All these notables of Israel king David now summoned to his presence, the clan chiefs, and the commissioners that were the king’s own servants; commanders and captains, controllers of the royal property, princes and chamberlains, all that was powerful and all that was valiant in the city of Jerusalem.

Rose he, and stood before them; Listen, he said, fellow tribesmen of mine and true lieges. I thought to have built a house, in which the ark that bears witness to the Lord’s covenant should find a home, in which God’s feet should have their resting-place; and all that could be prepared to that end, prepare I did.

But God warned me that it was not for me to build such a shrine for his name; I was a war-maker and a shedder of blood.

Yet, when he would grant Israel an abiding dynasty, it was on me, alone of my father’s house, that his choice fell. Out of all the tribes he has chosen Juda, out of all Juda my father’s house; and of all my father’s sons, who but I was to be king of all Israel?

And he is choosing still; many sons he has given me, and among all these it is Solomon that is to reach a throne, king of the Lord’s own people.

So the Lord himself has told me: It is Solomon, thy heir, that shall build house and court for me. I have chosen him for my son, and he shall find in me a true father;

let him ever observe decree and award of mine as they are observed this day, and his dynasty shall endure for all time.

Let me speak, then, as in the presence of all Israel, with our own God listening to us. Obey, all of you, the will of the Lord our God, study, all of you, to learn it; then it shall be yours to enjoy this fair land, and bequeath it to your posterity for ever.

And do thou, my son Solomon, acknowledge ever thy father’s God, serving him faithfully, serving him willingly; no heart but is open to the Lord’s scrutiny, no thought in our minds but he can read it. Search for him, and thou shalt find him; forsake him, and he will for ever reject thee.

Meanwhile, here is this house to be built, the Lord’s sanctuary; on thee his choice has fallen; courage! To the task!

Then David handed over to his son Solomon the full plan of porch and temple, of store-house and parlour and inner chamber, of the throne of mercy itself;

all his designs, too, for the outer courts and for the surrounding rooms in which the permanent treasures of the Lord’s house and the votive offerings were to be laid up.

He told him of the order in which priest and Levite were to do all that had to be done, keep all that had to be kept, in the Lord’s temple.

He gave him gold by weight and silver by weight for all the appurtenances of worship, varied for various needs.

Gold and silver in due measure for every lampstand and lamp of gold and silver;

gold for the table on which the hallowed loaves were set forth, gold and silver for every table of gold and silver.

Pure gold for fork and bowl and censer and cup; no cup of gold or silver but had its due weight apportioned;✻

pure gold for the altar of incense, pure gold for the equipage of cherubs that should spread their wings to overshadow the Lord’s ark.

This came to me, said he, with the Lord’s own sign-manual; all the pattern he would make clear to me.

Play a man’s part, said David to Solomon; courage! To the task! Never doubting, never daunted; the Lord thy God will be at thy side, never failing thee, never forsaking thee, and see that thou hast strength to do all that must be done for his temple.

Priest and Levite are there, ready to fulfil their appointed duties in the Lord’s house; chieftains and common folk are all minded to do thy bidding.