\\INTRODUCTION TO 1 CHRONICLES 17\\

This chapter contains an account of David's intention to build an
house for God, which, he signified to Nathan the prophet, who first
encouraged him to it; but afterwards was sent by the Lord to him with
an order to desist from it, assuring him, at the same time, that his
son should build it, and that his own house and kingdom should be
established for ever; for which David expressed great thankfulness,
the whole of which is related in \\#2Sa 7:1-29\\ with some little
variation, see the notes there; only one thing has since occurred,
which I would just take notice of, that here, \\#1Ch 17:5\\ as there
also, it is said by the Lord, that he had "not dwelt in an house
since the day he brought up Israel out of Egypt"; which seems to
suggest that he had dwelt in one before, as has been hinted on
\\#2Sa 7:6\\ even while the people of Israel were in Egypt, though it is
nowhere mentioned by Moses, or any other writer; yet it is not
unreasonable to suppose it; for as the ancestors of the Israelites,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when only travellers from place to place,
built altars for God wherever they came; so their posterity, it is
highly probable, not only did the same, but when they found
themselves settled in Egypt, in the land of Goshen, might build
places of worship; and when we consider the wealth of Joseph, and his
family, and indeed of all Israel, who enjoyed for many years great
plenty, prosperity, and liberty, before their servitude, the vast
numbers they increased to and the long continuance of them in Egypt,
more than two hundred years; it will not seem strange that they
should build houses for religious worship, and even one grand and
splendid for public service, to which also they might be led by the
example of the Egyptians; who, as Herodotus says {i}, were the first
that erected altars, images, and temples to the gods, and who in the
times of Joseph had one at On, where his father-in-law officiated as
priest, \\#Ge 41:45\\ or rather to this they might be directed by
some hints and instructions of their father Jacob before his death,
who it is certain had a notion of a Bethel, an house for the public
worship of God, \\#Ge 28:17,19,22 35:1\\ and I find a learned man {k}
of our own nation of this opinion, and which he founds upon this
passage; and he supposes the house God dwelt in, in Egypt, was not a
tent of goats' hair, as in the wilderness, but a structure of stones
or bricks, a firm and stable house, such an one as Abraham built at
Damascus when settled there; which continued to the times of Augustus
Caesar, as related by Nicholas of Damascus {l}. See \\#2Sa 7:1-29\\.

{i} Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 4.
{k} Dickinson. Physic. vet. & vera, c. 19. sect. 24.
{l} Apud. Joseph. Antiqu. l. 1. c. 7. sect. 2.
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