CHAPTER V _Hiram, king of Tyre, sends to congratulate Solomon on his_ _accession to the kingdom_, 1. _Solomon consults him on building a temple for the Lord, and_ _requests his assistance_, 2-6. _Hiram is pleased and specifies the assistance which he will_ _afford_, 7-9. _He sends cedars and... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:2. _SOLOMON SENT TO HIRAM_] Made an interchange of ambassadors and friendly greetings. Josephus tells us that the correspondence between Hiram and Solomon was preserved in the archives of the Tyrians even in his time. But this, like many other assertions of the same author, is worthy... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:4. _THERE IS NEITHER ADVERSARY_] אין שטן _eyn satan, there is_ _no satan_-no opposer, nor any kind of evil; all is peace and quiet, both without and within. God has given me this quiet that I may build his temple. _Deus nobis haec otia fecit_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:5. _A HOUSE UNTO THE NAME OF THE LORD_] The name of God is God himself. I purpose to build a house to that infinite and eternal Being called _Jehovah_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:6. _ANY THAT CAN SKILL TO HEW TIMBER_] An obsolete and barbarous expression for _any that know how to cut timber_. They had neither _sawyers, carpenters, joiners_, nor _builders_ among them, equal to the Sidonians. Sidon was a part of the territories of Hiram, and its inhabitants app... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:7. _BLESSED_ BE _THE LORD THIS DAY_] From this, and indeed from every part of Hiram's conduct, it is evident that he was a worshipper of the true God; unless, as was the case with many of the heathens, he supposed that every country had its own god, and every god his own country, and... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:9. _SHALL BRING_ THEM _DOWN FROM LEBANON UNTO THE SEA_] As the river _Adonis_ was in the vicinity of the forest of Lebanon, and emptied itself into the Mediterranean sea, near _Biblos_, Hiram could transport the timber all squared, and not only cut to scantling, but cut so as to occ... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:11. _AND SOLOMON GAVE HIRAM, C._] The information in this verse of the annual stipend paid to Hiram, is _deficient_, and must be supplied out of 2 Chronicles 2:10. Here _twenty thousand_ measures of wheat, and _twenty_ measures of pure oil, is all that is promised: there, _twenty th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:13. _THE LEVY WAS THIRTY THOUSAND MEN._] We find from the following verse that only _ten_ thousand were employed at once, and those only for one month at a time; and having rested two months, they again resumed their labour. These were the persons over whom Adoniram was superintenden... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:15. _THREESCORE AND TEN THOUSAND THAT BARE BURDENS_] These were all _strangers_, or _proselytes_, dwelling among the Israelites; as we learn from the parallel place, 1 Kings 2:17-11.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:16. _BESIDES - THREE THOUSAND AND THREE HUNDRED WHICH RULED_ _OVER THE PEOPLE_] In the parallel place, 2 Chronicles 2:18, it is _three thousand six hundred_. The Septuagint has here the same number.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:17. _GREAT STONES_] Stones of very large dimensions. _COSTLY STONES_] Stones that cost much labour and time to cut them out of the rock. _HEWED STONES_] Everywhere squared and polished.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 5:18. _AND THE STONE-SQUARERS_] Instead of _stone-squarers_ the _margin_ very properly reads _Giblites_, הגבלים haggiblim; and refers to Ezekiel 27:9, where we find the inhabitants of _Gebal_ celebrated for their knowledge in _ship-building_. Some suppose that these _Giblites_ were th... [ Continue Reading ]