "I have sinned greatly" (1 Chronicles 21:8). Where its numbers differ from those of Samuel and Kings, see Does the Bible contradict itself?
How it unfolds
| Chapters | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1–9 | Genealogies: from Adam to the twelve tribes and those who returned |
| 10–16 | Saul's death, David made king, the ark brought into Jerusalem |
| 17–21 | God's covenant with David, David's victories, the census and the temple site |
| 22–29 | The temple prepared: materials, priests, Levites and singers; Solomon king |
Key passages
On the day the ark came into Jerusalem, David appointed Levites to sing. Their song in chapter 16 is woven from Psalms 105, 96 and 106, and its refrain is this:
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.
1 Chronicles 16:34
Praise is the book's breath. It dwells on the temple's worship and singers, to show a people with a rebuilt temple what it was for.
When David wanted to build God a house, the LORD said, "You are not the one to build Me a house in which to dwell" (1 Chronicles 17:4), and then turned the word around: "the LORD will build a house for you" (1 Chronicles 17:10). The house is David's line of kings, and the promise is a covenant:
I will raise up your descendant after you, one of your own sons … He will build a house for Me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his Father, and he will be My son. … But I will set him over My house and My kingdom forever, and his throne will be established forever.
1 Chronicles 17:11-14
Samuel has "Your house and kingdom" (2 Samuel 7:16); Chronicles has "My house and My kingdom" (1 Chronicles 17:14). The throne of David's son is the throne of God's own kingdom. As the people bring their gifts for the temple, the aged David prays:
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You.
1 Chronicles 29:11
He adds, "Everything comes from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You" (1 Chronicles 29:14). John Wesley writes of this prayer, "The nearer we come to the land of everlasting praise, the more we should speak the language, and do the work of that world" John Wesley.
The book and Christ
Nine chapters of names lead somewhere. Chronicles opens with "Adam" (1 Chronicles 1:1); Luke's genealogy climbs from Jesus back to "the son of Adam, the son of God" (Luke 3:38); and Matthew opens with Jesus Christ, "the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1). At the end of the line that kept the promise stands Christ.
The promise to David is kept in him as well. Hebrews applies its words to the Son, "I will be His Father, and He will be My Son" (Hebrews 1:5), and the angel tells Mary of the son who will receive David's throne: "His kingdom will never end" (Luke 1:33). Matthew Henry notices that David's "For the sake of Your word" (2 Samuel 7:21) becomes "For the sake of Your servant" here (1 Chronicles 17:19). Christ is both God's Word and God's Servant, he says, and "it is for his sake, upon account of his mediation, that the promises are made good to all believers" Matthew Henry.
Reading it
Read the genealogies of chapters 1–9 quickly, in a day or two, pausing at David's family (3), the Levites (6) and those who returned (9). Chapters 10–29 take ten days at two chapters a day; the story begins at 1 Chronicles 10.
Read chapter 17 beside 2 Samuel 7, and the song of chapter 16 beside Psalm 105 and Psalm 96. What Chronicles adds and leaves out shows what it wants to say. The story goes on in 2 Chronicles.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 6
How is 1 Chronicles built?
- Practice 2 of 6
Why did Chronicles tell again a history already told in Samuel and Kings?
- Practice 3 of 6
When David wanted to build a house for God, what did God tell him?
- Practice 4 of 6
Chronicles begins its genealogies with Adam. Which Gospel traces Jesus' genealogy back past Adam to God?
- Practice 5 of 6
After the gifts for the temple were brought, what did David confess in his prayer?
- Practice 6 of 6
What is true of the authorship and date of Chronicles?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Source
- The Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b–15a — Completed c. 6th century. The Jewish tradition of who wrote (or compiled) each book of the Hebrew Bible: Moses his own book, the portion of Balaam and Job; Joshua his and the Torah's last eight verses (his death recorded by Eleazar and Phinehas); Samuel his, Judges and Ruth (finished by Gad and Nathan); David the Psalms with the elders; Jeremiah his, Kings and Lamentations; Hezekiah and his company Isaiah, Proverbs, the Song and Ecclesiastes; the Men of the Great Assembly Ezekiel, the Twelve, Daniel and Esther; Ezra his and the genealogies of Chronicles.
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and classic commentary. Each book's author and date are given as the church has received them, and scholars who see them otherwise are presented fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.