And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.

And David commanded to gather together the sojourners that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.

And he commanded to gather together all the proselytes of the land of Israel, and out of them he appointed stonecutters to hew stones and polish them, to build the house of God.

And David commanded to collect the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.

And David commanded to assemble the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.

And David saith to gather the sojourners who are in the land of Israel, and appointeth hewers to hew hewn-stones to build a house of God.

And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew worked stones to build the house of God.

And David gave orders to get together all the men from strange lands who were in the land of Israel; and he put stone-cutters to work, cutting stones for building the house of God.

David gave orders to gather together the foreigners who were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to cut worked stones to build God's house.

And he instructed them to gather all the new converts from the land of Israel. And from these he appointed stoneworkers, to hew stones and to polish them, so that he might build the house of God.

The strangers - i. e., the aliens the non-Israelite population of the land. Compare 2-Chronicles 2:17.

The strangers that were in the land - Those who had become proselytes to the Jewish religion, at least so far as to renounce idolatry, and keep what were called the seven Noahic precepts. These were to be employed in the more servile and difficult parts of the work: see on 1-Kings 9:21 (note). For the account of building the temple, see 1 Kings 5-9 (note), and the notes there.

And David commanded to gather together the (b) strangers that [were] in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.
(b) Meaning, cunning men of other nations who dwelt among the Jews.

And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel,.... The proselytes, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions; that is, proselytes of the gate, who submitted to the seven precepts of Noah, were admitted to dwell in the Cities of Israel, see Genesis 9:4 and these were ordered to be got together to be employed in building the temple, and making preparations for it; and that partly because they were better artificers than the Israelites, who were chiefly employed in husbandry and cattle, and partly that the Israelites, who were freemen, might not be put to hard service; but chiefly this was for the sake of a mystery in it, denoting that the Gentiles would be concerned in building the spiritual house and church of God, the temple was a type and figure of, see Zac 6:15.
and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God; to dig them out of the quarries, and fit them for the building.

David commanded to gather together the strangers--partly the descendants of the old Canaanites (2-Chronicles 8:7-10), from whom was exacted a tribute of bond service, and partly war captives (2-Chronicles 2:7), reserved for the great work he contemplated.

Workmen and materials for the building of the temple. - 1-Chronicles 22:2. In order to procure the necessary workmen, David commanded that the strangers in the land of Israel should be gathered together, and, as we learn from 2-Chronicles 2:16, also numbered. הגּרים, the strangers, are the descendants of the Canaanites whom the Israelites had not destroyed when they took possession of the land, but had reduced to bondage (2-Chronicles 8:7-9; 1-Kings 9:20-22). This number was so considerable, that Solomon was able to employ 150,000 of them as labourers and stone-cutters (1-Kings 5:15.; 2-Chronicles 2:16.). These strangers David appointed to be stone-cutters, to hew squared stones, גזית אבני (see on 1-Kings 5:18).