(8) But the word of the Lord came to me (upon me).--Literally, And a word of Jehovah became upon me. There is a partial correspondence between this "word of the Lord" and that which Nathan is represented as delivering (1Chronicles 17:4-14). There, however, David is promised success in war, without any hint that warfare, as such, would unfit him for the sacred task which he longed to undertake. And in 1Kings 5:3, Solomon implies that David's wars left him no leisure for the work.

Thou hast shed blood.--The emphatic word is "blood." Literally, Blood in abundance hast thou shed, and great wars hast thou made.

Because thou hast shed much blood.--Better. for torrents of blood (plural) hast thou shed earthward before me. The author of this narrative may well have remembered Genesis 9:5-6, and the denunciations of the prophets against men of blood. (Comp. especially Amos 1:3; Amos 1:13; Amos 2:1, with David's treatment of the conquered Ammonites, 1Chronicles 20:3. And see also Hosea's denunciation of vengeance upon the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel: Hosea 1:4; Hosea 7:7). Or the verse may express the interpretation which David's own conscience put upon the oracle forbidding him to build the Temple.

Verse 8. - Because thou hast shed much blood. This is repeated very distinctly below (1 Chronicles 28:3), and appears there again as acknowledged by the lip of David himself. It seems remarkable that no previous statement of this objection, nor even allusion to it, is found. Further, there seems no very opportune place for it in either our 1 Chronicles 17:1-15 or in 2 Samuel 7:1-17. Yet, if it seem impossible to resist the impression that it must have found expression on the occasion referred to in those two passages, we may fit it in best between vers. 10 and 11 of the former reference, and between vers. 11 and 12 of the latter. So far, however, as our Hebrew text goes, this is the first place in which the statement is made.

22:6-16 David gives Solomon the reason why he should build the temple. Because God named him. Nothing is more powerful to engage us in any service for God, than to know that we are appointed thereto. Because he would have leisure and opportunity to do it. He should have peace and quietness. Where God gives rest, he expects work. Because God had promised to establish his kingdom. God's gracious promises should quicken and strengthen our religious service. David delivered to Solomon an account of the vast preparations he had made for this building; not from pride and vain-glory, but to encourage Solomon to engage cheerfully in the great work. He must not think, by building the temple, to purchase a dispensation to sin; on the contrary, his doing that would not be accepted, if he did not take heed to fulfil the statutes of the Lord. In our spiritual work, as well as in our spiritual warfare, we have need of courage and resolution.But the word of the Lord came to me,.... The word of prophecy, as the Targum, by the mouth of Nathan the prophet:

saying; as follows, which though not expressed in the book of Samuel before referred to, is here recorded by divine inspiration:

thou hast shed blood abundantly; Kimchi thinks this refers to the blood of Uriah, and those gallant men that were slain with him, and to the priests slain by the order of Saul, which David was the occasion of, or accidental cause of, 1 Samuel 22:22 and to many good men among the Gentiles; though it was the intention of the Lord to consume the wicked among them, that they might not prevail over Israel:

and hast made great wars: with the Philistines, Moabites, &c.

thou shall not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight; an intimation this, that the church of God, of which this house was a type, was to be built by Christ, the Prince of peace, and to be supported and maintained not by force of arms, and by spilling of blood, as the religion of Mahomet, but by the preaching of the Gospel of peace.