1 Chronicles 28:19 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

All this said David. — The words with which David delivered the plans of the building and the schedule of its vessels to Solomon. The omission of any introductory formula, such as “And David said,” is dramatic. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 16:8; 1 Chronicles 23:4-5.) Literally rendered, after the Hebrew punctuation, the verse runs: — “The whole in a writing from the hand of Jehovah, to me he made clear; all the works of the model.” With the expression “a writing from the hand of Jehovah” (comp. Exodus 31:18; Exodus 25:40), David affirms his “pattern” of the sanctuary and its vessels to have been conceived, and described in writing, under that Divine guidance which he sought and followed in all the great enterprises of his life. Whether “the writing” was a communication “by the hand of” one of David’s seers, or merely the description of the Mosaic sanctuary (Exodus 25 seq.), is not clear. The verb “he taught” (hiskîl) requires an object, such as is supplied in the Authorised version: “made me understand.” It takes a dative (Proverbs 21:11), and probably the word rendered “upon me” is really a later equivalent of the same construction. Else we might compare Nehemiah 2:8; Ezekiel 1:3, and render: “The whole, in a writing from the hand of Jehovah upon me, he taught,” implying that David himself sketched out the whole design under Divine inspiration. Perhaps the text is corrupt.