So David gave orders to call together the foreigners living in Israel, and he assigned them the task of preparing finished stone for building the Temple of God.
Parallel translations
- WEB David gave orders to gather together the foreigners who were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to cut dressed stones to build God’s house.
- KJV And 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.
- BSB So David gave orders to gather the foreigners in the land of Israel, from whom he appointed stonecutters to prepare finished stones for building the house of God.
- NKJV So David commanded to gather the aliens who were in the land of Israel; and he appointed masons to cut hewn stones to build the house of God.
- NASB So David gave orders to gather the strangers who were in the land of Israel, and he set stonecutters to cut out stones to build the house of God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David organized the resident foreigners to quarry and dress stones for building God's house. He began active, practical preparation for the temple.
Overview
David mustered the non-Israelite laborers in the land to prepare cut stone for the temple. His careful organization shows wise stewardship and forward planning, even though he himself would not build the temple. That foreigners shared in the work hints at God's wider purpose to gather people from all nations into His house, a theme realized in the gospel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 1 Kgs 5:17–18The king commanded, and they cut out large stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone.
- 2 Chr 2:17Solomon counted all the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, after the census with which David his father had counted them; and they found one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.
- 1 Kgs 9:20–21As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel;
- Ezra 3:7They also gave money to the masons, and to the carpenters. They also gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus King of Persia.
- 1 Kgs 6:7The house, when it was under construction, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; and no hammer or ax or any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was under construction.
- 2 Sam 5:11Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, with cedar trees, carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house.
- Isa 61:5–6Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will work your fields and your vineyards.
- 1 Kgs 7:9–12All these were of costly stones, even of cut stone, according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside, even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court.
- 2 Kgs 12:12and to the masons and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the damage to Yahweh’s house, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.
- 2 Chr 8:7–8As for all the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel;
- Eph 2:19–22So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,
- 1 Chr 14:1Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David with cedar trees, masons, and carpenters, to build him a house.
- 2 Kgs 22:6to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the house.
- Eph 2:12that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
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Christ at the center
The genealogies and the everlasting covenant with David trace the single thread of promise running through the generations straight to the Christ in whom the line reaches its goal.
How 1 Chronicles 22:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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