King David rose to his feet. He gathered his strength and rose up from the bed upon which he was lying—for he had already become bedridden as it says in the book of Kings. He then mustered the strength to walk to the place where he had commanded all of Israel to gather, rose up on his feet, and said all these things to them.

Know the God of your father. This is akin to: Know the Lord your God. When the text says “the God of your father,” it means that [Solomon] should rely on the tradition until he comes to know Him on his own.

He discerns the yeṣer of every thought. A creation of the heart is called a yeṣer, because the heart produces and molds (yoṣer) thoughts in the mind, be they good or bad.

And ganzakkav. [This means] its storerooms.

All that he had by the spirit. [This means] by prophetic inspiration, for [David] knew the plan of all the storerooms by Divine inspiration, either on his own or through the prophet Samuel.

Of the gold lampstands. These are the ten lampstands that Solomon made (2 Chr 4:7). We do not find that he made silver lampstands, however. To what, then, does “and of the silver lampstands” refer? It seems that he made silver lampstands for the priests’ quarters to give them light, because they ate and slept there. But it was the gold ones that were in the Great Hall—ten of them: five to the right of the one that Moses made, and five to the left of it. Similarly, it was the gold tables (v. 16) that were for the bread of display, whereas the silver tables (ibid.) were used for slaughtering, and for placing upon them the flesh of the burnt offering to be cut up. For even though the text does not mention this in the account of the construction of the Temple (2 Chr 3:1–4:22), we know it from the construction of the Temple that Ezekiel witnessed in a prophetic vision.

And of the keforei (כפורי) zahav (=keforim of gold). Our Sages, of blessed memory, explain that these are dashing instruments. For they say (b. Zevaḥim 25a): “And with what would he wipe away the blood from the knife? With the rim of the dashing instrument, as it says, ‘And of the keforei zahav.’” They were called this because they were used for wiping the knife clean, as in “mekhapper (מכפר) it with a worn out cloth” (cf. b. Ḥullin 8b), which means “he wipes it off.” This is always the sense of kapparah (כפרה).

And the gold for the figure of the chariot—the cherubs. This means: for the figure of the chariot of the holy creatures, because the faces of the cherubim were indeed on them.

Le-poresim ve-sokhekhim. This means: lihyot poresim (=so that they might spread) their wings ve-sokhekhim (=and cover) over the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.

Everything in writing from the hand of the Lord. This means: You have here everything written down neatly, the way the Lord, by His hand that was upon me, made me understand the plan of all the works (mal’akhot ha-tavnit). For as we have written (v. 12), it was all told to him by Samuel the seer through prophecy. Mal’akhot is a plural noun, the construct form of melakhot: in the construct state the alef draws a vowel. The same it true when [the word has] a possessive ending: “that I may recount all mal’akhotekha (=your works)” (Ps 73:28).

And with you in all the work are all who volunteer in their skill (le-kol nadiv ba-ḥokhmah) for any task—in the sense of “anyone whose heart yiddevennu (=prompts him to volunteer) to undertake the performance of the task” (cf. Exod 36:2). That is, skilled men are with you in all the work and in anything they volunteer (be-kol asher yitnaddevu) to do. And the officers and the entire nation are prepared for anything you might need.