Verse 9
“ My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you shall appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and you will receive them, and you will accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.”
Hiram’s ‘servants’ (in this case his timber experts, in combination with bearers, and with his seamen) would bring the timber from the mountains of Lebanon to the sea, and would then make them into rafts and tow them along the coast to the place that Solomon appointed, and would break up the rafts of timber and deliver the timber to Solomon and his workmen so that they could do what they liked with them. And in return Solomon would provide payment in the form of large amounts of food for Hiram’s whole court, his ‘household’. This did not simply mean that he would expect food for his workers. It was a requirement for large quantities of grain and pure beaten olive oil (a staple Israelite luxury export) which would be paid to Hiram in exchange for what he had provided (possibly along with an agreement allowing Hiram to purchase a number of Israelite cities and their environs as we shall see later - 1 Kings 9:11-12).
‘ So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of pine according to all his desire.’
The contract having been agreed Hiram then supplied Solomon with all his timber requirements, providing him with as much cedar and pine as he desired.
‘ And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food for his household, and twenty measures of pure oil. Thus did Solomon give to Hiram year by year.’
And in return Solomon gave Hiram ‘twenty thousand measures (cors) of wheat for food for his household, and twenty measures (cors) of pure oil’ each year over a number of years. The number of years was possibly determined by the number of years in which Solomon required assistance, that is, for the length of time that it took to build the Temple, and possibly the palace. A ‘cor’ is 220 litres.
We should not confuse these figures with the figures in 2 Chronicles 2:10 which were given once for all and were specifically for the workforce, ‘the hewers who cut timber’.
‘ And YHWH gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him, and there was peace (or ‘concord’) between Hiram and Solomon, and they two made a league together.’
But the greatest gift was seen by the writer as coming from YHWH. He it was who gave Solomon wisdom as He had promised him, and part of that wisdom consisted in his political and negotiating ability which resulted in peace and concord between the two great countries and a firm treaty between them. By this time Tyre and Sidon were becoming even more important because they were beginning to rule the waves and trade far and wide by sea (see for example Isaiah 23:8). ‘Peace’ might be better translated as ‘concord’.
‘ And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel, and the levy was thirty thousand men.’
For the purpose of building the Temple Solomon raised a compulsory levy from Israel itself. This levy on Israel was probably seen as necessary in order that the work might not be done by ‘profane’ Canaanite hands, the Sidonian contribution being seen as not quite in the same category because it could be looked at as part of the purchase of the timber and they would not be seen as ‘Canaanites’. Canaanites were seen as off limits (Deuteronomy 23:1-2; Exodus 23:23 and often). The levy consisted of thirty large work units.
Alternately it may have been due to the fear that Canaanite bondsmen sent to Tyre and Sidon may not have chosen to return to Israel, and may have found it easy to escape from there.
‘ And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the men subject to taskwork.’
Each group of ten work units would spend one month working in the Lebanon, and two months back at their homes. They were thus very much not seen as slave labour, which would have been required to work permanently, and Solomon (like any politician who did not have to get his hands dirty) probably thought that they should feel privileged to be doing such work. They were, however, under Adoniram’s control and, as we know from what happened later, he was not very much admired as a result of the way in which he treated them. In those days under such circumstances being whipped was normal (1 Kings 12:4; 1 Kings 12:11; 1 Kings 12:18), even though it is very possible that they were working as paid labourers.
‘ And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand who bore burdens, and fourscore thousand who were hewers in the mountains, besides Solomon’s chief officers who were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who bore rule over the people who wrought in the work.’
As well as these thirty work units working in Lebanon there were seventy work units who ‘bore burdens’ (were shifters and carriers), and eighty work units of quarrymen. These were Canaanite bond-slaves (compare 2 Chronicles 2:17-18). Over all these were the general Canaanite overseers who were directly supervising the work, who numbered three thousand three hundred, a figure which seemingly excluded three hundred senior Canaanite overseers who were included in the figure of three thousand six hundred in 2 Chronicles 2:2. In Kings these were rather included in the figure of five hundred and fifty chief overseers mentioned in 1 Kings 9:23, which was made up of three hundred chief Canaanite overseers plus two hundred and fifty chief Israelite overseers (2 Chronicles 8:10). The numbers all tie in once we recognise that each writer was selecting different statistics and referring to different levels.
Alternately we may see three levels of ‘chief officers’, the three thousand three hundred who directly supervised the workers, the three hundred who supervised the supervisors, and the two hundred and fifty who were the overall supervisors.
Note that all the ‘numbers’ are round numbers, and are significant numbers, ‘three’ indicating completeness, ‘seven’ indicating divine perfection, and ‘eight’ signifying the new springing out of the old (compare the eight people in the Ark and the circumcision on the eighth day). They were intended to give the impression of the completely satisfactory nature of the work force at work on the Temple rather than as indicating the exact actual size of the workforce.
‘ And the king commanded, and they hewed out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with wrought stone.’
At the king’s command the Canaanite levies hewed out, from the quarries in the hills, stones which were especially valued, being of a type which could be easily dressed and shaped, and then became hardened, in order for them to be delivered to the Israelite workers at the quarry (1 Kings 6:7). Presumably as this was simply seen as the extraction of rough unshaped stones the use of Canaanites was not seen as profaning them. But they would not be allowed to dress or shape them.
‘ And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites fashioned them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.’
Solomon’s builders then worked alongside Hiram’s builders, and with specialists brought in from Gebal (Greek - Byblos) further up the coast, in order to fashion and shape the stones, and prepare the stones and timber for building the Temple.
All this is a reminder to us that if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well. As Paul reminds us, whatever we do, we should do it heartily to the Lord and not to men (Colossians 3:21). Nevertheless it was unnecessary effort which could have been better put into building up the spiritual life of Israel, and preventing their worship at syncretistic high places.
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