1 Chronicles 29:15

These words may contain a reason, either,

1. Of the first clause of 1 Chronicles 29:14, Who am I &c., i.e. what mean and contemptible creatures are we, and how unworthy of so high a favour! for, saith he here, we, I and my people, as it is 1 Chronicles 29:14, are strangers, &c, poor pilgrims, who bring nothing into the world, and pass hastily through it, and can carry nothing with us out of it. Or rather,

2. Of the last clause of that 14th verse, of thine own, &c. For the land which we possess is thine, not ours; we are not the proprietors or perpetual possessors of it, but only thy tenants: and as our fathers once were mere strangers in it, even with or before men, Psalms 105:12; so we at this day are no better with or before thee, having no absolute right and title in it, but only to travel through it, and sojourn in it for that short time that we live in the world. And this the argument seems to be borrowed from Leviticus 25:23, where this is give as a reason why the inheritances of the land of Canaan could not be sold for ever, but only till the jubilee; for, saith God, the land is mine, as to dominion and propriety, for ye were (or for, or but you are) only strangers and sojourners with me. There is none abiding: we only give to thee what we must shortly leave, and what we cannot keep to ourselves; and therefore it is a great favour that thou wilt accept such offerings; or, and therefore we are not perpetual possessors of this land, and the fruits of it, but only pilgrims and passengers through it.