And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies;
When the king sat in his house - not while he was musing at home, but after he had become established in the splendid mansion he had built. The date of the memorable transactions recorded in this chapter must he fixed at a period soon after the accession of David to the throne of all Israel. The narrative, as given both in this passage and in the Book of Chronicles, follows apparently, in the natural order of events, the conquest of Jerusalem, the building of his palace, and the removal of the ark to the metropolis of the kingdom. Nay, it is expressly said, 1 Chronicles 17:1, that immediately consequent on the completion of the palace, the king announced his purpose to erect a new and permanent sanctuary. To these considerations, which seem clearly to determine the early date of the temple-scheme, may be added a circumstance of a different kind, namely, that Solomon, the son and the destined successor of David, was not yet born.
It has been objected that David's purpose to erect the temple is here said to have originated when "the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies." There is nothing said of this in the parallel passage of Chronicles (1 Chronicles 17:1); and we find him involved in contests with many of the neighbouring states (2 Sam
8), which were followed by foreign wars and intestine troubles during all his life. But the statement, that he had "rest round about from all his enemies," referred to an interval of peace which occurred shortly after his succession, on the discomfiture of the Philistines, with whom, according to Josephus, the Syrians and Phoenicians were combined in two successive campaigns (see the notes at 2 Samuel 5:17-25) - a defeat so complete that they ceased for a long time to invade the Hebrew territory. This interval of peace was remarkable; and David most probably fancied it to be the period referred to by Moses (Deuteronomy 12:10-11) for the erection of a national place of worship.