1 Kings 5

1Ki 5:1-6.

HIRAM

SENDS TO

CONGRATULATE

SOLOMON.

1. Hiram . . . sent his servants unto Solomon--the

grandson of David's contemporary [KITTO]; or the

same Hiram [WINER and others]. The friendly

relations which the king of Tyre had cultivated with David are here

seen renewed with his son and successor, by a message of condolence as

well as of congratulation on his accession to the throne of Israel. The

alliance between the two nations had been mutually beneficial by the

encouragement of useful traffic. Israel, being agricultural, furnished

corn and oil, while the Tyrians, who were a commercial people, gave in

exchange their Phœnician manufactures, as well as the produce of

foreign lands. A special treaty was now entered into in furtherance of

that undertaking which was the great work of Solomon's splendid and

peaceful reign.

6. command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of

Lebanon--Nowhere else could Solomon have procured materials for the

woodwork of his contemplated building. The forests of Lebanon,

adjoining the seas in Solomon's time, belonged to the Phœnicians,

and the timber being a lucrative branch of their exports, immense

numbers of workmen were constantly employed in the felling of trees as

well as the transportation and preparation of the wood. Hiram

stipulated to furnish Solomon with as large a quantity of cedars and

cypresses as he might require and it was a great additional obligation

that he engaged to render the important service of having it brought

down, probably by the Dog river, to the seaside, and conveyed along the

coast in floats; that is, the logs being bound together, to the harbor

of Joppa

(2Ch 2:16),

whence they could easily find the means of transport to Jerusalem.

my servants shall be with thy servants--The operations were to be on

so extensive a scale that the Tyrians alone would be insufficient. A

division of labor was necessary, and while the former would do the work

that required skilful artisans, Solomon engaged to supply the laborers.

1Ki 5:7-12.

FURNISHES

TIMBER TO

BUILD THE

TEMPLE.

7. Blessed be the Lord--This language is no decisive evidence that

Hiram was a worshipper of the true God, as he might use it only on the

polytheistic principle of acknowledging Jehovah as the God of the

Hebrews (see on

2Ch 2:11).

8. Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things . . .

and I will do--The contract was drawn out formally in a written

document

(2Ch 2:11),

which, according to JOSEPHUS, was preserved both

in the Jewish and Tyrian records.

10. fir trees--rather, the cypress.

11. food to his household--This was an annual supply for the palace,

different from that mentioned in

2Ch 2:10,

which was for the workmen in the forests.

1Ki 5:13-18.

SOLOMON'S

WORKMEN AND

LABORERS.

13. Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel--The renewed notice of

Solomon's divine gift of wisdom

(1Ki 5:12)

is evidently introduced to prepare for this record of the strong but

prudent measures he took towards the accomplishment of his work. So

great a stretch of arbitrary power as is implied in this compulsory

levy would have raised great discontent, if not opposition, had not his

wise arrangement of letting the laborers remain at home two months out

of three, added to the sacredness of the work, reconciled the people to

this forced labor. The carrying of burdens and the irksome work of

excavating the quarries was assigned to the remnant of the Canaanites

(1Ki 9:20;

2Ch 8:7-9)

and war prisoners made by David--amounting to 153,600. The employment

of persons of that condition in Eastern countries for carrying on any

public work, would make this part of the arrangements the less thought

of.

17. brought great stones--The stone of Lebanon is "hard, calcareous,

whitish and sonorous, like free stone"

[SHAW]. The same white and

beautiful stone can be obtained in every part of Syria and Palestine.

hewed stones--or neatly polished, as the Hebrew word signifies

(Ex 20:25).

Both Jewish and Tyrian builders were employed in hewing these great

stones.

18. and the stone squarers--The Margin, which renders it "the

Giblites"

(Jos 13:5),

has long been considered a preferable translation. This marginal

translation also must yield to another which has lately been proposed,

rendered thus: "Solomon's builders, and Hiram's builders, did hew them

and bevel them" [THENIUS]. These great bevelled or

grooved stones, measuring some twenty, others thirty feet in length,

and from five to six feet in breadth, are still seen in the

substructures about the ancient site of the temple; and, in the

judgment of the most competent observers, were those originally

employed "to lay the foundation of the house."