with all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.
Parallel Translations
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with all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.
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With all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.
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with all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to 1 Chronicles 29:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Daniel 4:23 “Whereas the king saw a watcher and a holy one coming down from the sky, and saying, ‘Cut down the tree, and destroy it; nevertheless leave the stump of its roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let it be wet with the dew of the sky. Let his portion be with the animals of the field, until seven times pass over him.
- Daniel 4:25 that you shall be driven from men, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field. You shall be made to eat grass as oxen, and shall be wet with the dew of the sky, and seven times shall pass over you; until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will.
- 2 Kings 10:34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
- 2 Kings 14:28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, for Israel, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
- Daniel 2:21 He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings, and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Meaning, the troubles and griefs.
Meaning, the troubles and griefs.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1Ch 29:30 With all his reign and his might,…
1Ch 29:30 With all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.
Ver. 30. And the times that went over him.] The good and evil occurrents; for the prosperity of the best, like checker work, is interwoven with crosses, and David had his part of both.
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Soli Deo Gloria
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The times that went over him, i.e. the changes…
The times that went over him, i.e. the changes which befell him, both his persecutions and manifold troubles, and his great successes and achievements; the word time or times being oft put for things done or happening in them, as Psa 31:15; 87:5.
Of the countries, Heb. of these countries, to wit, bordering upon the land of Canaan, or not far from it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The times - The changes which befel him; both…
The times - The changes which befel him; both his troubles, and his successes, the word time or times being often put for things done or happening in them. The countries - Bordering upon the land of Canaan.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 30. The times that went over him] The…
Verse 30. The times that went over him] The transactions of his reign, and the occurrences and vicissitudes in his own kingdom, as well as those which were over all the kingdoms of the countries, i.e., in the surrounding nations, in most of which David had a share during his forty years' reign. Relative to the character of David, see a few remarks in the note on 1Kg 2:10; and see more at the end of the Psalms.
Dr. Delaney gives a just view of his character in a few words: "To sum up all, David was a true believer, a zealous adorer of God, teacher of his law and worship, and inspirer of his praise. A glorious example, a perpetual and inexhaustible fountain of true piety. A consummate and unequalled hero; a skilful and fortunate captain; a steady patriot; a wise ruler; a faithful, generous, and magnanimous friend; and, what is yet rarer, a no less generous and magnanimous enemy. A true penitent, a divine musician, a sublime poet, and an inspired prophet. By birth, a peasant; by merit, a prince; in youth, a hero; in manhood, a monarch; and in age, a saint." The matter of Uriah and Bath-sheba is his great but only blot! There he sinned deeply; and no man ever suffered more in his body, soul, and domestic affairs, than he did in consequence. His penitence was as deep and as extraordinary as his crime; and nothing could surpass both but that eternal mercy that took away the guilt, assuaged the sorrow, and restored this most humbled transgressor to character, holiness, and happiness. Let the God of David be exalted for ever!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Ch 29:30. The times that went over him —…
1Ch 29:30. The times that went over him — The transactions of his reign, and the changes that befell him; both his troubles and successes, the word time or times being often put for things done or happening in them. And over all the kingdoms of the countries — Those countries which bordered upon, or were not far distant from the land of Canaan, the history of which was in part connected with that of the Israelites. For the sketch of the character of David, we refer our readers to our notes on 2Sa 24:25.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The times that went over him - i. e.,…
The times that went over him - i. e., the events that happened to him. Compare Psa 31:15.
All the kingdoms of the countries - The kingdoms, i. e., of Moab, Ammon, Damascus, Zobah, etc. See the full phrase in 2Ch 17:10. Some account of these kingdoms would necessarily have been given in any history of David’s reign.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Under him in various tribulations, towards the end of…
Under him in various tribulations, towards the end of his reign. (Vatable, &c.) --- Those prophets recorded not only what regarded David, (Haydock) but also what happened of consequence, in other nations, with which he had any connections. --- Of the. Syriac and Arabic, "of his land, or among the kings of his race." (Calmet) --- David reduced under his dominion not only the nations which dwelt in Chanaan, but all those which had been promised to Israel. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 30. the times] i.e. the changes, vicissitudes. Cp. 1Ch_12:32,…
30. the times] i.e. the changes, vicissitudes. Cp. 1Ch_12:32, note.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (30) And his might.—Or, valour, prowess. (See 1Ch_29:11.) His…
(30) And his might.—Or, valour, prowess. (See 1Ch_29:11.) His warlike achievements are intended. (Comp. 1Ki_15:23; Jdg_8:21.)
And the times that went over him.—Heb., passed over him. The seasons of good and evil fortune, the vicissitudes of his own and his people’s history. (Comp. 1Ch_12:32; Psa_31:16; Job_24:1 [=seasons of judgment]; Dan_9:25.)
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And over all the kingdoms of the countries.—Viz., those with which David had relations of friendship or war, such as the Philistines, Aramæans, Hamathites, and other surrounding peoples. (Comp. chap 14:17.)
Kingdoms of the countries.—2Ch_12:8; 2Ch_17:10; 2Ch_20:29; not elsewhere.
The Syriac adds: “Because that David did that which was good before the Lord, and departed not from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The phrase in this verse, The times that went…
The phrase in this verse, The times that went over him, is noticeable as a hapax legomenon. There are, however, not a few phrases more or less nearly approaching it in sense, and all hinging on the word (1Ch_12:32; Est_1:13Jo Est 24:1; Psa_31:15; Dan_7:25) The last sentence of this chapter is illustrated, and most suggestively, by 2Ch_12:8 2Ch_17:10, 11 Ezr 9.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain 1 Chronicles
1 Chronicles
THE WAVES OF TIME
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1Ch 29:30.
This is a fragment from the chronicler’s close of his life of King David. He is referring in it to other written authorities in which there are fuller particulars concerning his hero; and he says, ‘the acts of David the King, first and last, behold they are written in the book of Samuel the seer . . . with all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over all Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.’
Now I have ventured to isolate these words, because they seem to me to suggest some very solemn and stimulating thoughts about the true nature of life. They refer, originally, to the strange vicissitudes and extremes of fortune and condition which characterised, so dramatically and remarkably, the life of King David. Shepherd-boy, soldier, court favourite, outlaw, freebooter and all but brigand; rebel, king, fugitive, saint, sinner, psalmist, penitent-he lived a life full of strongly marked alternations, and ‘the times that went over him’ were singularly separate and different from each other. There are very few of us who have such chequered lives as his. But the principle which dictated the selection by the chronicler of this somewhat strange phrase is true about the life of every man.
I. Note, first, ‘the times’ which make up each life.
Now, by the phrase here the writer does not merely mean the succession of moments, but he wishes to emphasise the view that these are epochs, sections of ‘time,’ each with its definite characteristics and its special opportunities, unlike the rest that lie on either side of it. The great broad field of time is portioned out, like the strips of peasant allotments, which show a little bit here, with one kind of crop upon it, bordered by another little morsel of ground bearing another kind of crop. So the whole is patchy, and yet all harmonises in effect if we look at it from high enough up. Thus each life is made up of a series, not merely of successive moments, but of well-marked epochs, each of which has its own character, its own responsibilities, its own opportunities, in each of which there is some special work to be done, some grace to be cultivated, some lesson to be learned, some sacrifice to be made; and if it is let slip it never comes back any more. ‘It might have been once, and we missed it, and lost it for ever.’ The times pass over us, and every single portion has its own errand to us. Unless we are wide awake we let it slip, and are the poorer to all eternity for not having had in our heads the eyes of the wise man which ‘discern both time and judgment.’ It is the same thought which is suggested by the well-known words of the cynical book of Ecclesiastes-’To every thing there is a season and a time’-an opportunity, and a definite period-’for every purpose that is under the sun.’ It is the same thought which is suggested by Paul’s words, ‘As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good to all men. In due season we shall reap if we faint not.’ There is ‘a time for weeping and a time for laughing, a time for building up and a time for casting down.’ It is the same thought of life, and its successive epochs of opportunity never returning, which finds expression in the threadbare lines about ‘a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,’ and neglected, condemns the rest of a career to be hemmed in among creeks and shallows.
Through all the variety of human occupations, each moment comes to us with its own special mission, and yet, alas! to far too many of us the alternations do not suggest the question, what is it that I am hereby called upon to be or to do? what is the lesson that present circumstances are meant to teach, and the grace that my present condition is meant to force me to cultivate or exhibit? There is one point, as it were, upon the road where we may catch a view far away into the distance, and, if we are not on the lookout when we come there, we shall never get that glimpse at any other point along the path. The old alchemists used to believe that there was what they called the ‘moment of projection,’ when, into the heaving molten mass in their crucible, if they dropped the magic powder, the whole would turn into gold; an instant later and there would be explosion and death; an instant earlier and there would be no effect. And so God’s moments come to us; every one of them-if we had eyes to see and hands to grasp-a crisis, affording opportunity for something for which all eternity will not afford a second opportunity, if the moment be let pass. ‘The times went over him,’ and your life and mine is parcelled out into seasons which have their special vocation for and message to us.
How solemn that makes our life! How it destroys the monotony that we sometimes complain of! How it heightens the low things and magnifies the apparently small ones! And how it calls upon us for a sharpened attention, that we miss not any of the blessings and gifts which God is meaning to bestow upon us through the ministry of each moment! How it calls upon us for not only sharpened attention, but for a desire to know the meaning of each of the hours and of every one of His providences! And how it bids us, as the only condition of understanding the times, so as to know what we ought to do, to keep our hearts in close union with Him, and ourselves ever standing, as becomes servants, girded and ready for work; and with the question on our lips and in our hearts, ‘Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do? and what wouldst Thou have me to do now?’ The lesson of the day has to be learned in a day, and at the moment when it is put in practice.
II. Another thought suggested by this text is, the Power that moves the times.
As far as my text represents-and it is not intended to go to the bottom of everything-these times flow on over a man, as a river might. But is there any power that moves the stream? Unthinking and sense-bound men-and we are all such, in the measure in which we are unspiritual-are contented simply to accept the mechanical flow of the stream of time. We are all tempted not to look behind the moving screen to see the force that turns the wheel on which the painted scene Is stretched. But, Oh! how dreary a thing it is if all that we have to say about life is, ‘The times pass over us,’ like the blind rush of a stream, or the movement of the sea around our coasts, eating away here and depositing its spoils there, sometimes taking and sometimes giving, but all the work of mere eyeless and purposeless chance or of natural causes.
Oh, brethren! there is nothing more dismal or paralysing than the contemplation of the flow of the times over our heads, unless we see in their flow something far more than that.
It is very beautiful to notice that this same phrase, or at least the essential part of it, is employed in one of the Psalms ascribed to David, with a very significant addition. He says, ‘My times are in Thy hand.’ So, then, the passage of our epochs over us is not merely the aimless flow of a stream, but the movement of a current which God directs. Therefore, if at any time it goes over our heads and seems to overwhelm us, we can look up through the transparent water and say, ‘Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over me,’ and so I die not of suffocation beneath them. God orders the times, and therefore, though, as the bitter ingenuity of Ecclesiastes, on the lookout for proofs of the vanity of life, complained, in a one-sided view, as an aggravation of man’s lot, that there is a time for everything, yet that aspect of change is not its deepest or truest. True it is that sometimes birth and sometimes death, sometimes joy and sometimes sorrow, sometimes building up and sometimes casting down, follow each other with monotonous uniformity of variety, and seem to reduce life to a perpetual heaping up of what is as painfully to be cast down the next moment, like the pitiless sport of the wind amongst the sandhills of the desert. But the futility is only apparent, and the changes are not meant to occasion ‘man’s misery’ to be ‘great upon him,’ as Ecclesiastes says they do. The diversity of the ‘times’ comes from a unity of purpose; and all the various methods of the divine Providence exercised upon us have one unchanging intention. The meaning of all the ‘times’ is that they should bring us nearer to God, and fill us more full of His power and grace. The web is one, however various may be the pattern wrought upon the tapestry. The resulting motion of the great machine is one, though there may be a wheel turning from left to right here, and another one that fits into it, turning from right to left there. The end of all the opposite motions is straight progress. So the varying times do all tend to the one great issue. Therefore let us seek to pursue, in all varying circumstances, the one purpose which God has in them all, which the Apostle states to be ‘even your sanctification,’ and let us understand how summer and winter, springtime and harvest, tempest and fair weather, do all together make up the year, and ensure the springing of the seed and the fruitfulness of the stalk.
III. Lastly, let me remind you, too, how eloquently the words of my text suggest the transiency of all the ‘times.’
They ‘passed over him’ as the wind through an archway, that whistles and comes not again. The old, old thought, so threadbare and yet always so solemnising and pathetic, which we know so well that we forget it, and are so sure of that it has little effect on life, the old, old thought, ‘this too will pass away,’ underlies the phrase of my text, How blessed it is, brethren! to cherish that wholesome sense of the transiency of things here below, only those who live under its habitual power can fairly estimate. It is thought to be melancholy. We are told that it spoils joys and kills interest, and I know not what beside. It spoils no joys that ought to be joys. It kills no interests that are not on other grounds unworthy to be cherished. Contrariwise, the more fully we are penetrated with the persistent conviction of the transiency of the things seen and temporal, the greater they become, by a strange paradox. For then only are they seen in their true magnitude and nobility, in their true solemnity and importance as having a bearing on the things that are eternal. Time is the ‘ceaseless lackey of eternity,’ and the things that pass over us may become, like the waves of the sea, the means of bearing us to the unmoving shore. Oh! if only in the midst of joys and sorrows, of heavy tasks and corroding cares, of weary work and wounded spirits, we could feel, ‘but for a moment,’ all would be different, and joy would come, and strength would come, and patience would come, and every grace would come, in the train of the wholesome conviction that ‘here we have no continuing city.’
Cherish the thought. It will spoil nothing the spoiling of which will be a loss. It will heighten everything the possession of which is a gain. It will teach us to trust in the darkness, and to believe in the light. And when the times are dreariest, and frost binds the ground, we shall say, ‘If winter comes, can spring be far behind?’ The times roll over us, like the seas that break upon some isolated rock, and when the tide has fallen and the vain flood has subsided, the rock is there. If the world helps us to God, we need not mind though it passes, and the fashion thereof.
But do not let us forget that this text in its connection may teach us another thought. The transitory ‘times that went over’ Israel’s king are all recorded imperishably on the pages here, and so, though condensed into narrow space, the record of the fleeting moments lives for ever, and ‘the books shall be opened, and men shall be judged according to their works.’ We are writing an imperishable record by our fleeting deeds. Half a dozen pages carry all the story of that stormy life of Israel’s king. It takes a thousand rose-trees to make a vial full of essence of roses. The record and issues of life will be condensed into small compass, but the essence of it is eternal. We shall find it again, and have to drink as we have brewed when we get yonder. ‘Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.’ ‘There is a time to sow,’ and that is the present life; ‘and there is a time to gather the fruits’ of our sowing, and that is the time when times have ended and eternity is here.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 29:30 The concluding verse extols David by making him…
29:30 The concluding verse extols David by making him the center of the events of his time.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.