1 Chronicles42 posts · book 13 of 66

1 Chronicles 1

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

Chronicles opens with nine chapters of family trees. Adam, Seth, Enosh, and on and on, all the way down to the families who came home from Babylon and settled back in their towns. I’ll spare you. The story starts on Mount Gilboa.

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

Replying to @booksofchronicles

One name in all those lists gets two verses of its own. Jabez. His mother called him that because she had him in pain. He prayed: bless me, give me more land, keep your hand on me and keep me from harm, so I’m free of pain. And God gave him what he asked for.

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1 Chronicles 10

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

The day Saul died, told again. And here’s why it happened: he was unfaithful to the LORD. He didn’t do what the LORD said, he went to a medium for guidance, and he never once asked the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and handed the kingdom to David son of Jesse.

The books of Samuel@booksofsamuel · Mount GilboaMount Gilboa. The Philistines kill Jonathan and his brothers. Saul is badly wounded by archers. His armour-bearer is too afraid to kill him, so Saul falls on his own sword. Saul and his three sons die together that day.

1 Chronicles 11

Replying to @joab

Credit where it’s due: David built up the city round the fortress, and Joab restored the rest of it.

1 Chronicles 12

One of David’s men@davidsmen · Ziklag

Back at Ziklag, when we were still on the run from Saul, guys kept turning up to join us. Some were Benjamites. Saul’s own relatives. They could sling a stone or shoot an arrow with either hand. Either hand.

Then some Gadites came over to us. Crossed the Jordan in the first month, with the river flooding its banks. Faces like lions, fast as gazelles on the hills. The weakest of them could take on a hundred. Not kidding.

David@david

More men from Benjamin and Judah at the stronghold today. Went out and told them straight: if you’ve come as friends to help me, I’m with you, heart and soul. If you’ve come to hand me over to my enemies when I’ve done nothing wrong, may the God of our ancestors see it and judge you.

Amasai@amasai

Replying to @david

We’re yours, David! We’re with you, son of Jesse! Peace to you, and peace to everyone who helps you, because your God helps you.

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The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

Day after day more men came to David, until he had a huge army, like the army of God.

The Israelites@theisraelites · Hebron

Three days of eating and drinking with David in Hebron. People came from as far as Issachar, Zebulun and Naphtali, donkeys, camels, mules and oxen piled high: flour, fig cakes, raisin cakes, wine, oil, cattle, sheep. Honestly, there’s joy all over Israel right now.

The Israelites@theisraelites · HebronAll the tribes came to David at Hebron today. We told him: we’re your own flesh and blood. Even when Saul was king, you were the one leading us out. And the LORD said you’d shepherd his people.
The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

Replying to @theisraelites

Every tribe sent fighting men, all of one mind: make David king over all Israel. Issachar sent men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.

1 Chronicles 13

David@david

If you all think it’s a good idea, and if it’s from the LORD our God: let’s send word to our people all over Israel, and to the priests and Levites, and bring the ark of our God back here. The whole time Saul was king, we never went to it.

The Israelites@theisraelites

Replying to @david

Everyone agreed. Nobody argued, for once.

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

All Israel went up to Kiriath-jearim to fetch the ark, celebrating before God with everything they had: songs, harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals, trumpets. Then they reached the threshing floor of Chidon, and this happened.

The books of Samuel@booksofsamuelThey bring the ark up on a new cart. The oxen stumble, Uzzah reaches out and takes hold of the ark, and God strikes him down there beside it.

1 Chronicles 14

One of David’s men@davidsmen · Valley of Rephaim

Philistines raiding the Valley of Rephaim again. David asked God what to do. Don’t go straight up at them, he was told. Circle round and come at them in front of the balsam trees. When you hear the sound of marching in the treetops, go. God has gone out ahead of you.

Replying to @davidsmen

He did exactly what God said. We chased them down all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. For real.

1 Chronicles 15

David@david

Last time went wrong because we didn’t do it the way the LORD said. Nobody carries the ark this time except the Levites. On their shoulders, with the poles, the way Moses was told.

The books of Chronicles@booksofchroniclesAll Israel went up to Kiriath-jearim to fetch the ark, celebrating before God with everything they had: songs, harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals, trumpets. Then they reached the threshing floor of Chidon, and this happened.
Chenaniah@chenaniah

I’ve been put in charge of the music for bringing the ark up. Because I’m good at it, apparently.

Asaph@asaph

Replying to @chenaniah

Heman, Ethan and me on the bronze cymbals. Harps and lyres behind us, priests blowing trumpets in front of the ark. The king wants singers, and he wants them loud and happy.

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

David was in a robe of fine linen that day, with a linen ephod, the priests’ kind of vest, dressed the same as the Levites carrying the ark and all the singers. All Israel brought it up shouting, with rams’ horns, trumpets, cymbals, harps and lyres.

David@david · JerusalemDanced before the LORD today with everything I’ve got.

1 Chronicles 16

Someone in David’s Jerusalem@cityofdavid.local · Jerusalem

Once the ark was in its tent and the offerings were done, the king blessed us in the LORD’s name. Then he gave every man and woman a loaf of bread, a date cake and a raisin cake. Every single one of us. Lovely.

Asaph@asaph

The king has given us a song of thanks to the LORD. First one he’s handed to me and my brothers to sing. We’re staying here in front of the ark to lead the praise every day.

Asaph@asaph

Let the heavens be glad and the earth celebrate. Let the sea roar, and the fields, and everything in them. Even the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the LORD, because he’s coming to judge the earth.

Asaph@asaph

Give thanks to the LORD, because he is good. His love lasts for ever.

The Israelites@theisraelites

Replying to @asaph

Amen! Praise the LORD!

1 Chronicles 18

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

All that bronze David took from Hadadezer’s towns in his wars? Years later Solomon made the bronze Sea, the pillars and the temple’s bronze things out of it.

1 Chronicles 20

Same spring, same words: the army goes out and David stays in Jerusalem. Then Chronicles goes straight on to Rabbah falling. The roof, and what happened with Bathsheba and Uriah, aren’t told in this book.

The books of Samuel@booksofsamuelSpring, when kings go out to war. David sends Joab and the whole army. David stays in Jerusalem.

1 Chronicles 21

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

Satan stood up against Israel and pushed David into counting the people. All of them, from Beersheba to Dan.

Joab@joabThe king wants every fighting man in Israel counted. Asked him why he’d want that. He insisted. So we’re counting.
Joab@joab

Replying to @booksofchronicles

Told him: may the LORD make his people a hundred times as many, but they’re all yours already. So why do this? Why bring guilt on Israel? Overruled. So I counted. Left out Levi and Benjamin. Couldn’t stomach the order.

David@david

I looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and sky, sword drawn, held out over Jerusalem. The elders and I, dressed in sackcloth, the rough cloth you wear to mourn, fell face down. It was me who gave the order to count them. I’m the one who did wrong. These people are sheep. What have they done? Let it fall on me and my family, not on your people.

The books of Samuel@booksofsamuelThe plague kills seventy thousand people. As the angel reaches out over Jerusalem, the LORD says: “Enough.”
Araunah the Jebusite@araunah · Jerusalem

I was threshing wheat. Turned round and there was the angel. My four sons ran and hid. Then I looked out and the king was coming up the hill to me. I went out and bowed down to the ground.

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

Replying to @araunah

Chronicles calls him Ornan the Jebusite; 2 Samuel calls him Araunah. Same man, same threshing floor, right where the angel was standing.

2 Samuel has David paying fifty shekels of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen. Chronicles says six hundred shekels of gold for the site. The Bible gives both.

David@davidNo. I’m paying you for it: fifty shekels of silver. I won’t offer the LORD my God something that costs me nothing.
The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

He builds an altar there and prays to the LORD. The LORD answers with fire from heaven on the altar. Then the LORD speaks to the angel, and the angel puts his sword back in its sheath.

1 Chronicles 22

David@david

This is it. The house of the LORD God goes here. And the altar for Israel.

David@david

My son Solomon is young and hasn’t got the experience, and the house we build for the LORD has to be magnificent. Famous all over the world. So I’m getting everything ready for it before I die.

Replying to @david

He’s not messing about. Stonecutters shaping stone, iron for the nails on the gates, more bronze than anyone can weigh, more cedar than anyone can count. Sidon and Tyre keep shipping it in.

David@david

Called Solomon in and told him why it isn’t me who builds it. The LORD said I’ve shed a lot of blood and fought great wars. But I’d have a son who’d be a man of rest, and his name would be Solomon, which sounds like the word for peace. He’s the one who’ll build it.

David@david

Put aside for it: a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, bronze and iron past weighing, timber and stone. And there’s room to add to it.

1 Chronicles 23

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

David is old now, and he’s had a long, full life. He makes Solomon king and gets the Levites organised. Of the 38,000 counted, 4,000 are to praise the LORD on instruments David made for it.

Asaph@asaph

Our job from now on: stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD. And again every evening.

1 Chronicles 25

Asaph@asaph

Drew lots for the music rotas. Young and old alike, teachers and students alike. Two hundred and eighty-eight of us, all trained in the songs of the LORD.

1 Chronicles 26

In the list of temple gatekeepers: Obed-edom, with eight sons, because God had blessed him. Remember the ark staying at his house?

Obed-edom@obededom.gittiteHad the ark of the LORD in my house for three months. The LORD blessed my whole household.

1 Chronicles 28

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

David calls every leader in Israel to Jerusalem: the tribal leaders, the commanders, the officials, his best fighters. The king gets to his feet.

David@david

Solomon, my son: know your father’s God, and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. The LORD searches every heart and knows every thought. Look for him and you’ll find him. Leave him and he’ll reject you for ever.

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

Then he hands Solomon the plans. The porch, the buildings, the storerooms, the inner rooms, the room for the ark’s gold lid. The weight of gold for every lampstand and table, the gold cherubim spreading their wings over the ark. The LORD guided him, he says, and made it all clear to him in writing.

David@david

Be strong and brave, and do it. The LORD God, my God, is with you. He won’t fail you or leave you until the work is finished.

1 Chronicles 29

David@david

I’ve given everything I could for the house of my God. Now I’m giving my own gold and silver on top, because I love the house of my God. So: who else wants to give themselves to the LORD today?

Replying to @david

Contributions received from the family heads, the tribal officers, the commanders and the king’s officials: five thousand talents of gold, ten thousand of silver, plus bronze and iron. Precious stones were also handed in by those who had them.

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David@david

LORD, the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendour and the majesty are yours. Everything in heaven and on earth is yours. The kingdom is yours.

David@david

Replying to @david

But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give like this? Everything comes from you. We’ve only given you back what came from your own hand. We’re strangers here, like our ancestors were. Our days on earth are like a shadow. No hope in them.

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

Next day: a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, a thousand lambs, and a feast in the LORD’s presence, everyone eating and drinking and so happy. Solomon is made king a second time, and sits on the LORD’s throne in his father’s place. All David’s sons promise him their loyalty.

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

David son of Jesse. King over all Israel for forty years: seven in Hebron, thirty-three in Jerusalem. He died at a good old age, after a long life, with wealth and honour.

The books of Chronicles@booksofchronicles

Replying to @booksofchronicles

The rest of his story, start to finish, is in the records of Samuel the seer, Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer.

People in 1 Chronicles

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