1 Kings 5:18

And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stone squarers: [the marg. Giblites, i.e; people of Gebal, is to be preferred. For Gebal (= mountain) see Joshua 13:5 ("the land of the Giblites and Lebanon"); Psalms 83:7 ("Gebal and they of Tyro"); and Ezekiel 27:9 , where the LXX . translate the word Biblus, which was the Greek name of the city and district north of the famous river Adonis, on the extreme border of Phoenicia. It is now known as Jebeil. It has been already remarked that Tyre and Sidon, as well as Gebal, have Hebrew meanings. These are among the proofs of the practical identity of the Hebrew and Phoenician tongues. The Aramaean immigrants ( Deuteronomy 26:5 ; Genesis 12:5 ) no doubt adopted the language of Canaan (Dict. Bib; art. "Phoenicians"). Keil renders, "even the Giblites." He would understand, i.e; that the Zidonian workmen were Giblites; but this is doubtful. The Giblites are selected, no doubt, for special mention because of the prominent part they took in the work. Gebal, as its ancient and extensive ruins prove, was a place of much importance, and lying as it did on the coast, and near the cedar forests, would naturally have an important share in the cutting and shipping of the timber. Indeed, it is not improbable that it was at this port that the land transport ended, and the rafts were made. A road ran anciently from Gebal to Baalbak, so that the transport was not impracticable. But as the forests were probably of great extent, there may have been two or three depots at which the timber was floated] so they prepared timber [Heb. the timber ] and stones [Heb. the stones ] to build the house. [The LXX . (Vat. and Alex. alike) add here, " three years." It is barely possible that these words may have dropped out of the text, but they look more like a gloss, the inference from the chronological statement of 1 Kings 6:1 .]

HOMILETICS