1st Chronicles Chapter 22 verse 14 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 14. - Now, behold, in my trouble. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Luther's translation adopt here our marginal reading, "poverty." Keil, Bertheau, and others translate, with much greater probability, "by severe effort," which translation may be fortified, not only by such references as Genesis 31:43 and Psalm 132:1 (where the same root is found in Pual infinitive), but by the expression evidently answering to the present one in 1 Chronicles 29:2 (בּכָלאּכּוח), "with all my strength." Moreover, David could not with correctness speak of poverty as characterizing his condition during the time that he had been collecting for the object of his heart's desire. And scarcely with any greater correctness could he speak of the necessary anxieties and responsibilities of his royal office as at all specially marking this period. A hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver. Our sense of dissatisfaction in being able neither heartily to accept nor conclusively to reject this statement of the quantities of gold and silver prepared by David, may be lessened in some degree by the statement found in ver. 16, that "of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number." Milman, in his 'History of the Jews' (1. 266, 267, edit. 1830), says upon the general subject of this verse, "But enormous as this wealth (i.e. that of Solomon) appears, the statement of his expenditure on the temple, and of his annual revenue, so passes all credibility, that any attempt at forming a calculation, on the uncertain data we possess, may at once be abandoned as a hopeless task. No better proof can be given of the uncertainty of our authorities, of our imperfect knowledge of the Hebrew weights of money, and, above all, of our total ignorance of the relative value which the precious metals bore to the commodities of life, than the estimate made by Dr. Prideaux of the treasures left by David, amounting to eight hundred millions, nearly the capital of our national debt." It must be noted, however, that Milman himself proceeds, when speaking of "the sources of the vast wealth which Solomon undoubtedly possessed," to bring very enormous sums (whether somewhat less or even somewhat more than the above estimate of Dr. Prideaux) more within the range of the possible, to our imagination. He justly remarks, for instance, that it is to be remembered that "the treasures of David were accumulated rather by conquest than traffic, that some of the nations he subdued, particularly the Edomites, were very wealthy. All the tribes seem to have worn a great deal of gold and silver, both in their ornaments and in their armour; their idols were often of gold; and the treasuries of their temples, perhaps, contained considerable wealth. But during the reign of Solomon, almost the whole commerce of the world passed into his territories." After substantiating by details these and similar positions (pp. 267-271), he sums up, "It was from these various sources of wealth that the precious metals and all other valuable commodities were in such abundance that, in the figurative language of the sacred historian, 'silver was in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar trees as sycamores." Since the date of Milman's words just quoted, however, investigation of ancient weights and measures, and of those of Scripture, has made some advance, yet not sufficient to enable us to arrive at any certainty as to those of our present passage. Assuming that the text of our present verse is not corrupt, and that the figures which it gives are correct, the weight and the value of the gold and silver mentioned are very great, whatever the talent in question. This assumption, however, cannot be relied upon, and it seems scarcely legitimate to interpret the talent as any than the Hebrew talent, considering the silence observed as regards any other. It need not be said here that the exchanges of money value were estimated in these times by so much weight of gold or silver. Further, "the shekel of the sanctuary" (Exodus 30:13; Leviticus 27:3), possibly the same with "the shekel after the king's weight" (2 Samuel 16:26), and which was kept in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple - was presumably the standard. The gold talent was double the weight of the silver talent. It weighed 1,320,000 grains, instead of 660,000. The silver talent contained 50 manehs, of 60 shekels each; but the gold talent contained 100 manehs, of 100 shekels each. The modern money equivalents of these weights are very uncertain. Both the silver and the gold talent have been very variously calculated in this relation. Some of the best authorities put the silver talent at £342 3s. 9d., and the gold at £5475. This would make the money value described by this verse nearly nine hundred millions of our money. Other estimates are considerably in excess of this sum, and but few fall below it. Vast as the sum is, we may be helped in some degree to accept it by the statement of Pliny, who ('Nat. Hist.,' 32:15) tells us that Cyrus, in his subjugation of Asia, took half as many talents of silver as are here mentioned, and thirty-four thousand pounds of gold (see articles in Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' on "Money," and on" Weights and Measures"). Among the most valuable works on these subjects are De Saulcy's 'Numismatique Judaique,' and F. Madden's 'Jewish Coinage.'

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(14) In my trouble.--Rather, by my toil or pains. (Comp. 1Chronicles 29:2 : "I have prepared with all my might.") In Genesis 31:42 the same expression is equated with "the labour of my hands." The LXX. and Vulg. wrongly render "in" or "according to my poverty."An hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver.--The gold talent is usually valued at 6,000, the silver talent at 400 sterling. If this reckoning be approximately correct, the numbers of the text are incredibly large. It is noticeable that the sums are given as round numbers, and expressed in thousands. Further, the figures are such--a hundred thousand and a million--as might easily and naturally be used in rhetorical fashion to suggest amounts of extraordinary magnitude. As David is said to have amassed 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver, so he is said, in the same hyperbolical strain, to have hoarded iron and bronze "without weight," and gold and silver "without number" (1Chronicles 22:16): phrases which nobody would think of taking literally. Doubtless, a modern historian would not handle exact numbers in this free manner; but we are not, therefore, bound to construe these vivid Oriental exaggerations according to the strict letter rather than the spirit and general intention. Of course, the numerals may have been corrupted in transmission; but their symmetry is against this hypothesis. (Comp. Daniel 7:10; Genesis 24:60; Micah 6:7, for a like rhetorical use of "thousands.") To take an Egyptian illustration, in the famous poem of Pentaur, Ramses II., beset by the Hittites, calls thus upon his god Amen: "Have I not built thee houses for millions of years? I have slain to thee 30,000 bulls." When the god helps him, he exclaims: "I find Amen worth more than millions of soldiers, one hundred thousand cavalry, ten thousand brothers, were they all joined in one." There are plenty of numerals here, but who would insist on taking them literally? . . .