The Fallible Synthetic Study Bible — 1 Chronicles 14:1

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1 Chronicles 14:1–7 — David’s Family Grows. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

Literally, and craftsmen of walls, and craftsmen of timber.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

The narrative of 2 Samuel 5:9-11 suggests that Hiram heard of the building works which David was carrying on at Jerusalem and so sent materials and workmen to assist. David accepted the welcome offer (which ultimately led to an alliance) as a sign of Divine favour.

Cambridge is reconstructing a motive the text does not state. That Hiram heard of the building works is inference from 2 Samuel 5:9-11, not something either narrative says.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The Kethiv abandons here the invariable analogy of Chronicles, and reads Hiram for "Huram," which latter form, however, is replaced in the Keri.

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Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

David perceived that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel — By the remembrance of God’s promise, and his providence conspiring with it.

Benson heads this under v. 2, but prints it in his note on v. 1, where the brief carries it.

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Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs, stonemasons, and carpenters, to build a palace for him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ḥī·rå̄m me·leḵ- ṣōr way·yiš·laḥ mal·’ā·ḵîm ’el- dā·wîḏ ’ă·rā·zîm wa·‘ă·ṣê wə·ḥā·rā·šê qîr wə·ḥā·rā·šê ‘ê·ṣîm liḇ·nō·wṯ bā·yiṯ lōw

Word by word16 · parsed

חִירָםḥī·rå̄mNow HiramH2438

√ Chîyrâm — Chiram or Chirom, the name of two TyriansNounpropermasculine singular

Chîyrâm: Chiram or Chirom, the name of two Tyrians The consonantal text here breaks the Chronicler's own habit. Pulpit: the Kethiv abandons the invariable analogy of Chronicles and reads Hiram, while the Keri restores Huram; Ellicott adds that the LXX and all the ancient versions of both Samuel and Chronicles side with Hiram. Strong's note that the name belongs to two Tyrians is the same distinction Pulpit presses, between this king and the artificer Hiram of 1 Kings 7:13 whom his successor lent to Solomon.

מֶֽלֶךְ־me·leḵ-kingH4428

√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct

צֹ֥רṣōrof TyreH6865

√ Tsôr — Tsor, a place in PalestineNounproperfeminine singular

וַ֠יִּשְׁלַחway·yiš·laḥsentH7971

√ shâlach — to send away, for, or out (in a great variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

shâlach: to send away, for, or out A Qal consecutive imperfect, third masculine singular. The narrative chain of the chapter begins with a Gentile verb: the first thing that happens after David takes Zion is that someone outside Israel acts toward him.

מַלְאָכִים֮mal·’ā·ḵîmenvoysH4397

√ mălʼâk — a messengerNounmasculine plural

mălʼâk: a messenger The ordinary Hebrew word for an envoy is also the word rendered angel when God is the sender. Here the senders are Tyrian and the errand is timber, yet the next verse reads the whole embassy as a message about God. Ellicott glosses it simply: ambassadors.

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

דָּוִיד֒dā·wîḏDavidH1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular

אֲרָזִ֔ים’ă·rā·zîmalong with cedarH730

√ ʼerez — a cedar tree (from the tenacity of its roots)Nounmasculine plural

ʼerez: a cedar tree (from the tenacity of its roots) Strong's derives the name from the root's grip, not from the height of the tree. Ellicott places the felling on Lebanon and the transport by sea to Joppa, and observes that the Assyrian and Babylonian kings left numerous records of palace building in which Lebanese cedar was the favoured material. David's house is going up in the standard imperial idiom of the age.

וַעֲצֵ֣יwa·‘ă·ṣêlogsH6086

√ ʻêts — a tree (from its firmness)Conjunctive wawNounmasculine plural construct

וְחָרָשֵׁ֣יwə·ḥā·rā·šêstonemasonsH2796

√ chârâsh — a fabricator or any materialConjunctive wawNounmasculine plural construct

chârâsh: a fabricator or any material A masculine plural construct bound to קִיר. The noun is deliberately material-neutral, which is why the same word can be repeated two words later with timber instead of wall. Hebrew classifies workmen by their product; the English versions classify them by their tool.

קִ֔ירqîr. . .H7023

√ qîyr — a wall (as built in a trench)Nounmasculine singular

qîyr: a wall (as built in a trench) The lexicon's parenthesis is doing real work: this is masonry seated in a cut foundation, not a partition. It is the vocabulary of permanence, which is exactly the point the next verse draws out.

וְחָרָשֵׁ֖יwə·ḥā·rā·šêand carpentersH2796

√ chârâsh — a fabricator or any materialConjunctive wawNounmasculine plural construct

עֵצִ֑ים‘ê·ṣîm. . .H6086

√ ʻêts — a tree (from its firmness)Nounmasculine plural

לִבְנ֥וֹתliḇ·nō·wṯto buildH1129

√ bânâh — to build (literally and figuratively)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

bânâh: to build (literally and figuratively) A Qal infinitive construct with the preposition l: the purpose clause of the whole verse. Strong's insists on both senses at once, literal and figurative, and the same root stands behind בֵּן (bên, H1121), the son as a builder of the family name. Verse 1 builds a house of cedar; verses 3 to 7 build the other kind.

בָּֽיִת׃bā·yiṯa palaceH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular

bayith: a house, especially family The pivot of the unit. Ellicott: House. Palace. He notes that the Temple was called the house (hab-bayith) as well as the palace, and compares the Akkadian e-gal, great house. One noun therefore covers the cedar building of v. 1 and the thirteen sons of vv. 4 to 7, and the whole later question of who builds whose house turns on it.

ל֖וֹlōwfor him

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

Preposition with third masculine singular suffix, for him. Ellicott notes that Samuel has the plural verb instead, and they built a house for David.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-sent Hiram king-of Tyre messengers unto David, and-timbers-of cedars, and-craftsmen-of wall and-craftsmen-of timber, to-build for-him a-house.

Where the English smooths the original

וְחָרָשֵׁי קִיר BSB reads stonemasons, but the Hebrew has no word for stone here. חָרָשֵׁי (chârâsh, H2796) is simply a fabricator of any material, and the following noun is קִיר (qîyr, H7023), a wall (as built in a trench). Ellicott renders it flatly: craftsmen of walls, and craftsmen of timber, and notes that 2 Samuel 5:11 inverts the pair. The Hebrew names the men by what they make, not by the material they cut.
וַעֲצֵי אֲרָזִים English cedar logs smooths a construct chain that runs the other way: עֲצֵי (ʻêts, H6086), tree, from its firmness, in the plural construct, governing אֲרָזִים (ʼerez, H730), a cedar tree, from the tenacity of its roots. Both lexemes name durability. The same word עֵצִים returns four words later for the carpenters' timber, so the verse is built out of one material twice named.
וַיִּשְׁלַח וַיִּשְׁלַח (way·yiš·laḥ, Qal consecutive imperfect of shâlach, H7971, to send away, for, or out) has Hiram as its subject, not David. English word order puts Now Hiram first and so hides that the Hebrew clause is driven by the Tyrian king's own initiative. Cambridge reconstructs the occasion: Hiram heard of David's building works and sent unasked.
בָּיִת BSB says palace; the Hebrew says בָּיִת (bayith, H1004), a house in the greatest variation of applications, especially family. Ellicott keeps both senses in view, noting that the Temple itself was called hab-bayith. The flattening matters, because the next chapters turn on whether bayith means a building, a dynasty, or the dwelling of God.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

This is an important truth, that sovereigns are invested with royal honor and authority, not for their own sakes so much as for that of their people.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

In 2 Samuel 19:43 the same form is the infin. abs. Niph. למעלה is here, as frequently in the Chronicles, used to intensify the expression: cf. 1 Chronicles 22:5

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

It was a partial indication of the "lifted-up kingdom" that the king should have a palace of unwonted magnificence.

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

David perceived, by the remembrance of God’s promise, and his providence complying with it, &c.

Poole (1685) and Benson (1810s) give this gloss in nearly the same words. Treat them as one line of tradition rather than two independent witnesses.

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And David realized that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and had highly exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

dā·wîḏ way·yê·ḏa‘ kî- Yah·weh hĕ·ḵî·nōw lə·me·leḵ ‘al- yiś·rā·’êl kî- lə·ma‘·lāh niś·śêṯ mal·ḵū·ṯōw ba·‘ă·ḇūr ‘am·mōw yiś·rā·’êl

Word by word15 · parsed

דָּוִ֔ידdā·wîḏAnd DavidH1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular

וַיֵּ֣דַעway·yê·ḏa‘realizedH3045

√ yâdaʻ — to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

yâdaʻ: to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing) A Qal consecutive imperfect, third masculine singular, and the hinge of the unit. The verb is empirical before it is devotional. Ellicott draws the general rule with restraint: the favour of man is sometimes a sign of the approval of God, and cites Genesis 39:21 and Luke 2:52. Benson and Poole both gloss it the same way, as God's promise remembered and providence seen to agree with it.

כִּֽי־kî-thatH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

יְהוָ֛הYah·wehthe LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

Yᵉhôvâh: Jehovah, Jewish national name of God The only occurrence of the divine name in this unit. It stands as the subject of the next word, so that the sentence's one act of establishing is God's, while Hiram, the cedar and the masons are all in the previous verse.

הֱכִינ֧וֹhĕ·ḵî·nōwhad established himH3559

√ kûwn — properly, to be erect (iVerbHifilPerfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

kûwn: properly, to be erect Hifil perfect, third masculine singular, with a third masculine singular suffix: He had made him stand upright. The causative stem puts the whole weight on the agent. Strong's root sense is architectural, so the verb quietly matches the building language of v. 1: God is doing to David what Hiram's masons are doing to the walls. A Verifier pair check confirms this same lexeme H3559 standing in the dynastic promise of 2 Samuel 7:13.

לְמֶ֖לֶךְlə·me·leḵas kingH4428

√ melek — a kingPreposition-lNounmasculine singular

עַל־‘al-overH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

Preposition ʻal, over: kingship is stated as position, not as possession.

יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לyiś·rā·’êlIsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

כִּֽי־kî-andH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

לְמַ֙עְלָה֙lə·ma‘·lāhhad highlyH4605

√ maʻal — properly, the upper part, used only adverbially with prefix upward, above, overhead, from the top, etcPreposition-lAdverbthird person feminine singular

maʻal: upward, above, overhead, from the top Preposition plus adverb. K&D: used here, as frequently in the Chronicles, to intensify the expression. Reading it as the Chronicler's idiom rather than as a unique claim keeps the verse from being made to say more than it says.

נִשֵּׂ֤אתniś·śêṯexaltedH5375

√ nâsâʼ — to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, absolute and relativeVerbNifalParticiplefeminine singular

nâsâʼ: to lift, in a great variety of applications Nifal participle, feminine singular, agreeing with the feminine malkûth. This is the crux of the verse. Pulpit sets out the options: an irregular Niphal third person feminine, a Niphal infinitive absolute as at 2 Samuel 19:43, or even an irregular Piel needing a supplied subject. K&D favours the Niphal perfect by contraction. Either way the Chronicler has replaced Samuel's active He lifted up with a form in which the kingdom is lifted, and the lifter is left to v. 2's opening clause to name.

מַלְכוּת֔וֹmal·ḵū·ṯōwhis kingdomH4438

√ malkûwth — a ruleNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

malkûwth: a rule Feminine singular construct with suffix. Ellicott notes the term is more modern than Samuel's mamlãkhăh, which is one of the small marks of the Chronicler's later Hebrew. The abstract noun matters theologically: what is raised is the rule, not the ruler.

בַּעֲב֖וּרba·‘ă·ḇūrfor the sakeH5668

√ ʻâbûwr — properly, crossed, iPreposition-bNounmasculine singular

ʻâbûwr: properly, crossed The preposition that turns the verse outward. Geneva ties it to the covenant rather than to David: because of God's promise made to the people of Israel.

עַמּ֥וֹ‘am·mōwof His peopleH5971

√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)Nounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

ʻam: a people (as a congregated unit) Construct with third masculine singular suffix: His people. The suffix is God's, not David's. JFB presses exactly this point into a rule of office.

יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃פyiś·rā·’êlIsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-knew David that had-established-him YHWH as-king over Israel, that was-lifted-up upward his-kingdom, for-the-sake-of His-people Israel.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיֵּדַע BSB's realized is psychological; וַיֵּדַע (yâdaʻ, H3045) is, by Strong's own definition, to know, properly, to ascertain by seeing. David does not have an inward feeling, he reads a visible fact: cedar on the quay and Tyrian workmen in Jerusalem. Ellicott: the willing alliance of the powerful sovereign of Phoenician Tyre was so understood by David.
נִשֵּׂאת English had highly exalted his kingdom supplies an active subject the Hebrew withholds. נִשֵּׂאת is parsed here as a Nifal participle, feminine singular, of nâsâʼ (H5375), and the form is genuinely hard. Pulpit calls it obscure and lists three possibilities; K&D reconstructs a contraction and cross-references Ewald. Samuel has the Piel with Jehovah as subject; the Chronicler's form lets the kingdom be the thing lifted, agent unnamed.
לְמַעְלָה לְמַעְלָה (maʻal, H4605) is not the adverb highly but a direction word: the upper part, used only adverbially, upward, above, overhead, from the top. Ellicott calls it a favourite intensive expression with the chronicler; K&D lists the parallels at 1 Chronicles 22:5, 23:17, 29:3, 29:25 and 2 Chronicles 1:1, 17:12. It is a house style, not a comment on David.
בַּעֲבוּר For the sake of renders בַּעֲבוּר (ʻâbûwr, H5668), whose root sense Strong's gives as properly, crossed. The English preposition sounds like a favour done; the Hebrew is a preposition of passage, the benefit crossing over from the king to the nation. Ellicott hears David's own humility in it: the ground of his exaltation is not personal, but national.

And David took more wives in Jerusalem and became the father of more sons and daughters.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

dā·wîḏ way·yiq·qaḥ ‘ō·wḏ nā·šîm bî·rū·šā·lim dā·wîḏ way·yō·w·leḏ ‘ō·wḏ bā·nîm ū·ḇā·nō·wṯ

Word by word10 · parsed

דָּוִ֥ידdā·wîḏAnd DavidH1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular

וַיִּקַּ֨חway·yiq·qaḥtookH3947

√ lâqach — to take (in the widest variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

lâqach: to take (in the widest variety of applications) Qal consecutive imperfect. The verb is the same neutral verb used for taking spoil, taking a wife, or taking a stone. Placed immediately after v. 2's statement that the kingdom was lifted up, the sequence is uncomfortable, and the Chronicler does not smooth it.

ע֛וֹד‘ō·wḏmoreH5750

√ ʻôwd — properly, iteration or continuanceAdverb

ʻôwd: properly, iteration or continuance The adverb of repetition, used twice. Whatever the reader concludes about the practice, the text's own emphasis is on continuance.

נָשִׁ֖יםnā·šîmwivesH802

√ ʼishshâh — a womanNounfeminine plural

ʼishshâh: a woman Feminine plural. Cambridge records the Chronicler's editorial habit here rather than the ethics: in 2 Samuel 5:13 the reading is more concubines and wives. Ellicott resists reading the omission as embarrassment, since 1 Chronicles 3:9 names the concubines anyway.

בִּירוּשָׁלִָ֑םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389

√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular

Yᵉrûwshâlaim: the capital city Repeated in v. 4. The location is the point: these are the Jerusalem children, distinguished from the Hebron children of 1 Chronicles 3:1 to 4.

דָּוִ֛ידdā·wîḏ[and]H1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular

וַיּ֧וֹלֶדway·yō·w·leḏbecame the fatherH3205

√ yâlad — to bear youngConjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

yâlad: to bear young (Hifil) The causative of the birth verb. Its root also stands behind הַיְלוּדִים in the next verse, so that vv. 3 and 4 are bound by one root in two stems: the father who causes and the children who are caused.

ע֖וֹד‘ō·wḏof moreH5750

√ ʻôwd — properly, iteration or continuanceAdverb

בָּנִ֥יםbā·nîmsonsH1121

√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural

bên: a son (as a builder of the family name) Strong's derivation ties bên to bânâh, the verb of v. 1. The house of cedar and the house of sons are built by the same root, and the Chronicler has placed them in consecutive paragraphs.

וּבָנֽוֹת׃ū·ḇā·nō·wṯand daughtersH1323

√ bath — a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms of relationship, literally and figuratively)Conjunctive wawNounfeminine plural

bath: a daughter (used in the same wide sense) The daughters are counted in the summary but never named in vv. 4 to 7, which list sons only. The gap is in the text, not in the translation.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-took David more wives in-Jerusalem, and-begat David more sons and-daughters.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּקַּח וַיִּקַּח (lâqach, H3947) is to take, in the widest variety of applications. BSB's took more wives is accurate but colourless; the Hebrew verb carries no marriage vocabulary at all, and the narrative offers no word of approval or censure. Pulpit says plainly that we do not look in this connection for any remark condemnatory of David's enlargement of the harem.
עוֹד The adverb עוֹד (ʻôwd, H5750) is glossed by Strong's as properly, iteration or continuance, and it occurs twice in this short verse, once for the wives and once for the children. English more reads as a quantity; the Hebrew reads as a repetition that does not stop.
וַיּוֹלֶד וַיּוֹלֶד is a Hifil of yâlad (H3205), to bear young, in the causative: strictly caused to be born, the older versions' begat. BSB's became the father of is idiomatic English for a stem that is grammatically making something happen. In v. 4 the same root returns as a Qal passive participle for the children themselves.
נָשִׁים The Chronicler's list is shorter than his source. Ellicott: the verse is considerably abbreviated compared with Samuel, which reads concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron. נָשִׁים (ʼishshâh, H802) is simply a woman; the concubines are dropped here but, as both Ellicott and JFB note, kept at 1 Chronicles 3:9.

These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·’êl·leh šə·mō·wṯ hay·lū·ḏîm ’ă·šer hā·yū- lōw bî·rū·šā·lim šam·mū·a‘ wə·šō·w·ḇāḇ nā·ṯān ū·šə·lō·mōh

Word by word11 · parsed

וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙wə·’êl·lehTheseH428

√ ʼêl-leh — these or thoseConjunctive wawPronouncommon plural

ʼêl-leh: these or those A common plural pronoun with conjunctive waw, opening the standard Hebrew list formula.

שְׁמ֣וֹתšə·mō·wṯare the namesH8034

√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityNounmasculine plural construct

shêm: an appellation, as a mark or memorial of individuality Masculine plural construct. The lexicon's phrase is the reason the list exists. Chronicles is a book of names kept against forgetting, and this run of thirteen is placed here, Ellicott suggests, because it stood at this point in the document the historian was copying, and perhaps also as an instance of the prosperity that is the section's topic.

הַיְלוּדִ֔יםhay·lū·ḏîmof the children bornH3205

√ yâlad — to bear youngArticleVerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural

yâlad: to bear young (Qal passive participle) Articled and plural: the born ones. The passive participle answers the Hifil begat of v. 3, and it is the only word in the verse that says anything about how these thirteen came to exist. Cambridge judges the list here better preserved than either parallel.

אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

הָיוּ־hā·yū-H1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iVerbQalPerfectthird person common plural

hâyâh: to exist Qal perfect, third common plural, inside the relative clause. Samuel omits it; the Chronicler keeps it.

ל֖וֹlōwto him

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

בִּירוּשָׁלִָ֑םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389

√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular

Yᵉrûwshâlaim: the capital city of Palestine The second occurrence in two verses, and the organising fact of the list. Pulpit points to 1 Chronicles 3:1 to 4 for the children born at Hebron, and observes that this list agrees with Samuel in eleven names and with 1 Chronicles 3:5 to 8 in the full count of thirteen.

שַׁמּ֣וּעַšam·mū·a‘ShammuaH8051

√ Shammûwaʻ — Shammua, the name of four IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Shammûwaʻ: the name of four Israelites A rare lexeme, standing in only five verses of the canon, which is why the Verifier is able to tie this list to 2 Samuel 5:14 on verbal grounds.

וְשׁוֹבָ֔בwə·šō·w·ḇāḇShobabH7727

√ Shôwbâb — Shobab, the name of two IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

נָתָ֖ןnā·ṯānNathanH5416

√ Nâthân — Nathan, the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Nâthân: the name of five Israelites Not the prophet of 2 Samuel 7, but David's son. Ellicott records the claim that Joseph, the husband of Mary, traced his descent from this son of David, citing Luke 3:23 to 31. The obscurest of the four names carries the genealogy in Luke, while the most famous carries it in Matthew.

וּשְׁלֹמֹֽה׃ū·šə·lō·mōhSolomonH8010

√ Shᵉlômôh — Shelomah, David's successorConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

Shᵉlômôh: David's successor The name stands in 263 verses, the most common lexeme in the list by a wide margin. Cambridge notes that all four of these first names are attributed to Bathshua, that is Bath-sheba, at 1 Chronicles 3:5. The Chronicler names the mother nowhere here; the reader who knows 2 Samuel 11 supplies what this text will not say.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-these are-the-names of-the-ones-born who were to-him in-Jerusalem: Shammua and-Shobab, Nathan and-Solomon,

Where the English smooths the original

הַיְלוּדִים BSB's the children born supplies the noun children. Ellicott is exact: literally, the born. הַיְלוּדִים is an articled Qal passive participle of yâlad (H3205), masculine plural, a substantive made out of a verb. He adds that Samuel has a different word from the same root and drops the relative pronoun and its verb.
שְׁמוֹת שְׁמוֹת (shêm, H8034) is not a neutral label. Strong's gives an appellation, as a mark or memorial of individuality. The formula these are the names announces a memorial list, not a census, which is why the Chronicler keeps it even though he has already given it at 1 Chronicles 3:5 to 8.
אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ־לוֹ English born to him compresses a full relative clause: אֲשֶׁר (ʼăsher, H834) plus הָיוּ (hâyâh, H1961, Qal perfect, third common plural) plus the preposition with suffix, that is, who were to him. Hebrew states existence and belonging, not the act of birth; the birth word is the participle two words earlier.
וּשְׁלֹמֹה Every name in this list carries a conjunctive waw except Nathan in the Chronicler's text. Ellicott judges that Samuel's and Nathan must be right, since the conjunction occurs throughout the list. BSB's commas hide a small textual question.

Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·yiḇ·ḥār we·’ĕ·lî·šū·a‘ wə·’el·pā·leṭ

Word by word3 · parsed

וְיִבְחָ֥רwə·yiḇ·ḥārIbharH2984

√ Yibchar — Jibchar, an IsraeliteConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

Yibchar: Jibchar, an Israelite A rare lexeme, in three verses only, all of them this list or its parallels at 2 Samuel 5:15 and 1 Chronicles 3:6. The name exists in Scripture solely as a son of David.

וֶאֱלִישׁ֖וּעַwe·’ĕ·lî·šū·a‘ElishuaH474

√ ʼĔlîyshûwaʻ — Elishua, the son of King DavidConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

ʼĔlîyshûwaʻ: Elishua, the son of King David Strong's definition is itself a piece of canonical data: the lexicon can define the name only by this man, because it occurs nowhere else. Two verses in the whole canon carry it.

וְאֶלְפָּֽלֶט׃wə·’el·pā·leṭElpeletH467

√ ʼĔlîypheleṭ — Eliphelet or Elpelet, the name of six IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

ʼĔlîypheleṭ: Eliphelet or Elpelet, the name of six Israelites The opposite case to Elishua. One lexeme, nine verses, six different men, and two of them in this one list (here and v. 7). Geneva's marginal note works the arithmetic from the other end: Elpalet and Nogah are absent from 2 Samuel 5:14, so eleven there against thirteen here.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

and-Ibhar and-Elishua and-Elpelet,

Where the English smooths the original

וְאֶלְפָּלֶט BSB prints Elpelet here and Eliphelet at v. 7, but both stand under one lexeme, אֱלִיפֶלֶט (ʼĔlîypheleṭ, H467), which Strong's says is the name of six Israelites. The English spellings mark a real difference in the consonants while hiding that the lexicon treats them as one name; Geneva, counting heads, notices only that Elpalet and Nogah are missing from 2 Samuel 5:14.
וֶאֱלִישׁוּעַ אֱלִישׁוּעַ (ʼĔlîyshûwaʻ, H474) is among the rarest proper nouns in the Hebrew Bible, standing in two verses only. English Elishua gives no sign of this; the Verifier does, and it is this lexeme more than any other that ties the unit verbally to 2 Samuel 5:15.
וְיִבְחָר Each of the three names in the verse opens with a conjunctive waw, which BSB renders as commas and one and. וְיִבְחָר (Yibchar, H2984) is the first; Hebrew chains the list, English punctuates it.

Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·nō·ḡah wə·ne·p̄eḡ wə·yā·p̄î·a‘

Word by word3 · parsed

וְנֹ֥גַהּwə·nō·ḡahNogahH5052

√ Nôgahh — Nogah, a son of DavidConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

Nôgahh: Nogah, a son of David Two verses in the whole canon. Together with H5298 and H3309 it is what allows the Verifier to bind this verse to 1 Chronicles 3:7 on shared-lexeme grounds.

וְנֶ֖פֶגwə·ne·p̄eḡNephegH5298

√ Nepheg — Nepheg, the name of two IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

Nepheg: the name of two Israelites The lexicon's two Israelites is the guard rail. The lexeme reappears at Exodus 6:21 in a Levite genealogy; the overlap is onomastic and nothing more.

וְיָפִֽיעַ׃wə·yā·p̄î·a‘JaphiaH3309

√ Yâphîyaʻ — Japhia, the name of a Canaanite, an Israelite, and a place in PalestineConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

Yâphîyaʻ: the name of a Canaanite, an Israelite, and a place The most semantically crowded name in the unit. K&D, rather than expounding these names, simply sends the reader to his own notes on 1 Chronicles 3:5 to 8, which is an honest admission that the list yields little on its own.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

and-Nogah and-Nepheg and-Japhia,

Where the English smooths the original

וְנֹגַהּ נֹגַהּ (Nôgahh, H5052) is one of the two rarest lexemes in the unit, standing in two verses of the canon. Strong's defines it only as Nogah, a son of David. English transliteration cannot show that this name is, in the Hebrew Bible, unique to him and to the parallel list at 1 Chronicles 3:7, and that JFB and Geneva both note its absence from 2 Samuel 5.
וְנֶפֶג נֶפֶג (Nepheg, H5298) is, by Strong's, the name of two Israelites, and the same lexeme stands at Exodus 6:21 for a son of Izhar the Levite. The English reader sees an identical word; the Hebrew carries no claim that the two men are related, and none should be made.
וְיָפִיעַ יָפִיעַ (Yâphîyaʻ, H3309) is glossed by Strong's as the name of a Canaanite, an Israelite, and a place in Palestine. One string of consonants, three quite different referents, and the English list gives no hint of the range.

Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphelet.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

we·’ĕ·lî·šā·mā‘ ū·ḇə·‘el·yā·ḏā‘ we·’ĕ·lî·p̄ā·leṭ

Word by word3 · parsed

וֶאֱלִישָׁמָ֥עwe·’ĕ·lî·šā·mā‘ElishamaH476

√ ʼĔlîyshâmâʻ — Elishama, the name of seven IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

ʼĔlîyshâmâʻ: the name of seven Israelites The most widely shared name in the list after Solomon and Nathan, in seventeen verses.

וּבְעֶלְיָדָ֖עū·ḇə·‘el·yā·ḏā‘BeeliadaH1182

√ Bᵉʻelyâdâʻ — Beeljada, an IsraeliteConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

Bᵉʻelyâdâʻ: Beeljada, an Israelite The only lexeme in vv. 4 to 7 with no Verifier candidate at all, because it occurs nowhere else under this Strong's number. JFB judges it the same man as Eliada of 2 Samuel 5:16; that judgement rests on position in the list, not on the lexeme, and we record it as his and not as the text's.

וֶאֱלִיפָֽלֶט׃we·’ĕ·lî·p̄ā·leṭand ElipheletH467

√ ʼĔlîypheleṭ — Eliphelet or Elpelet, the name of six IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

ʼĔlîypheleṭ: Eliphelet or Elpelet, the name of six Israelites The list ends where it doubled back: two sons under one lexeme, the second and thirteenth of the Jerusalem sons. Henry, who declines to comment on any name here, reads the whole chapter instead as a figure, and that reading is the only use to which the older commentary puts this verse.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

and-Elishama and-Beeliada and-Eliphelet.

Where the English smooths the original

וּבְעֶלְיָדָע בְּעֶלְיָדָע (Bᵉʻelyâdâʻ, H1182) is the one name in the list the parallels do not carry. JFB records the equation: in 2 Samuel 5:14 to 16 the names of Eliphalet and Nogah do not occur, and Beeliada appears to be the same as Eliada. The English spelling hides that the two forms differ in their opening element, which is why the equation is a judgement and not a reading.
וֶאֱלִיפָלֶט The same lexeme H467 that stood at v. 5 as Elpelet closes the list as Eliphelet. BSB's two spellings are faithful to the two Hebrew forms, but a reader following the English alone will not see that Strong's files them together as one name borne by six different Israelites, nor that this doubling is part of why the count reaches thirteen.
וֶאֱלִישָׁמָע אֱלִישָׁמָע (ʼĔlîyshâmâʻ, H476) stands in seventeen verses and, by Strong's, belongs to seven Israelites. English Elishama reads as a single person; the lexicon reads it as a common name, which is a caution against reading these verses as a catalogue of unique individuals.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. A Gentile king builds the house — 14:1

The unit opens with a verb whose subject is not Israelite. וַיִּשְׁלַח (shâlach, H7971) has Hiram of Tyre as its agent, and what he sends is material and skill: אֲרָזִים (ʼerez, H730), cedar named by Strong's from the tenacity of its roots, and two crews of חָרָשֵׁי (chârâsh, H2796), fabricators of any material. Ellicott insists on the literal rendering, craftsmen of walls and craftsmen of timber, and notes that 2 Samuel 5:11 orders the pair the other way. He also sets the scene in its imperial context: the cedar felled on Lebanon and sea-borne to Joppa, the Assyrian and Babylonian kings leaving numerous records of palace building in which Lebanese cedar was the favoured material. Cambridge supplies the occasion, reconstructing from 2 Samuel 5:9 to 11 that Hiram heard of the building works and sent unasked, and that David accepted the welcome offer as a sign of Divine favour. Pulpit adds the textual wrinkle that opens the verse: the Kethiv abandons here the invariable analogy of Chronicles and reads Hiram, while the Keri restores Huram, and Ellicott notes that the LXX and all the ancient versions of both books stand with Hiram. ⚙ What the Hebrew leaves standing at the end of the verse is one word, בָּיִת (bayith, H1004), which Ellicott reminds us covers palace and Temple alike, and which the infinitive לִבְנוֹת (bânâh, H1129) has been building toward since the middle of the line.

ii. What David saw, and what was lifted — 14:2

Verse 2 is a verse of perception, and the Hebrew verb is not introspective: וַיֵּדַע (yâdaʻ, H3045), which Strong's defines as to know, properly, to ascertain by seeing. Ellicott states what was seen: the willing alliance of the powerful sovereign of Phoenician Tyre was so understood by David, and he generalises with care, that the favour of man is sometimes a sign of the approval of God, always when it results from well-doing, citing Genesis 39:21 and Luke 2:52. Poole and Benson gloss it identically, as God's promise remembered with providence seen to agree; the near-identity of their wording is one reason to count them as a single line of tradition. The grammar then turns hard. נִשֵּׂאת is parsed here as a Nifal participle of nâsâʼ (H5375); Pulpit calls the present form obscure and lays out three readings, an irregular Niphal third person feminine, a Niphal infinitive absolute as at 2 Samuel 19:43, or an irregular Piel needing a supplied subject. K&D reaches the Niphal by contraction and sends the reader to Ewald, and adds that לְמַעְלָה (maʻal, H4605) is used here, as frequently in the Chronicles, to intensify the expression, listing 1 Chronicles 22:5, 23:17, 29:3, 29:25 and 2 Chronicles 1:1, 17:12. Pulpit draws the two verses together concretely: it was a partial indication of the lifted-up kingdom that the king should have a palace of unwonted magnificence. JFB will not let the honour rest on the man, making it a rule of office that sovereigns are invested with royal honour and authority not for their own sakes so much as for that of their people, and Geneva ties the closing preposition to the covenant, because of God's promise made to the people of Israel. ⚙ Ellicott's reading of David's humility, that he recognises the ground of his own exaltation as not personal but national, is the sense the Hebrew syntax itself supports, since the one thing the verse says was lifted is מַלְכוּתוֹ (malkûth, H4438), the rule, and not the king.

iii. The other house, and the names in it — 14:3-14:7

Then, without transition, the wives and the thirteen sons. The Chronicler's verb for David is neutral, וַיִּקַּח (lâqach, H3947), and his adverb is עוֹד (ʻôwd, H5750), which Strong's calls iteration or continuance, used twice. The commentators divide sharply over the silence. Cambridge reads editorial policy, that the Chronicler is inclined to omit or modify statements which tend to David's discredit, noting that 2 Samuel 5:13 has concubines as well as wives. Ellicott rejects the motive: the concubines are not omitted because of offence, for they are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3:9. Pulpit refuses to moralise about the age and then delivers the hardest sentence in the unit anyway, that the less necessitated we are to regard David's polygamy in the light of individual sin, the more emphatic in the light of history does the tendency of the practice proclaim itself as thoroughly and irredeemably bad. The list that follows is a memorial: שְׁמוֹת (shêm, H8034), a mark or memorial of individuality, over הַיְלוּדִים, which Ellicott renders literally as the born. Barnes calls the son-list one of the only important variations from 2 Samuel 5:11 to 25; Cambridge judges the names better preserved here than in either parallel; Pulpit counts the agreement, eleven names with Samuel and the full thirteen with 1 Chronicles 3:5 to 8; Geneva does the same sum from the margin, Elpalet and Nogah absent from 2 Samuel 5:14, so eleven there and thirteen here; JFB adds that Beeliada appears to be the same as Eliada. K&D, characteristically, declines the whole list and refers the reader to his notes on 1 Chronicles 3:5 to 8. ⚙ Set against v. 1, the arrangement is deliberate: one paragraph builds a bayith of cedar, the next builds a bayith of sons, and Strong's ties the two together at the root, since בֵּן (bên, H1121) is the son as a builder of the family name, from the same bânâh that raised the palace. Ellicott alone follows one of these names out of the chapter, recording that Joseph, the husband of Mary, traced his descent from Nathan, citing Luke 3:23 to 31.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Seven verses give us two houses and one verb of sight. Hiram sends cedar and craftsmen and David builds a house; David takes wives and begets sons and a second house rises. Between them stands v. 2, where David sees and therefore knows: not a revelation, not a prophet, simply cedar on the quay and Tyrian masons at work, read rightly. And what he reads out of it is not that he is great. The Hebrew will not let him say that. The thing lifted up is מַלְכוּתוֹ, the rule, in a form so passive that Pulpit and K&D cannot agree on its parsing, and the reason given is בַּעֲב֖וּר עַמּוֹ, for the sake of His people, the possessive pronoun belonging to God. JFB is right that this is a rule of office rather than a compliment. But the Chronicler then does something more uncomfortable than any commentator here quite says. Having established that the kingdom is lifted for the people's sake, he shows us the king spending that height on himself: more wives, more sons, in the same city, in the next breath. Pulpit alone faces it, and only by looking forward to the ruin these marriages brought on David's old age and on Solomon's house. ⚙ Our reading is that the juxtaposition is the argument. A house built by Gentile hands and a house built by David's own appetite are set side by side, and only one of them is said to have been established by the LORD. The verb of v. 2, הֱכִינוֹ (kûwn, H3559), whose root sense Strong's gives as to be erect, is used of God and of no one else in this unit. David can take; he cannot establish. Thirteen names follow, and the text does not tell us which of them matter; two of them, Nathan and Solomon, turn out to carry the whole later story, and the Chronicler could not have known from this list which two those would be. That is the ordinary shape of providence here: the material comes from outside, the establishing is God's, the names are kept because names are kept, and the meaning arrives later. We may be wrong about the force of the juxtaposition; the Chronicler makes no explicit comment, and Ellicott would say we are importing a judgement he declined to make.

Not a verse, a fallible reading: David can take a house; only the LORD can establish one.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same thirteen names in another writer's hand verbal / quotation: confirmed

This list and 2 Samuel 5:14 to 16 are two copies of one document. The Verifier finds the overlap at exactly the points where the names are rarest: אֱלִישׁוּעַ (ʼĔlîyshûwaʻ, H474) stands in two verses of the entire Hebrew Bible, יִבְחָר (Yibchar, H2984) in three, שַׁמּוּעַ (Shammûwaʻ, H8051) in five. Barnes treats the whole chapter as a copy of 2 Samuel 5:11 to 25 and names this son-list as one of the few real variations. Cambridge judges the names better preserved here than in either parallel passage. Geneva and JFB both note what is missing on the other side: Elpalet and Nogah do not appear in 2 Samuel 5:14, so eleven names there against thirteen here, and Beeliada there appears as Eliada. ⚙ The verbal link is secure; what it establishes is a shared source, not a quotation of one text by another.

2 Samuel 5:14 · 2 Samuel 5:15 · 2 Samuel 5:16

basis: Verifier: 2 Samuel 5:15 shares H474 ʼĔlîyshûwaʻ (in 2 vv), H2984 Yibchar (in 3 vv), H3309 Yâphîyaʻ (in 5 vv); 2 Samuel 5:14 shares H8051 Shammûwaʻ (in 5 vv), H5416 Nâthân (in 39 vv), H8010 Shᵉlômôh (in 263 vv); 2 Samuel 5:16 shares H467 ʼĔlîypheleṭ (in 9 vv), H476 ʼĔlîyshâmâʻ (in 17 vv). Multiple rare shared lexemes in the same sequence; the tier records verbal identity of a copied list, not a citation formula.

The Chronicler quoting himself: 1 Chronicles 3:5-8 verbal / quotation: confirmed

The Chronicler has already printed this list eleven chapters earlier, and the Verifier ties the two passages by the scarcest lexemes in both: נֹגַהּ (Nôgahh, H5052) in two verses, נֶפֶג (Nepheg, H5298) and שׁוֹבָב (Shôwbâb, H7727) in four apiece. A direct pair check on 1 Chronicles 14:4 against 1 Chronicles 3:5 returns a verbal confirmation on H7727. Cambridge sends the reader to 1 Chronicles 3:5 to 8 for the notes and records that the first four names are all attributed there to Bathshua, that is Bath-sheba. Pulpit counts the agreement: with 1 Chronicles 3:5 to 8, so far as number goes, all thirteen. K&D, asked about the sons of David, answers only see on 1 Chronicles 3:5-8. ⚙ Ellicott's explanation for the repetition is worth holding: the list is here because it stood at this point in the document the historian was copying, and perhaps also as an instance of the prosperity that is the section's topic.

1 Chronicles 3:5 · 1 Chronicles 3:6 · 1 Chronicles 3:7 · 1 Chronicles 3:8

basis: Verifier: 1 Chronicles 3:7 shares H3309 Yâphîyaʻ (in 5 vv), H5298 Nepheg (in 4 vv), H5052 Nôgahh (in 2 vv); 1 Chronicles 3:6 shares H2984 Yibchar (in 3 vv), H467 ʼĔlîypheleṭ (in 9 vv), H476 ʼĔlîyshâmâʻ (in 17 vv); 1 Chronicles 3:5 shares H7727 Shôwbâb (in 4 vv). Verifier pair check on 1 Chronicles 14:4 / 1 Chronicles 3:5 returns verbal confirmation on H7727 Shôwbâb (in 4 vv).

Who builds whose house: 2 Samuel 7 structural / thematic: confirmed

Verse 1 ends with לִבְנוֹת לוֹ בָּיִת, to build him a house, and v. 2 says that the LORD הֱכִינוֹ, had established him. Both lexemes reappear in the dynastic oracle: a Verifier pair check on 1 Chronicles 14:1 against 2 Samuel 7:11 returns the shared bayith (H1004), and on 1 Chronicles 14:2 against 2 Samuel 7:13 the shared kûwn (H3559), the verb of establishing a throne. Ellicott has already observed that bayith covers palace and Temple alike; Strong's derives בֵּן (H1121), son, from bânâh, to build. ⚙ So the chapter's two paragraphs, cedar house and house of sons, sit inside a vocabulary that 2 Samuel 7 turns on its head, where the king who wants to build a house is told that a house will be built for him. Both shared lexemes are extremely common, H1004 in 1709 verses and H3559 in 211, so this is a pattern and not a citation.

2 Samuel 7:11 · 2 Samuel 7:13

basis: Verifier pair check: 1 Chronicles 14:1 / 2 Samuel 7:11 share H1004 bayith (in 1709 vv); 1 Chronicles 14:2 / 2 Samuel 7:13 share H3559 kûwn (in 211 vv). Both lexemes are far too common to carry a verbal tier, so the link is recorded as shared motif and shared vocabulary only.

Names that belong to other men flagged: verify source

Three of these names run elsewhere in the canon attached to people who have nothing to do with David. נֶפֶג (Nepheg, H5298) stands at Exodus 6:21 for a son of Izhar in the Levite genealogy; Strong's flatly calls it the name of two Israelites. שׁוֹבָב (Shôwbâb, H7727) stands at 1 Chronicles 2:18 in Caleb's line, and Strong's again says two Israelites. אֱלִיפֶלֶט (ʼĔlîypheleṭ, H467) is the extreme case: nine verses, six different Israelites by the lexicon's own count, two of them inside this single list at vv. 5 and 7, others at 2 Samuel 23:34, 1 Chronicles 8:39, Ezra 8:13 and Ezra 10:33. ⚙ We flag this cluster rather than build on it. The lexeme overlap the Verifier reports is real and the lexemes are rare, which is exactly what makes the cluster dangerous: a rare shared name invites an identification the text never makes, and Strong's own glosses rule those identifications out.

Exodus 6:21 · 1 Chronicles 2:18 · 2 Samuel 23:34 · Ezra 8:13

basis: Verifier: Exodus 6:21 shares H5298 Nepheg (in 4 vv); 1 Chronicles 2:18 shares H7727 Shôwbâb (in 4 vv); 2 Samuel 23:34, 1 Chronicles 8:39, Ezra 8:13 and Ezra 10:33 each share H467 ʼĔlîypheleṭ (in 9 vv). The lexeme identity is confirmed, but Strong's records H467 as the name of six Israelites and H5298 as the name of two, so the link is onomastic only and any identification of persons is unsupported by both text and commentary.

Nathan, the name the New Testament follows structural / thematic: confirmed

The fourth name of v. 4 is נָתָן (Nâthân, H5416), and it is the one name here that a Gospel genealogy takes up. Ellicott, commenting on this verse, records that Joseph, the husband of Mary, traced his descent from this son of David, citing Luke 3:23 to 31. Matthew's line runs instead through Solomon, who is named in the same clause of the same verse. ⚙ The link cannot be tiered verbal: Luke is Greek and this list is Hebrew, so no shared Strong's number is possible and no lexeme test can be run. What can be recorded is that the identification is a commentator's, that it rests on the Greek genealogy's own wording rather than on anything in Chronicles, and that it is old and widely held rather than novel.

Luke 3:31 · Matthew 1:6

basis: Cross-Testament Greek to Hebrew link, so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier may be used. The recorded basis is Ellicott's note on 1 Chronicles 14:4, which cites Luke 3:23-31 for Joseph's descent from this Nathan, plus the presence of Solomon in Matthew's line at Matthew 1:6.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The fame of David as a figure ancient/widely-held

Matthew Henry, whose single note covers the whole chapter, states the christological reading in one sentence and adds nothing to it: Let the fame of David be looked upon as a type and figure of the exalted honour of the Son of David. ⚙ The grammar of v. 2 supports him more precisely than he claims. What is said to be lifted is מַלְכוּתוֹ (malkûth, H4438), the rule, not the ruler; what God does is הֱכִינוֹ (kûwn, H3559), cause to stand upright; and the reason given is בַּעֲבוּר עַמּוֹ, for the sake of His people. JFB presses the same three facts into a principle of office, that royal honour and authority are given not for the sovereign's own sake so much as for his people's, and says that even David was made to know that all his glory and greatness were given only to fit him, as the minister of God, to execute the divine purposes towards the chosen people. That is the shape the New Testament gives to the throne promised at 2 Samuel 7:12 and announced at Luke 1:32: a kingdom established by God, held for a people, and not for the holder. The reading is the ordinary one of the older commentary, not our invention.

2 Samuel 7:12 · Luke 1:32

Two names in one verse, two genealogies ancient/widely-held

Verse 4 ends with four names, and the last two are Nathan and Solomon. Ellicott, reading this list, follows one of them out of the Old Testament entirely: Joseph, the husband of Mary, traced his descent from this son of David, citing Luke 3:23 to 31. Matthew's genealogy instead runs through Solomon at Matthew 1:6. ⚙ Chronicles gives no hint that either name outranks the other; they are the third and fourth items in a list of thirteen, and Cambridge notes that both are attributed to Bath-sheba at 1 Chronicles 3:5. That is the point worth holding. The Chronicler is keeping שְׁמוֹת (shêm, H8034), appellations as a mark or memorial of individuality, without knowing which of them the later canon will need. Neither evangelist is quoting this verse, and the link across the Testaments is genealogical and structural, never verbal. The identification of the Lukan Nathan with David's son is long-standing and shared across the commentary tradition.

Luke 3:31 · Matthew 1:6 · 1 Chronicles 3:5

Cedar out of Tyre for the house of David novel

⚙ This reading is ours and is offered as novel, not as the tradition's. The first material fact of the unit is that the house of David's king goes up out of foreign timber, cut by foreign hands, sent unasked by a Gentile sovereign: אֲרָזִים (ʼerez, H730) and two crews of חָרָשֵׁי (chârâsh, H2796), fabricators of wall and of timber. Cambridge says David accepted the welcome offer as a sign of Divine favour; Ellicott places the felling on Lebanon and locates the whole scene in the ordinary practice of the ancient imperial courts. ⚙ We note only what the vocabulary allows: the word that closes the verse is בָּיִת (H1004), which Ellicott himself says was the name of the Temple as much as of the palace, and the timber for that later house would come from the same king of Tyre. The pattern of a dwelling for God raised partly by outsiders is one the New Testament takes up in its own language at Ephesians 2:19 to 22, where those who were strangers are built into the structure rather than merely supplying it. We are not claiming a verbal or a typological warrant here, and no commentator in this unit draws the line; it is a resonance we find in the shared noun and we mark it as our own.

Isaiah 60:10 · Ephesians 2:19

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. Verse 1 carries a Kethiv/Qere variant at the opening word. Pulpit: the Kethiv abandons here the invariable analogy of Chronicles and reads Hiram for Huram, which latter form is replaced in the Keri. Ellicott adds that the LXX and all the other ancient versions of both Samuel and Chronicles read Hiram. Our interlinear surface is חִירָם, the Kethiv form.

The crux of v. 2. נִשֵּׂאת is genuinely unsettled. The interlinear parses it Nifal participle feminine singular; Pulpit calls the form obscure and offers three alternatives, irregular Niphal third feminine, Niphal infinitive absolute as at 2 Samuel 19:43, or an irregular Piel requiring a supplied subject; K&D reconstructs it as a contracted Niphal perfect and refers to Ewald 194 b. 2 Samuel 5:12 has the Piel with Jehovah as subject. We have followed the interlinear parse and reported the disagreement rather than resolving it.

Gaps in the sources. Poole has no note on vv. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7; Henry prints one note covering 1 Chronicles 14:1 to 17 and it is reproduced at every verse; Barnes likewise writes for the chapter; K&D's entry is a single block repeated at each verse and refers most of the work to his notes on 2 Samuel 5 and 1 Chronicles 3:5 to 8. Two of our excerpts therefore look past the unit's own boundary to vv. 8 to 17, and the editorial notes on those voices say so. K&D's entry in the brief is capped, with 175 characters unread at the end; nothing we quote comes from near that cap. JFB's note at vv. 3 to 7 contains a printing slip, referring to 1Ch 14:5-8 where 1 Chronicles 3:5-8 is plainly meant; we reproduce it as printed and flag it rather than correcting it silently.

What is uncertain. No commentator in this unit comments on a single one of the thirteen names individually. Geneva's count and JFB's Beeliada/Eliada equation are the only name-level observations available, and the latter is a judgement from position in the list, not from the lexeme, which has no other occurrence. The word-level notes at vv. 5 to 7 are therefore built from Strong's glosses and the Verifier's frequency data alone, and they claim nothing beyond those two sources. Our third christ reading is marked novel because no voice here draws it; the first two are the tradition's, recorded by Henry, JFB and Ellicott respectively.

Divergence discipline. Where BSB reads stonemasons the Hebrew has craftsmen of wall, and where it reads palace the Hebrew has house; both are Ellicott's observations, not ours. The Chronicler's omission of the concubines at v. 3 is read two ways by our sources, as editorial tact by Cambridge and as nothing of the kind by Ellicott, and we have printed both without deciding.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)