1 Kings 9:10-14

I. THE BASIS OF SOLOMON'S GLORY 9:10-28

Whereas it was David who established the kingdom in its extent and power, it was Solomon who added the glamour. In 1 Kings 9:10-28 all that remains to be said about Solomon's building projects is collected. The heterogeneous materials are so arranged as to indicate the resources which enabled Solomon to erect so many and such magnificent buildings. These resources were threefold: (1) his connection with Hiram who supplied the building materials (1 Kings 9:10-14); (2) the tributary labor which he raised within his kingdom (1 Kings 9:15-25); and (3) the maritime expedition to Ophir which brought him great wealth and at the same time spread his fame (1 Kings 9:26-28). These notices are very condensed as a comparison with the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 8 indicates.

A. SOLOMON AND HIRAM 9:10-14

TRANSLATION

(10) And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the house of the king, (11) (Hiram, king of Tyre, supplied Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees and with gold according to all his desire), that then King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. (12) And Hiram went out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given to him, and they did not please him. (13) And he said, What cities are these which you have given to me, my brother? And he called them, The Land of Cabul unto this day. (14) Now Hiram had sent[245] the king a hundred twenty talents of gold.

[245] The pluperfect rendering of the RSV is much to be preferred to the simple past of the KJV and NASB.

COMMENTS

Solomon spent twenty years on his major building projectsseven years on the Temple and thirteen years on the palace complex (1 Kings 9:10). That Solomon was able to build such magnificent buildings was due largely to his alliance with Hiram king of Tyre, from whom, as has already been noted, he had received enormous amounts of timber. At some point during that twenty years, Solomon ran short of gold and again turned to Hiram to supply his need. Probably the hundred twenty talents of gold alluded to in 1 Kings 9:14 was a loan rather than a gift. The talent (lit., round thing) was the highest unit of weight in the Near East. The talent varied in weight from a hundred thirty pounds in the old Babylonian system to as little as forty-five pounds in the late Jewish system. The Berkley Version computes the value of this gold loan to have been about $3,500,000. David had collected vast amounts of precious metal for the Temple, and Solomon had in addition considerable yearly revenues derived from tribute and trade. Nevertheless, Solomon's buildings were so extensive that his revenues were not sufficient for the completion of these costly works. He was, therefore, compelled to procure a loan from the wealthy King Hiram. Some scholars believe that this money was advanced by Hiram on the strength of anticipated profits from his share in the joint naval expedition to Ophir described in 1 Kings 9:26-28.

Exactly why Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee (1 Kings 9:11) is unclear. Three views have been advocated in the commentaries: (1) the cities were a gift in appreciation for the help Hiram had rendered throughout the twenty years of building;[246] (2) Solomon could not keep up his yearly payments for Tyrian goods and services and was forced to cede these towns to Hiram;[247] (3) the towns were put up as security for the loan of the hundred twenty talents of gold. The last view is probably the correct one.

[246] Slotki, SBB, p. 72.
[247] Olmstead, HPS, p. 346.

Old Testament Galilee was the northern part of the tribal territory of Naphtali.[248] This region is known elsewhere as Galilee of the Gentiles because of the large number of Phoenicians who inhabited it.[249] The villages given to Hiram were doubtlessly Canaanite communities which had not been taken over and developed into Israelite cities. No doubt Solomon selected this territory to serve as security for the loan because of its geographical proximity to Phoenicia, its heavy foreign population and, apparently, its unproductiveness and general unattractiveness.

[248] Old Testament Galilee was not nearly so extensive as the territory called by that name in the New Testament. See Joshua 20:7; 2 Kings 15:29; Isaiah 9:1.

[249] Isaiah 9:1; Matthew 4:15.

When Hiram went out to inspect his newly acquired territory, he was greatly disappointed (1 Kings 9:12). He had hoped to be awarded a rich grain-producing area, but had received instead a mountainous, bleak and barren tract. Immediately he fired off a letter to Jerusalem to express his disappointment to Solomon. The terminology my brother was the standard form of address between kings who had formal treaties of friendship with one another. The king designated the land he had received as Cabul and the name stuck. Cabul is of uncertain derivation and scholars have expressed widely different views as to its meaning. Perhaps the best suggestion is that of Keil, supported recently by Gray, that Cabul means mortgaged. Others claim the name means nothing or worthless. Whatever be the precise meaning of the word, it is almost certainly an expression of disparagement intended to mark Solomon's stinginess. The Chronicler intimates that Solomon regained possession of the mortgaged cities (2 Chronicles 8:1-2). Perhaps Hiram simply refused to take jurisdiction of the area and gave the cities back to Solomon.