2Now Solomon purposed to build an house for the name of the LORD, and an house for his kingdom. 2And Solomon told out threescore and ten thousand men to bear burdens, and fourscore thousand men that were hewers in the mountains, and three thousand and six hundred to oversee them. 3And Solomon sent to [1]Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him an house to dwell therein, even so deal with me. 4Behold, I build an house for the
Ch. II. Solomon's Preparations for Building the
Temple.
1, 2 [i. 18, ii. 1, Heb.] (= vv. 17, 18 below; 1 Kin. v. 15). Bearers
and Hewers.
1. for the name] cp. 1 Chr. xxii. 7, 10, 19, xxviii. 3, xxix. 16.
an house for his kingdom] See 1 Kin. vii. 1—8.
2. told out] i.e. counted. The 150,000 bearers and hewers mentioned here are said to have been aliens (ver. 17). This agrees with 1 Kin. v. 15, which distinguishes them from a levy of 30,000 hewers raised out of all Israel (ib. ver. 13). The 30,000 Israelites were subject to a corvée of one month in every three, the 150,000 aliens were presumably supposed to have been continuously engaged on the work. The Chronicler makes no mention of the levy of 30,000 Israelites, recorded in Kings, for no doubt he thought it unfitting that compulsory labour should be laid on the Israelites themselves. On the other hand he holds that the 150,000 were all aliens (see vv. 17, 18), whereas the writer in Kings, not having that scruple before his mind, does not make any such sweeping assertion (cp., however, 1 Kin. ix. 20).
3—10 (cp. 1 Kin. v. 2—6). Solomon's Message to Huram.
This passage is much fuller in Chron. than in 1 Kings, which offers no parallel to Solomon's language with regard to the Temple; vv. 4—6. Again, ver. 7 (the request for a "cunning man") has no nearer parallel than 1 Kin. vii. 13. For ver. 10 also there is no strict parallel in 1 Kings.
3. Huram] Another form of Hiram (1 Kin. v. 1 [15, Heb.]) which is a shortened form of Ahiram (Heb. Āḥ, "brother" and rām, "exalted. Yet another form is Hirom (1 Kin. v. 10; see R.V. mg.). The Phoenician language is written with even fewer vowel signs than are found in ancient Hebrew; hence the uncertainty in the form of this name.
didst send him cedars] See 1 Chr. xiv. 1 = 2 Sam. v. 11.
- ↑ In 1 Kings v. 1, Hiram.
