In 1 Chron. xxviii. 4, David says: "And the Lord God of Israel chose me out of all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever; for He hath chosen Judah to be the ruler, and in the house of Judah, the house of my father, and in the house of my father. He liked me to make me king over all Israel." David here points to an event by which Judah was raised to be the ruling tribe; and such an election is nowhere else to be found than in Gen. xlix. We cannot for a moment suppose that Judah was elected only in, and with, the election of David. Against such a supposition militates the fact, that even the election of David's house is represented in history as being distinct from the election of David himself; for in 1 Sam. xvi. the decree of God is first made known, that one of Jesse's sons is to be king; and it is only afterwards that we are told which of them is to be chosen. The expression too, "He hath chosen Judah to be the _ruler_," is decisive against it; for this expression has an evident reference to the sceptre and lawgiver in Gen. xlix. But if any doubt should still remain, it would be entirely removed by the parallel passage in 1 Chron. v. 2, where, in the words, "For Judah was mighty among his brethren, and of him the prince was to come," there is an allusion, which cannot be mistaken, to Gen. xlix.
There cannot be a doubt that David gave to his son the name Solomon, because he hoped that, in his just and peaceful reign, he would be a type of the Shiloh whom the nation should willingly [Pg 92] obey, just as, in his own reign, there had been the first grand fulfilment of what Jacob had prophesied of Judah's lion-courage, and lion-strength,--of Judah's sceptre and lawgiver. We have here the counterpart of the fact, that the children of Israel, after the first occupation of the country, gave to the seat of the sanctuary the name of Shiloh. In the case of Solomon, both the name and the substance point to Shiloh. With regard to the _name_, three out of the four letters of which the name [Hebrew: wlmh] consists, are common to it with Shiloh. The signification is precisely the same; so also is the form. In [Hebrew: wlmh] as well as in [Hebrew: wilh] we meet with the very rare case of the [Hebrew: wilh] at the end being thrown off. In _Ewald's_ Grammar, § 163, these two names are, for this reason, pointed out and placed immediately beside each other. And, with regard to the agreement in the _substance_, we refer to 1 Chron. xxii. 9, where Nathan says to David: "Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of _rest_, and I will give him _rest_ from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days." We refer, _further_, to 1 Kings v. 4, where Solomon says to Hiram: "And now the Lord my God hath given me _rest_ round about; there is neither adversary nor evil obstacle." We refer, _finally_, to 1 Kings v. 4, 5 (iv. 24, 25): "He had dominion over all the region on the other side of the river, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on the other side of the river, and he had peace from all his servants round about. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon."[18]