Furthermore David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the LORD God.
Solomon ... is yet young and tender. His father made this address before Solomon was endowed with the divine gift of wisdom; and David's reference to his son's extreme youth, in connection with the great national undertaking he had been divinely appointed to execute, was to apologize to this assembly of the estates, or rather, to assign the reason of his elaborate preparations for the work.