1 Chronicles 22:8

(8) But the word of the Lord came to me (upon me).—Literally, And a word of Jehovah became upon me. There is a partial correspondence between this “word of the Lord” and that which Nathan is represented as delivering (1 Chronicles 17:4-14). There, however, David is promised success in war, without any hint that warfare, as such, would unfit him for the sacred task which he longed to undertake. And in 1 Kings 5:3, Solomon implies that David’s wars left him no leisure for the work.

Thou hast shed blood.—The emphatic word is “blood.” Literally, Blood in abundance hast thou shed, and great wars hast thou made.

Because thou hast shed much blood.—Better. for torrents of blood (plural) hast thou shed earthward before me. The author of this narrative may well have remembered Genesis 9:5-6, and the denunciations of the prophets against men of blood. (Comp. especially Amos 1:3; Amos 1:13; Amos 2:1, with David’s treatment of the conquered Ammonites, 1 Chronicles 20:3. And see also Hosea’s denunciation of vengeance upon the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel: Hosea 1:4; Hosea 7:7). Or the verse may express the interpretation which David’s own conscience put upon the oracle forbidding him to build the Temple.