2 Chronicles 2:8 - Exposition

Algum trees, out of Lebanon . These trees are called algum in the three passages of Chronicles in which the tree is mentioned, viz. here and 2 Chronicles 9:10 , 2 Chronicles 9:11 , but in the three passages of Kings, almug, viz. 1 Kings 10:11 , 1 Kings 10:12 bis. As we read in 1 Kings 10:11 ; 2 Chronicles 9:10 , 2 Chronicles 9:11 , that they were exports from Ophir, we are arrested by the expression, "out of Lebanon," here. If they were accessible in Lebanon, it is not on the face of it to be supposed they would be ordered from such a distance as Ophir. Lastly, there is very great difference of opinion as to what the tree was in itself. In Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' vol. 3. appendix, p. 6; the subject is discussed more fully than it can be here, and with some of its scientific technicalities. Celsius has mentioned fifteen woods for which the honour has been claimed. More modern disputants have suggested five, of these the red sandalwood being considered, perhaps, the likeliest. So great an authority as Dr. Hooker pronounces that it is a question quite undetermined. But inasmuch as it is so undetermined, it would seem possible that, if it were a precious wood of the smaller kind (as e.g. ebony with us), and, so to say, of shy growth in Lebanon, it might be that it did grow in Lebanon, but that a very insufficient supply of it there was customarily supplemented by the imports received from Ophir. Or, again, it may be that the words, "out of Lebanon," are simply misplaced ( 1 Kings 5:8 ), and should follow the words, "fir trees." The rendering "pillars" in 1 Kings 10:12 for "rails" or "props" is unfortunate, as the other quoted uses of the wood for "harps" and "psalteries" would all betoken a small as well as very hard wood. Lastly, it is a suggestion of Canon Rawlinson that, inasmuch as the almug wood of Ophir came via Phoenicia and Hiram, Solomon may very possibly have been ignorant that "Lebanon" was not its proper habitat. Thy servants can skill to cut timber . This same testimony is expressed yet more strongly in 1 Kings 5:6 , "There is not any among us that can skill to hew timber like the Sidoniaus." Passages like 2 Kings 19:23 ; Isaiah 14:8 ; Isaiah 37:24 , go to show that the verb employed in our text is rightly rendered "hew," as referring to the felling rather than to any subsequent dressing and sawing up of the timber. It is, therefore, rather more a point of interest to learn in what the great skill consisted which so threw Israelites into the shade, while distinguishing Hiram's servants. It is, of course , quite possible that the "hewing," or "felling," may be taken to infer all the subsequent cutting, dressing, etc. Perhaps the skill intended will have included the best selection of trees, as well as the neatest and quickest laying of them prostrate, and if beyond this it included the sawing and dressing and shaping of the wood, the room for superiority of skill would be ample. My servants (so Isaiah 37:2 , Isaiah 37:18 ; 1 Kings 5:15 ).