1 Chronicles 29

1 And David the king says to all the assembly, “My son Solomon—the one on whom God has fixed—[is] young and tender, and the work [is] great, for the palace is not for man, but for YHWH God;

Then King David said to all the people who had gathered there, “My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen [to be the next king], is young and does not have much experience. This work [of building the temple] is great/important, because this glorious building will not be to [honor] people, but to honor Yahweh our God.

2 and with all my power I have prepared for the house of my God, the gold for [things of] gold, and the silver for [things of] silver, and the bronze for [things of] bronze, the iron for [things of] iron, and the wood for [things of] wood, shoham stones, and settings, and stones of painting and of diverse colors, and all [kinds of] precious stone, and stones of white marble, in abundance.

From all the things that I possess, I have provided [what will be needed] to [build] the temple of my God—the gold for the things to be made of gold, the silver for the things to be made of silver, bronze for the things to be made of bronze, iron for the things to be made of iron, wood for the things to be made of wood, and large amounts of onyx and turquoise and other valuable stones of various colors, and marble and all kinds of valuable stones.

3 And again, because of my delighting in the house of my God, the substance I have—a peculiar treasure of gold and silver—I have given for the house of my God, even over and above all I have prepared for the holy house:

In addition to all these things that I have given for the temple, I am giving treasures of gold and silver, because I very much desire that this holy temple for my God be built.

4 three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses,

I am giving 110 tons of gold from Ophir and 260 tons of refined silver to cover the walls of the buildings,

5 even gold for [things of] gold, and silver for [things of] silver, and for all the work by the hand of craftsmen; and who [is] he that is offering to willingly consecrate his hand to YHWH today?”

for making the other items of gold and silver, and for the other work to be done by the craftsmen. So now, [I ask you], are there others willing to show [by contributing other gifts for the building of the temple] [EUP] that they have dedicated themselves to Yahweh?”

6 And the heads of the fathers, and the heads of the tribes of Israel, and the heads of the thousands, and of the hundreds, and of the heads of the work of the king, offer willingly.

Then the leaders of the families/clans, the leaders of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of 1,000 soldiers and the commanders of 100 soldiers, and the officials who supervised the work that the king wanted done, gave gifts (willingly/because they wanted to give them).

7 And they give for the service of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand drams of gold, and ten thousand talents of silver, and eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron;

For the work at the temple they gave 190 tons and (185 pounds/84 kg.) of gold, 375 tons of silver, 675 tons of bronze, and 3,750 tons of iron.

8 and he with whom stones are found has given [them] to the treasury of the house of YHWH, by the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite.

And any people who owned valuable stones gave them to be put in the storeroom of the temple. Jehiel, a descendant of Gershon, was appointed to be in charge of them.

9 And the people rejoice because of their offering willingly, for with a perfect heart they have offered willingly to YHWH; and David the king has also rejoiced [with] great joy.

The people were happy to see that their leaders wanted to give those things, because [they knew that] their leaders were happy and enthusiastic to give those things to Yahweh. And King David also was very happy.

10 And David blesses YHWH before the eyes of all the assembly, and David says, “Blessed [are] You, YHWH, God of Israel, our Father, from age even to age.

Then, while all the people there were listening, David prayed, saying, “We praise you, Yahweh, the God whom our ancestor Jacob worshiped. We will praise you forever!

11 To You, O YHWH, [is] the greatness, and the might, and the beauty, and the victory, and the splendor, because of all in the heavens and in the earth; to You, O YHWH, [is] the kingdom, and He who is lifting up Himself over all for head;

You alone are great and powerful; only you are truly glorious and majestic and wonderful. [And that is true] because everything in heaven and on the earth is yours. You are the king of all the people in this world; you are the ruler of everything.

12 and the riches, and the honor [are] from before You, and You are ruling over all, and in Your hand [is] power and might, and [it is] in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all.

Because you are very powerful [DOU], you are able to cause anyone to be great and strong.

13 And now, our God, we are giving thanks to You, and giving praise to Your beautiful Name;

So now, our God, we thank you, and we praise you [MTY] for being very great.

14 indeed, because who [am] I, and who [are] my people, that we retain power to offer thus willingly? But the whole [is] from You, and we have given to You out of Your [own] hand;

But my people and I are not really able to give anything to you, because everything [that we have] comes from you, and what we have given to you are only the things that we have received from you [MTY].

15 for we [are] sojourners and settlers before You, like all our fathers; our days on the land [are] as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

[In this land] we are like [MET] foreigners and strangers, like our ancestors were. Our time here on this earth is like [SIM] a shadow [that disappears quickly]; [we know that there is] nothing [that] can enable us [to escape dying].

16 O our God YHWH, all this store [with] which we have prepared to build a house for You, for Your Holy Name, [is] out of Your [own] hand, and the whole [is] of You.

Yahweh our God, we have gathered all these things to use in building your [MTY] temple, but all of it really belongs to you, and you have given it to us [MTY].

17 And I have known, my God, that You are trying the heart, and desire uprightness; I, in the uprightness of my heart, have willingly offered all these; and now, I have seen Your people who are found here with joy to offer willingly to You.

My God, I know that you test us people, and you are pleased if you find out that we do what is right. All these things I have given to you because I wanted to. And now I have seen that your people have also joyfully and generously given things to you.

18 O YHWH, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this for all time for the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Your people, and prepare their heart for You;

Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob worshiped, I desire/hope that your people will continue to desire [to do things like this] forever, and that they will always be loyal to you.

19 and give a perfect heart to my son Solomon, to keep Your commands, Your testimonies, and Your statutes, and to do the whole, even to build the palace [for] which I have prepared.”

And now, please enable my son Solomon to faithfully and sincerely [DOU] obey your commands and laws and decrees [DOU] and to do everything that is needed to build this beautiful building for which I have provided [all these things].”

20 And David says to all the assembly, “Now bless your God YHWH”; and all the assembly blesses YHWH, God of their fathers, and bows and pays respect to YHWH and to the king.

Then David said to all the people who were gathered there, “Praise Yahweh our God!” So they all praised Yahweh the God whom their ancestors ([also worshiped/belonged to]). They prostrated themselves on the ground in front of Yahweh and in front of the king.

21 And they sacrifice sacrifices to YHWH, and cause burnt-offerings to ascend to YHWH on that next day: one thousand bullocks, one thousand rams, one thousand lambs, and their oblations, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel.

The next day the people offered sacrifices to Yahweh. They presented many animals to be completely burned [on the altar]: 1,000 bulls, 1,000 rams, 1,000 male sheep, plus offerings of wine, and many other sacrifices on behalf of all [the people of] Israel.

22 And they eat and drink before YHWH on that day with great joy, and cause Solomon son of David to reign a second time, and anoint [him] before YHWH for leader, and Zadok for priest.

On that day the people were joyful and ate and drank while Yahweh was watching. Then for the second time they declared that Solomon was now the king. While Yahweh was watching, they anointed him [with olive oil] to be the king, and they anointed Zadok to be the Supreme Priest.

23 And Solomon sits on the throne of YHWH for king instead of his father David, and prospers, and all of Israel listens to him,

So Solomon sat on the throne [because Yahweh wanted him to be] the king to succeed his father David. [During the following years] Solomon prospered, and all the Israeli people obeyed him.

24 and all the heads, and the mighty men, and also all the sons of King David have given a hand under Solomon the king;

King David’s other sons and all the officers and mighty warriors accepted Solomon as their king, and they solemnly promised to obey him.

25 and YHWH makes Solomon exceedingly great before the eyes of all Israel, and puts on him the splendor of the kingdom that has not been on any king over Israel before him.

Yahweh caused Solomon to be highly respected by all the Israeli people, and they honored him very much. No king of Israel was honored as much as Solomon was.

26 And David son of Jesse has reigned over all Israel,

Jesse’s son David was the king who ruled all of Israel.

27 and the days that he has reigned over Israel [are] forty years; he reigned in Hebron seven years, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-three;

He ruled for 40 years: Seven years in Hebron [city] and 33 years in Jerusalem.

28 and he dies in a good old age, satisfied with days, riches, and honor, and his son Solomon reigns in his stead.

He became an old man who was very rich and greatly honored by all the people. Then he died, and his son Solomon became the king [of Israel].

29 And the matters of David the king, the first and the last, behold, they are written beside the matters of Samuel the seer, and beside the matters of Nathan the prophet, and beside the matters of Gad the seer,

A record of all the things that King David did while he ruled, from the beginning to the end, was put on scrolls written by the prophets Samuel, Nathan, and Gad.

30 with all his reign, and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all kingdoms of the lands.

They told about his powerful rule [HEN], and all the things that happened to him and to the people of Israel and in the nearby kingdoms [while he was ruling Israel].