📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 28:6
What does 1 Chronicles 28:6 mean?
"He said to me, ‘Solomon, your son, shall build my house and my courts; for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father."
— 1 Chronicles 28:6 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
But God said to me, ‘You shall not build a house for my name, because you are a man of war, and have shed blood.’
However Yahweh, the God of Israel, chose me out of all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever. For he has chosen Judah to be prince; and in the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel.
Of all my sons (for Yahweh has given me many sons), he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of Yahweh’s kingdom over Israel.
He said to me, ‘Solomon, your son, shall build my house and my courts; for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.
I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues to do my commandments and my ordinances, as it is today.’
Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, Yahweh’s assembly, and in the audience of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of Yahweh your God; that you may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.
You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.
Explanation
In this verse, King David is recounting to the assembled leaders of Israel what God said to him directly. God's words are simple and direct: Solomon, David's son, is the one chosen to build the temple ("my house") and its surrounding courts, and God declares a special relationship with him — "I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father." This is God speaking about Solomon specifically, naming him as the one selected for this task and describing an intimate, covenantal bond between them.
The context is crucial to understanding this passage. First Chronicles 28 records the final public address of King David, delivered near the end of his life to the princes, officials, military commanders, and leading men of Israel. David had deeply desired to build a permanent temple for God, replacing the portable tabernacle that Israel had used since the Exodus. However, God had told David earlier (2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17) that he would not be the one to build it, because he was a man of war who had shed much blood. Instead, God promised that David's son would build the temple. Here in chapter 28, David formally transfers this responsibility to Solomon in front of the nation, explaining that God himself made this choice, not David's personal preference. This public declaration served to establish Solomon's legitimacy as David's successor and to make clear that the temple project had divine sanction from the very start.
Theologically, this verse highlights several important themes. First, it shows God's sovereign choice — Solomon didn't earn this role through merit or seniority (he wasn't David's firstborn), but was selected by God for a specific purp
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