Commentary: On Chronicles

“All [this,” said David,] “the Lord made me understand in writing, by His hand upon me, all the works of the structure.” (1 Chronicles 28:19)

The best interpretation of all the works of the structure [tavnit] is that tavnit is related to the meaning of “construction” [Arabic bunyan], namely, He taught him and inspired him apropos of different shapes of buildings and how they are made. This is because tavnit [structure] refers to the form and shape of a thing. In Arabic, the structure [bunya] of a thing means its form. [ . . . ]

Now for the house of my God I have prepared with all my might: gold for things to be made of gold, silver for things of silver, bronze for things of bronze, iron for things of iron, wood for things of wood, onyx stones, stones to be set, glistening stones of various colors, all kinds of precious stones, and marble slabs in abundance. (1 Chronicles 29:2)

[The word shayish in the verse] and marble slabs [shayish] in abundance has been interpreted as marble. The yod [of shayish] is concealed in [the verse] a pavement of porphyry and marble [shesh] (Esther 1:6).

Three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses. (1 Chronicles 29:4)

It is most likely that [refined silver] in seven thousand talents of refined silver, for overlaying the walls of the houses, stands for refined gold. He called it silver because they are part of the same genus, as we explained in the [The Book of Hebrew] Roots. Indeed, in all the verses concerning the building, we find no mention of anything overlaid with silver; rather, everything was gold, as it is said: he covered it with fine gold (2 Chronicles 3:5) and also: So he lined the house with gold—its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors; and he carved cherubim on the walls (2 Chronicles 3:7). Hence, the words refined silver (1 Chronicles 29:4) are parallel to fine gold (2 Chronicles 3:5).

Some people said that the silver he mentioned here was not used as such but was paid to buy gold and as craftsmen’s wages. Inasmuch as we have established that in language a word can be substituted for another word if it refers to similar qualities or genera, as explained above, we can discard this conjecture.

Source: CUL T-S Ar. 22.82.