2 Chronicles 6:5 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

My people out of the land of Egypt. — Kings, “My people Israel out of Egypt.” (Comp 2 Chronicles 5:10.) The Syr. and Arab. have Israel here also.

Neither chose I any man to be a ruler (nâgîd) over my people Israel. — Neither this sentence nor the following is found in the parallel passage, where the second half of 2 Chronicles 6:6 forms the last clause of the preceding verse (1 Kings 8:16). The Syriac and Arabic here follow Kings as often. There is nothing in the language against the supposition that the words originally formed part of the older text.

Neither chose I any man. — Saul was originally the people’s, not God’s, choice. Holy Scripture nowhere teaches that the vox populi is identical with the vox Dei. (See 1 Samuel 8:5, and Bishop Wordsworth’s Note.)

2 Chronicles 6:5

5 Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel: