The Kingdom of David in Jerusalem (IV)
Jerusalem in the Bible
Yeshivat Har Etzion
sHIUR
#04:
THe
Davidic monarchy in Jerusalem (III)
Why
can't David build the House of GOd (part I)
Rav Yitzchak
Levi
In the previous shiur we dealt with David's bringing the Ark up to
Jerusalem. Now, after the Ark has been housed in a tent in the City of David,
the next stage arrives: David's request to build the house of God. God, however,
answers David in the negative, that he cannot build the Temple. In this shiur
we will try to examine some of the reasons.
I.
Permanent House for the Kingdom of flesh and blood condition for
building a permanent house for the Shekhina
We have already seen in
various contexts how Chazal describe David and Shemuel as sitting in
Nayot in the Rama (during the period when, according to the plain sense
of the biblical text, David had escaped from Shaul who was trying to kill him),
engaged in the beauty (noy) of the world seeking the site of the Temple
(Zevachim 54b). This search, conducted at a time that David was still
very far from actual kingship (though he had already been anointed king),
without a doubt teaches us that David's kingdom was rooted in the desire to
connect his kingdom to the Temple. It is no surprise then that immediately after
conquering Jerusalem, David brings the Ark up to Jerusalem and asks for
permission to begin at once with the construction of God's
Temple.
The timing of David's
request is also understandable. Scripture testifies that God granted David rest
from all his enemies (II Shemuel 7:1). David assumes, therefore, that the
time has come to fulfill what is stated in Parashat Re'ei: "When He gives
you to rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety; then
there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to
dwell there; there shall you bring of that I command you
" (Devarim
12:10-11). Following his victory over the Philistines and his bringing up of the
Ark to Jerusalem, David sits in his house and senses that circumstances testify
that the time is right to come "to the rest and the
inheritance."
The Midrash in
Pesikta Rabbati 6 states:
Another explanation: "Do
you see a man diligent in his business" (Mishlei 22:29) this is Shelomo. In
what business? In the business of the Temple. You find that when he built his
own house, he built it for thirteen years. But when he built the Temple he built it for
seven years. "And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, etc." (I
Melakhim 9:10), and similarly "And in the eleventh year, in the month
Bul" (Ibid. 6:38), "But Shelomo spent thirteen years in building his own
house" (Ibid. 7:1). Anyone who hears that he spent thirteen years
building his own house and seven years building God's Temple, might think that
his own house was larger than that of the Holy One, blessed be He. This is not
so, but rather he was lazy about his own house, but about the house of the Holy
One, blessed be He, he was not lazy. And furthermore, he put the glory of the
Holy One, blessed be He, before his own glory. Therefore, Natan says to his
father: "Shall you build Me a house" (II Shemuel 7:5), and elsewhere it
says: "You shall not build" (I Divrei Ha-yamim 17:4). He said to him: You
put your glory before My glory, for [only] when you saw yourself sitting in a
house of cedars did you ask to build the Temple: "The king said to Natan the
prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Ark of God dwells within
curtain" (II Shemuel 7:2; I Divrei Ha-yamim 17:1). But Shelomo
puts My glory before his own glory: "And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul,
was the house finished throughout all its parts, and according to all the
fashion of it" (I Melakhim 6:38). And afterwards: "But Shelomo spent
[thirteen years in] building his own house" (Ibid. 7:1). And because he
displayed alacrity in the building of the Temple, he merited joining with the
righteous kings.
From the parallel between David and Shelomo, the Midrash learns that
David had put his own glory before that of God, in that he built his own house
before God's Temple. This criticism brings us back to the issue of the proper
relationship between human kingdom and the kingdom of God.
We have already noted previously that David formulates his request to
build the Temple as a request to build a permanent house for the Ark, because
from his perspective, the primary function of the Temple is causing the
Shekhina to rest in the Ark, and it cannot be that he should live in a
royal palace made of cedar trees when the Ark resides in a temporary dwelling.
As stated above, the bottom line is that David was answered in the negative. [1]
We shall now try to understand the content of God's answer, focusing on the
prophecy in II Shemuel 7:5-15 (the answer appears also in I Divrei
Ha-yamim 17 with slight changes:
Go and tell My servant
David, Thus says the Lord, shall you build me a house for Me to dwell in? For I
have not dwelt in any house since that time I brought up the Children of Israel
out of Egypt, even to this day, but I have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.
In all the places where I have walked with all the Children of Israel, did I
speak a word with any of the rulers of Israel, whom I commanded as shepherds of
My people Israel, saying, Why do you not build me a house of
cedar?
Now therefore so shall
you say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the
sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel:
And I was with you wherever you did go, and have cut off all your enemies out of
your sight, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men that
are on the earth. Moreover I have appointed a place for My people, Israel, and
planted them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and be troubled no
more: neither shall the children of wickedness torment them any more, as at the
beginning, and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people
Israel; but I will give you rest from all your enemies, and the Lord will tell
you that He will make you a house. And when your days are fulfilled, and you
shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall
issue from your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build a house
for My name, and I will make firm the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be
his father, and he will be My son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him
with the rod of men, and with such plagues as befall the sons of Adam: but My
covenant love shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Shaul, whom I
put away before you.
The guiding word in the chapter is "house," which is repeated fifteen
times in different senses: the house of the king, the house of God, and the
royal dynasty. Later we shall try to understand the inner connection between
these different meanings.
The chapter is divided into three sections:
Section I vv.
5-7 |
God does not need
a house. |
Section II vv.
8-12 |
God's actions on
behalf of David, a promise to establish a royal dynasty for
David. |
Section III vv.
13-15 |
David's desire
will be materialized through his son who will build a house for
God. |
In the first section it
is stated that God has no need whatsoever for a permanent house; during the
period of Israel's sojourn in the wilderness He walked in a tent and a
tabernacle, never asking for a house of cedars. Clearly, the intention is not
that God has no interest whatsoever in a permanent house, for in the third
section he informs David that his son will build a Temple. God's criticism
relates to the timing of the building, the circumstances in which it will take
place, and the identity of the builder, which will all be spelled out in the
continuation of the prophecy.
It seems that the
rhetorical question in verse 5 "Thus says the Lord, shall you build me a house
for Me to dwell in?"[2] comes to negate the possibility of the king thinking
that in his great goodness and lovingkindness, he will "arrange" a house for
God. God has no desire at all for such a house. Part of the solution to this
problem is the joint construction of the Temple by two kings, David and
Shelomo, each one contributing his part; thus the situation will be avoided in
which one king will "grant" God a place through the strength of his kingdom.
[3]
The second section
details the acts of lovingkindness that God had performed for David and Israel:
taking David from the sheepfold to be ruler over Israel, his victories and fame,
appointing a place for Israel and granting them rest from their enemies. Here
Scripture continues: "And the Lord will tell you that He will make you a house.
And when your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will
set up your seed after you, who shall issue from your bowels, and I will
establish his kingdom" (vv. 11-12). Whereas in the first section Scripture
explains why God has no need whatsoever for a house, in the second section it
explains that instead of the house that David wishes to build for God, God will
establish for David a permanent royal dynasty, and thus a permanent monarchal
house will be build for him. In other words, David's request to build a
permanent house for God earns David a permanent royal dynasty.
[4]
In the third section it
is stated that David's son will build God's house, and God will establish the
throne of his kingdom forever. Here for the first time, and as reward for his
request to build a house for God, David is promised an everlasting kingdom and
that his son will build the Temple. It seems then that a condition for building
God's house is the building of a house a permanent royal dynasty for
David.
Rav Mordekhai Sabbato
has demonstrated [5] that two seemingly contradictory principles are being
applied here. One principle is described by the Midrash as
follows:
Rabbi Yirmiya bar Rabbi
Elazar said, "In the future a heavenly voice will ring out at the top of the
mountains, saying: Whoever acted with God, let him come and receive his reward
The holy spirit says: 'Who has a claim on Me from before, that I should repay
him?' (Iyyov 41:3). Who praised Me before I gave him a soul; who spoke in
honor of My name before I gave him a male child; who built a parapet for Me
before I gave him a roof; who affixed a ezuzah for Me before I gave him a
house; who built Me a sukka, before I gave him the place; who prepared a
lulav for Me before I gave him the money; who made tzitzit for Me
before I gave him a shawl; who set aside pei'a before Me before I gave
him a field; who set aside teruma for Me before I gave him a threshing
floor; who set aside challa for Me before I gave him dough; who set aside
a sacrifice for Me before I gave him an animal. (Vayikra Rabba 27,
2)
According to this
principle, God will not receive a house from David before He builds a house for
him. On the other hand, there is the principle of measure for measure: David
will not receive a house from God before he builds Him a house. God, however,
joins good intentions to deeds, and so in practice the order of events was as
follows: David asked to build a house for God, God built a house for David, and
David's son built a house for God.
Psalm 132 in
Tehillim also deals with our issue:
A Ma'I poem. Lord,
remember to David's favor all his afflictions: how he swore to the Lord, and
vowed to the mighty God of Ya'akov. Surely I will not come into the tabernacle
of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes, slumber to
my eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty
One of Yaakov. Lo, we hear of it at Efrat: we found it in Sede-Ya'ar. We will go
into His dwelling places; we will worship at His footstool. Arise, O Lord, to
Your resting place; You, and the Ark of Your strength. Let Your priests be
clothed with righteousness; and let Your pious ones shout for joy. For Your
servant David's sake do not turn away the face of Your
anointed.
The Lord has sworn in
truth to David; he will not turn from it. One of the sons of your body will I
set upon your throne. If your children will keep My covenant and My testimony
that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon your throne for
evermore. For the Lord has chosen Zion: He has desired it for His habitation.
This is My resting place forever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it. I
will abundantly bless her provisions: I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will
also clothe her priests with salvation, and her pious ones shall shout aloud for
joy. There will I make the horn of David to shoot up; I have set up a lamp for
My anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon himself his crown
will flourish.
The psalm describes two parallel oaths. The first section opens with
David's oath to God and describes his efforts to find a site for God's Temple;
the second section records God's oath to David (in response to his efforts) to
grant him an everlasting kingdom.
There are many internal parallels between the two sections: "Until I find
out a place for the Lord" (v. 5) "For the Lord has chosen Zion" (v. 13);
"Arise, O Lord, to Your resting place" (v. 8) "This is My resting place
forever" (v. 14); "Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness" (v. 9) "I
will also clothe her priests with salvation" (v. 16); "For Your servant David's
sake do not turn away the face of Your anointed" (v. 10) "There will I make
the horn of David to shoot up" (v. 17). In the second section itself there is
also a parallel between, "Their children shall also sit upon your throne for
evermore" (v. 12) and, "This is My resting place forever: here will I dwell; for
I have desired it" (v. 15). And here too, as in II Shemuel 7, the promise
regarding the permanence of David's kingdom precedes the selection of the site
of the Temple:
The Lord has sworn in
truth to David; he will not turn from it. One of the sons of your body will I
set upon your throne.
If your children will
keep My covenant and My testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall
also sit upon your throne for evermore.
For the Lord has chosen
Zion: He has desired it for His habitation.
WHY IS THE CONSTRUCTION OF A PERMANENT HOUSE FOR GOD CONDITIONED ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PERMANENT ROYAL HOUSE IN ISRAEL?
1.
the kingdom of Israel the throne of GOd's kingdom in the
world
The first answer is that
the kingdom of Israel allows for the revelation of God's kingdom in the world.
The verse that best illustrates this principle relates to Shelomo: "And Shelomo
sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father" (I Divrei
Ha-yamim 29:23); the king of Israel sits on God's throne. The kingdom of
Israel is itself God's throne, the instrument of sovereignty through which God's
kingdom in the word is revealed and therefore it must precede the building of
God's house.
2.
Appointment of a king wiping out of Amalek construction of the
temple
Many sources describe
the fulfillment of the collective obligations in the Land of Israel in the
following order: appointment of a king, wiping out of Amalek, and construction
of the Temple.[6] Thus we find in Sifrei to Parashat
Re'ei:
"But when you traverse
the Jordan and dwell in the land" (Devarim 12:10). Rabbi Yehuda says:
Three commandments were given to Israel when they entered the Land: to appoint a
king, to build a Temple, and to wipe out the seed of Amalek. I do not know which
comes first: whether to appoint a king, or to build the Temple, or to destroy
the seed of Amalek. Therefore the verse states: "Because the Lord has sworn by
His throne that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to
generation" (Shemot 17:16). After the king sits on the throne of God, you
destroy the seed of Amalek. And from where do we know that the throne of God is
the king? As it is stated: "And Shelomo sat on the throne of the Lord as king"
(I Divrei Ha-yamim 29:23). But I still don't know what comes first to
build the Temple or to destroy the seed of Amalek. Therefore the verse states:
"Which the Lord your God gives you to inherit" (Devarim 12:10), and it
says: "And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had
given him rest round about," and it says: "The king said to Natan the prophet,
See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Ark of God dwells within curtain"
(II Shemuel 7:1-2). (Sifrei Devarim, 67).
In other words, first an earthly kingdom must be established; through the
power of that kingdom, Amalek must be wiped out, and peace achieved; and then
the time to build the Temple will arrive.
3.
Kingdom Touching eternity
Since the Temple (in
comparison to the Mishkan) is God's permanent and eternal house, it can
only be built by a permanent and eternal earthly kingdom, and the permanence of
human kingdom expresses itself in a royal dynasty.[7]
Thus writes the Malbim
on Tehillim 132:10:
For choosing the Temple
for His eternal habitation was for the sake of David and because of his merit,
and it was by virtue of his service of God and because he had been chosen and
anointed. As it is stated: "I have found David My servant; with My holy oil have
I anointed him" (Tehillim 89:21). Only afterwards comes the verse
regarding the choosing of Zion, "For the Lord has chosen Zion: He has desired it
for His habitation." For the choice of the seed of David was for the purpose of
choosing Zion.
It is interesting to note that when God reveals Himself to Shelomo in the
second night vision, following the dedication of the Temple (I Melakhim
9:2-9), He also draws a connection between the kingdom of Shelomo and the
resting of the Shekhina in the Temple:
And the Lord said to
him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication, that you have made before
Me: I have hallowed this house, which you have built, to put My name there
for ever; and My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually. And if you
will walk before Me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart, and in
uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My
statutes and My judgments. Then I will establish the throne of Your kingdom
upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David your father, saying, There
shall not fail you a man upon the throne of Israel. (Ibid. vv. 3-5)
God promises that if
Shelomo will conduct himself in according with His statutes and judgments, his
kingdom over Israel will be established forever, and God will forever rest His
name in the house that Shelomo had built for him. If, however, he fails to keep
those laws neither of these promises will be fulfilled (as is stated there in
the continuation).
4.
Kingdom unity that allows for the resting of God's
Shekhina
Last year (in Lesson #20
"Jerusalem During the Period of Conquest and Settlement (part I) The Status
of Jerusalem and of the Temple During this Period"), we saw the Rambam's
position that the construction of the Temple is conditioned upon the unity of
the people, and that of the Radak who conditions it on the kingdom. We see then
that a unifying kingdom is a condition for the revelation of the site of the
Temple and its construction, and this is yet another reason that the earthly
kingdom had to be established prior to the building of a house for the kingdom
of God.
II. A
world of peace and Tranquility
When Shelomo asks
Chiram, King of Tzor, to supply him with cedars from the Lebanon, he explains
why David had been prevented from building the Temple as
follows:
You know how David my
father could not build a house to the name of the Lord his God on account of the
war with the nations which were about him on every side, until the Lord put them
under the soles of my feet. [8] But now the Lord my God has given me rest on
every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil hindrance. And behold, I
purpose to build a house to the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to
David my father, saying, Your son, whom I will set upon your throne in your
place, he shall build the house to My name. (I Melakhim 5:17-19)
The Radak explains (ad
loc.): "He did not want to reveal to him the reason that God had prevented him,
because he was not like David his father, and he gave him this reasonable
explanation." In other words, Shelomo preferred to give the reasonable
explanation of the wars, and refrain from mentioning other reasons that could
dishonor David.
As for this reason
itself, we already intimated above that the Temple must only be built when
Israel enjoys rest from its enemies, as the Torah states:
For you are not as yet
come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God gives you. But
when you traverse the Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord your God
gives you to inherit, and when He gives you rest from all your enemies round
about, so that you dwell in safety; then there shall be a place which the Lord
your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there; there shall you bring
all that I command you (Devarim 12:9-11)
The order is essential: [9] rest from the surrounding nations serves as a
condition for the building of God's house. Since in David's day wars were still
being fought and rest had not yet arrived, the Temple could not yet be
built.
III. THE QUALITY
OF JUSTICE AND DAVID'S HARD HEART
In the seventh chapter of
Shemoneh Perakim, the Rambam writes as follows:
Prophecy is not
conditional upon the prophet having achieved all virtues to perfection, to the
extent that he has no flaws whatsoever, for
David, peace be upon him, was a
prophet
and we find that he had a hard heart. And even though he used it
against the nations and to kill heretics and he was compassionate regarding
Israel, it is explained in Divrei Ha-yamim that God found him unfit to
build the Temple because of the many people he had killed. And He said to him:
"You shall not build a house to My name, because you have shed much blood, etc."
(I Divrei Ha-yamim 22:8)
The Ramban in his commentary to Bamidbar 16:21 also writes that it
was David's personality traits that prevented him from building the Temple: "But
David
was a man of judgment holding firm to the quality of justice, and unfit
for the house of mercy, [10] and therefore the building was delayed all the days
of David."
Summary
In this shiur we began to examine to reasons that David was
prevented from building a house for God. We related to the absence of a
permanent monarchy and a situation of rest, and to David's personality traits.
In the next shiur we shall examine additional reasons offered in
Scripture and by Chazal, and we shall discuss the relationship between
the various reasons.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] We will not deal
here with the change in the prophet Natan's answer from the affirmative to the
negative.
[2] In the parallel in I
Divrei Ha-yamim 17:4, the formulation is: "It is not you who shall
a house for Me to dwell in."
[3] According to the way
that we explained the story of the bringing up of the Ark to Jerusalem, it may
be suggested that in this manner God warns David to maintain the purity of his
intentions for building the Temple.
[4] There is an
interesting connection between David's argument with Mikhal, daughter of Shaul,
at the end of chapter 7, where it becomes clear that the kingdom of Israel will
not continue in the house of Shaul, and the conditioning of the building of
God's house upon the establishment of the kingdom of Israel in our
chapter.
[5] Rav Mordekhai
Sabbato, "Mi Hikdimani va-Ashalem," Alon Shevut
95.
[6] Thus is it stated in
Sanhedrin 20b, and so was the law decided by the Rambam, Hilkhot
Melakhim 1:1-2. Interesting in this context is the formulation found in
Sefer Mitzvot ha-Gadol (Semag), positive commandment 163: "In
chapter Kohen Gadol it is taught: 'Three commandments were given to
Israel when they entered the Land: to appoint a king, to wipe out the seed of
Amalek, and after God grants them rest from all their enemies round about, to
build a Temple. As it is stated: 'But when you traverse the Jordan and dwell in
the land' (Devarim 12:10)
The time of this mitzva of building
the Temple did not arrive until the days of David. And so it is stated
regarding David: 'And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the
Lord had given him rest round about, the king said to Natan the prophet, See
now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Ark of God dwells within curtain' (II
Shemuel 7:1-2)." The
Semag does not justify his assertion that the time to build the Temple
did not arrive until the days of David. This assertion stands in opposition to
the view of the Ramban in his commentary to Bamidbar 16:21, where he
writes that it would have been possible to build the Temple much earlier. We
shall deal with this issue at greater length in the next shiur.
[7] Regarding the idea
of a permanent kingdom, see for example Horayot 12a: "Our Rabbis taught:
Kings are only to be anointed at a spring, so that their kingdom will continue.
As it is stated: 'And the king said to them, Take with you the servants of your
lord, and cause Shelomo my son to ride upon my own mule, and bring him down to
Gichon' (I Melakhim 1:33)." In our context, it is interesting that the
Baraita adduces proof from the anointing of Shelomo the first king to be
anointed at a spring. See also last year's shiur #27: "The Promise that
the Davidic Monarchy will Continue Forever."
[8] Interesting is the
relationship between the way the word is written, "raglo, his feet,"
i.e., David's feet, and the way the word is read, "ragli, my feet," i.e.,
Shelomo's feet.
[9] As we saw above,
section I, 2, and in note 6.
[10] Interesting is the
Ramban's designation of the Temple "house of mercy" which relates to the
essence of the altar, which brings peace between Israel and their Father in
heaven, and all the elements of peace and mercy in the Temple. This is not the
forum to expand on this issue at greater length.
(Translated by David
Strauss)
This website is constantly being improved. We would appreciate hearing from you. Questions and comments on the classes are welcome, as is help in tagging, categorizing, and creating brief summaries of the classes. Thank you for being part of the Torat Har Etzion community!