1 Kings 5

3. Thou knowest. David seems to have communicated with Hiram on this subject: see 1 Chron. xxii. 4.

4 neither adversary nor evil occurrent. Rather, “occurrence,” such as rebellion, pestilence, famine, or war.

6. Lebanon. The forests of Lebanon were probably Solomon’s; but the Hebrews were inferior, as artisans and sailors, to the Sidonians, whose services were therefore required for felling and working the timber, and conveying it by sea to a seaport accessible to Jerusalem. Numerous testimonies to the mechanical and nautical skill and the artistic eminence of the Phoenicians are found in the Greek poets and historians (see also Ezek. xxvii.).

7. Blessed be the Lord. For Hiram’s acknowledgment of the Eternal, see also 2 Chron. ii. 11.

9 food for my household. This was an appropriate exchange between an agricultural and a commercial state, Tyre supplying, for the most part, the workmen’s skill and labour, and Israel supplying food for Hiram’s household. Food was also provided for the men employed on the works: see 2 Chron. ii. 10: see note on 2 Sam. v. 11.

15 that bare burdens. These were not Israelites, but persons belonging to conquered or tributary nations: see ix. 20-22; 2 Chron. ii. 17, 18.

17 the foundation of the house. The remains of the foundations at this day, as described by modern travellers, bear evidence to the accuracy of this description, in the “great stones, costly stones, and hewn stones,” which are still to be seen in the sub-structures, along the ground where the Temple stood. To obtain sufficient space for its numerous courts and apartments (which in later times, according to Josephus, covered a space half a mile in circuit), Solomon enlarged the area of the summit of the mount by raising a lofty terrace of great extent from the valley beneath.

18 the stone-squarers. Or, “Gebalites,” R.V.; that is, natives of Gebal, a city on the sea at the foot of Lebanon, now called Jubeil. See Ezek. xxvii. 9.