1 Chronicles 23:1

So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(1) So when David was old and full of days.—Literally, Now David had become old and satisfied with days. (See Genesis 35:29; Job 42:17; where both terms, which are verbs here, appear as adjectives.) Perhaps our pointing is wrong. The expression “satisfied with days” reminds us of Horace, who describes the philosopher as departing this life like a satisfied guest (ut conviva satur, etc.).

He made Solomon his son king.—Heb., and he made, &c. This short statement is all that the chronicler has chosen to repeat from 1 Kings 1, a narrative intimately connected with David’s family affairs, with which he is not concerned to deal. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 20, introductory remarks.)

Benson Commentary

1 Chronicles 23:1. He made Solomon king over Israel — Not that he resigned the kingdom to him, but only declared his mind concerning Solomon’s succeeding him in the throne after his death. Thus David himself is called king, 1 Samuel 16:1, because he was appointed and anointed to be king after Saul’s death, though till then he was only a subject.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:1-23 David, having given charge concerning the building of the temple, settles the method of the temple service, and orders the officers of it. When those of the same family were employed together, it would engage them to love and assist one another.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the marginal references and notes. 1 Chronicles 23:28-32 give the most complete account in Scripture of the nature of the Levitical office.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 23

1Ch 23:1. David Makes Solomon King.

1. when David was old … he made Solomon … king—This brief statement, which comprises the substance of 1Ki 1:32-48, is made here solely to introduce an account of the preparations carried on by David during the latter years of his life for providing a national place of worship.David maketh Solomon king, 1 Chronicles 23:1. The number and distribution of the Levites, according to their families, 1 Chronicles 23:2-23. Their office, 1 Chronicles 23:24-32.

Not that he did resign the kingdom to him, but that he declared his mind concerning his succession into the throne after his death. As David himself is called king, 1 Samuel 16:1, because he was appointed and anointed to be king after Saul’s death, though till then he was only a subject.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So when David was old and full of days,.... Perhaps was now in the last year of his age, about seventy years old, though before he was bedridden; see 1 Chronicles 28:2,

he made Solomon his son king over Israel; declared him to be his successor; this was before the affair of Adonijah, for then he ordered him to be anointed king, and placed on the throne; and this aggravated the rebellion of Adonijah, that it was against the declared and known will of his father.

Geneva Study Bible

So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - David... made Solomon his son king over Israel. These words give the key note of what remains in this book. David made his son king, as he himself acknowledges (1 Chronicles 28:5), under the superintending direction of God. The manner in which the formal event was precipitated by the conduct of Adonijah is found at length in 1 Kings 1:11-53. The original occasion alluded to there more than once, on which David promised, "and sware" to Bathsheba, that her son should be his chief heir and successor to the throne, is not distinctly recorded. We can easily assign one convenient place in the history for it to have found monition, viz. in 2 Samuel 12:25. The brevity of the statement which composes this verse, when compared with all the deeply interesting matter recorded in 1 Kings 1:11-53, is one among many other very clear illustrations of the purposed silence of our present history in certain directions. 1 Chronicles 23:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Number, duties, and fathers'-houses of the Levites. - This clear account of the state and the order of service of the tribe of Levi is introduced by the words, 1 Chronicles 23:1, "David was old, and life weary; then he made his son Solomon king over Israel." זקן, generally an adjective, is here third pers. perf. of the verb, as in Genesis 18:12, as שׂבע also is, to which ימים is subordinated in the accusative. Generally elsewhere ימים שׂבע is used, cf. Genesis 35:29; Job 42:17, and also שׂבע alone, with the same signification, Genesis 25:8. These words are indeed, as Berth. correctly remarks, not a mere passing remark which is taken up again at a later stage, say 1 Chronicles 29:28, but an independent statement complete in itself, with which here the enumeration of the arrangements which David made in the last period of his life begins. But notwithstanding that, it serves here only as an introduction to the arrangements which follow, and is not to be taken to mean that David undertook the numbering of the Levites and the arrangement of their service only after he had given over the government to his son Solomon, but signified that the arrangement of this matter immediately preceded Solomon's elevation to the throne, or was contemporaneous with it. Our verse therefore does not contain, in its few words, a "summary of the contents of the narrative 1 Kings 1," as Berth. thinks, for in 1 Kings 1 we have an account of the actual anointing of Solomon and his accession to the throne in consequence of Adonijah's attempt to usurp it. By that indeed Solomon certainly was made king; but the chronicler, in accordance with the plan of his book, has withdrawn his attention from this event, connected as it was with David's domestic relations, and has used המליך in its more general signification, to denote not merely the actual elevation to the throne, but also his nomination as king. Here the nomination of Solomon to be king, which preceded the anointing narrated in 1 Kings 1, that taking place at a time when David had already become bed-rid through old age, is spoken of. This was the first step towards the transfer of the kingdom to Solomon; and David's ordering of the Levitical service, and of the other branches of public administration, so as to give over a well-ordered kingdom to his successor, were also steps in the same process. Of the various branches of the public administration, our historian notices in detail on the Levites and their service, compressing everything else into the account of the army arrangements and the chief public officials, 1 Chronicles 27.