1 Chronicles 22:14. In my trouble, that is, in my state of weakness and wars, I have prepared a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver. David having been victorious over eight nations, must have collected an immense booty, and made his armies rich. We read of no princes, except Cræsus and Sardanapalus, who had any treasure like this. A talent of gold was three thousand shekels. But admitting that the shekel of the sanctuary was twice as heavy as the common shekel, the half of the above sum is very great. Josephus takes off nine tenths of this sum: he makes the gold ten thousand talents, and the silver one hundred thousand, which the critics estimate at sixty eight millions of our money! Josephus seems to be the true reading; the former sum almost exceeds credibility.
REFLECTIONS.
In addition to the former remarks on this subject, it should be noticed here, that David hung upon the promise made by Nathan, and held it fast, as christians should always do. His soul embraced the recent indications of the Lord's temple being highly typical of the christian church. David, having convoked the elders of Israel, on the spot where the Lord had required the sacrifice to stay the plague by atonement, expresses the great desire he had to build a house to the name of the Lord, and how he was disallowed, because of his wars; and he seems to add of his own accord, because he had shed much blood. He apprized them that Solomon his son was designated for that honour. Hence this young prince was in his name, which signifies peace, and in his kingdom and work, a striking figure of the kingdom of Christ; for the Son of man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them; and he will make wars to cease to the ends of the earth.
Hence likewise we see that God, in the economy of providence, delighteth not in war, and the effusion of blood. Judgment is his strange work. And though he had given David many extraordinary marks of approbation in his wars; yet these were solely because milder means had failed in bringing the heathen back by repentance to morality, and by reformation to the simplicity of their covenant of Noah.
We have next the very great piety of David exhibited on a broad scale. He wasted not his treasures in vain parade; he laid them out for God the giver; and as he loved religion in his youth, so to the latest moment of his life he thought nothing too much to do, either for God or for his ministers. The vast preparation of materials is proof how much his heart was in this blessed work: and though the son was preferred to the sire, he took no offence, but proceeded with a grateful heart. What submission, what humility, what zeal, and what a reproach to those christians who, because they cannot be first in a popular work, refuse to act in a secondary way, and even withhold the aids so essential to the design. In many cases they do not even allow their minister food and raiment.