1 Chronicles 29:16

16 O Lord, our God, we have brought together all this wealth to build a temple to honor your holy name, but it all came from you and all belongs to you.

1 Chronicles 29:16 Meaning and Commentary

1 Chronicles 29:16

O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared
Of gold, silver that he and his people had provided and contributed: the gold, according to Jacob Leon ^F18, amounted to 59,766 tons of gold, and 46,123 gilders, each ton to be reckoned at least 1000 pounds sterling; the silver, reduced to the value of gold, made 46,337 tons, and two hundred and fifty gilders; but both, according to Witsius ^F19, amounted to 20,585 tons of gold; and if the talents were talents of the sanctuary, and they double the common talents, as some say they were, it was as much more, and may well be expressed by

all this store,
besides the brass, iron

to build thee an house for thine holy name;
to perform holy and religious worship in it, for the glory of his name: cometh of

thine hand, and [is] all thine own:
this he repeats, that God might have all the glory of all they had and did.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 Relation of Memorable Things in the Tabernacle and Temple, ch. 3. p. 14, 15.
F19 Miscellan. tom. 2. p. 258.

1 Chronicles 29:16 In-Context

14 "Yet my people and I cannot really give you anything, because everything is a gift from you, and we have only given back what is yours already.

15 You know, O Lord, that we pass through life like exiles and strangers, as our ancestors did. Our days are like a passing shadow, and we cannot escape death.

16 O Lord, our God, we have brought together all this wealth to build a temple to honor your holy name, but it all came from you and all belongs to you.

17 I know that you test everyone's heart and are pleased with people of integrity. In honesty and sincerity I have willingly given all this to you, and I have seen how your people who are gathered here have been happy to bring offerings to you.

18 Lord God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, keep such devotion forever strong in your people's hearts and keep them always faithful to you.