1 Kings 5

Chap. V. Ver. 1—18. Solomon prepares for building the temple, and negociates with Hiram for materials.—In the close of the chapter preceding, we read that people came from all parts to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Some were doubtless influenced by curiosity; but many were ambassadors from different countries, who were deputed to congratulate him on his accession to the throne of Israel. Among these were the servants of Hiram, king of Tyre, with whom he formed both a friendly alliance and a commercial treaty; Hiram furnishing both cedar and fir trees for building, and sending artificers to instruct and work with those of Solomon. On the other hand, Solomon exported corn and oil to Hiram in great abun- dance. The number of persons employed in this erection, may seem very great; but Pliny informs us, that in erecting one of the vast pyramids of Egypt, there were 360,000 men employed for The history of David’s reign, is little more than the history of wars and insurrections.

Solomon’s was a reign of peace, which introduced commerce and the arts, which had been hitherto but little known among the Israelites. Solomon was particularly attached to architecture and to music; the former one of the most useful, and the latter one of the most elegant and pleasing arts of life; and both dedicated, in the first instance, to the honour of the Almighty. He built a temple which has been justly considered, for its magnificence and splendour, one of the wonders of the world; and he furnished it with an establishment for sacrifice and praise equally admirable and unprecedented: but the glory of the temple consisted in the residing Deity, and in the typical display of the doctrines of salvation.

Solomon was admonished, however, during the building, that the future happiness, both of himself and people, would depend on his adhering to the divine commands. “If thou wilt walk in my statutes, &c. then will I not forsake my people Israel.”

Notes on the verses

Chap. V. Ver. 6. Cedar trees out of Lebanon.—It should seem that the forest has been so much thinned at different times, that all modern travellers complain of the scarcity of large and very old trees. J. H. Meyer, in 1813, could find only nine principal trees, very old and large, and thinks it may not contain more than eight or nine hundred altogether. Ver. 7. Blessed be the Lord.—That is, Jehovah. It should seem from that Hiram must have been a proselyte to the Jewish religion; and this will well account for the zeal and readiness with which he entered into the design. Ver. 11. Measures.—(“Twenty thousand baths of oil,” are mentioned in Chronicles; and the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint, also have here “twenty thousand measures.”

But as barley and wine are also spoken of there, it is probable, that the zoeza mentioned here, and the small quantity of fine oil, was intended for the use of Hiram’s own family, while that in Chronicles was for his workmen.]—Bagster.; Ver. 15. And Solomon had, &c.—These labourers, it be from (2 Chronicles 2:7, 18). were all foreigners; either Canaanites, whose prisoners taken in war. Ver. 16. Three thousand, &c.—(In the parallel passage of Chronicles, it is “three thousand six hundred,” which is also the reading of the Septuagint here.)—Bagster.; Ver. 18. The stone-squarers.—See Margin; inhabitants of Gebal. See (Ezekiel 27:8).