1 Kings 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Hiram, king of Tyre, sends messengers to Solomon after Solomon becomes king, and Solomon asks him for cedar timber from Lebanon to build a house for the LORD, something David could not do because of constant war. Hiram agrees to supply cedar and cypress logs, floated by sea, in exchange for yearly shipments of wheat and olive oil, and the two kings make a treaty. Solomon then drafts a large labor force from Israel, along with porters, stonecutters, and foremen, to quarry stone and prepare timber for the building.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon.
   • Hiram had heard that they had anointed Solomon king in his father's place.
   • Hiram had always been a friend of David.
2. 5:2
   • Solomon sent word to Hiram.
   • Solomon said the following to Hiram.
3. 5:3
   • Solomon said that Hiram knew that David his father could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God.
   • Solomon said the reason was the wars that surrounded David on every side.
   • Solomon said David could not build until the LORD put David's enemies under the soles of his feet.
4. 5:4
   • Solomon said that now the LORD his God had given him rest on every side.
   • Solomon said there was no adversary.
   • Solomon said there was no evil occurrence.
5. 5:5
   • Solomon said he intended to build a house for the name of the LORD his God.
   • Solomon said this was in accordance with what the LORD had spoken to David his father.
   • Solomon quoted the LORD as saying that David's son, whom the LORD would set on David's throne in his place, would build a house for the LORD's name.
6. 5:6
   • Solomon asked Hiram to give the order that cedars be cut for him out of Lebanon.
   • Solomon said his own servants would work with Hiram's servants.
   • Solomon said he would pay wages for Hiram's servants according to whatever Hiram set.
   • Solomon said Hiram knew that no one among Solomon's people was as skilled at cutting timber as the Sidonians.
7. 5:7
   • Hiram heard the words of Solomon.
   • Hiram rejoiced greatly.
   • Hiram said, Blessed be the LORD this day.
   • Hiram said the LORD had given David a wise son over this great people.
8. 5:8
   • Hiram sent word back to Solomon.
   • Hiram said he had heard the message Solomon sent.
   • Hiram said he would do everything Solomon desired concerning cedar timber and cypress timber.
9. 5:9
   • Hiram said his servants would bring the timber down from Lebanon to the sea.
   • Hiram said he would float the timber by sea in rafts to the place Solomon appointed.
   • Hiram said he would have the rafts broken apart there.
   • Hiram said Solomon would take the timber from there.
   • Hiram said Solomon would fulfill Hiram's desire by giving food for Hiram's household.
10. 5:10
    • Hiram gave Solomon cedar timber and cypress timber.
    • Hiram gave according to all that Solomon desired.
11. 5:11
    • Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat as food for Hiram's household.
    • Solomon gave Hiram twenty measures of pressed oil.
    • Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year.
12. 5:12
    • The LORD gave Solomon wisdom.
    • The LORD had promised Solomon this.
    • There was peace between Hiram and Solomon.
    • Hiram and Solomon made a covenant together.
13. 5:13
    • King Solomon raised a forced-labor levy out of all Israel.
    • The levy numbered thirty thousand men.
14. 5:14
    • Solomon sent them to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month.
    • They spent one month in Lebanon.
    • They spent two months at home.
    • Adoniram was in charge of the levy.
15. 5:15
    • Solomon had seventy thousand men who carried burdens.
    • Solomon had eighty thousand men who cut stone in the mountains.
16. 5:16
    • Solomon had three thousand three hundred chief officers over the work, in addition to those laborers.
    • These officers ruled over the people who did the work.
17. 5:17
    • The king gave a command.
    • They brought out great stones.
    • They brought out costly stones.
    • They brought out dressed stones.
    • The stones were for laying the foundation of the house.
18. 5:18
    • Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders cut the stones.
    • The men of Gebal also cut the stones.
    • They prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1

Tyre was a wealthy Phoenician port on the Mediterranean coast north of Israel, in what is now Lebanon. Its kings traded timber, dyed cloth and metalwork by sea across the region. "Anointed" means having olive oil poured over the head, the ceremony by which a man was formally installed as king. The King James phrase "in the room of his father" uses "room" in its older sense of place or stead: in his father's place.

5:3

"A house" here means a temple, a permanent building for worship, as opposed to the portable tent shrine Israel had used until then. "The name of the LORD" is a standard Hebrew way of speaking of the LORD himself as present and known among his people; a house built "for the name" is a house where that name is invoked. "Put them under the soles of his feet" is a picture of total victory, drawn from the practice of a victorious king setting his foot on a defeated enemy's neck.

5:4

The King James "evil occurrent" means an evil occurrence, that is, any misfortune or crisis that might arise. It is not a reference to moral evil.

5:5

Solomon is citing the promise reported in 2 Samuel 7, where the prophet Nathan tells David that his son, not David himself, will build the temple.

5:6

The cedars of Lebanon were the most prized building timber in the ancient Near East: tall, straight, fragrant, resistant to rot and insects, and used by kings across the region for palaces and temples. Sidon was another Phoenician port city; "Sidonians" is often used broadly for Phoenicians in general, who were famous for logging, carpentry and seafaring. The King James "any that can skill to hew timber" uses "can skill" in its older sense of knows how, is expert.

5:7

A king blessing the god of the country he was writing to was ordinary diplomatic courtesy in ancient Near Eastern correspondence, and the letter form here matches surviving royal letters of the period.

5:8

The tree the King James calls "fir" is uncertain; the Hebrew word probably means cypress or juniper, another durable, aromatic timber from the Lebanon range.

5:9

The sea is the Mediterranean. Logs were dragged from the mountains to the coast, lashed together into rafts, and towed or floated south along the shore to an Israelite-controlled landing point, then broken apart and hauled inland. This avoided moving enormous timbers overland the whole way.

5:11

The Hebrew measures are the cor, a dry measure of roughly six or seven bushels (about 220 liters), and the bath, a liquid measure of about six gallons (22 liters). The Hebrew text of Kings reads twenty cors of oil, a surprisingly small amount beside twenty thousand cors of wheat; the ancient Greek translation and the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 2 read twenty thousand baths, which is what the rendering follows. "Pure oil" means olive oil from the first, beaten pressing, the highest grade.

5:12

The King James "league" means a treaty or formal alliance between states, sealed by mutual obligations, not a loose friendship.

5:13

A "levy" is conscripted labor: men required to work for the crown for a set period without pay, as a form of tax. This was standard practice for large royal building projects, but resentment of it later helped split the kingdom (1 Kings 12).

5:14

"By courses" means in rotating shifts. Adoniram, the official over the forced labor, was still in that post a generation later, when the northern tribes stoned him to death during the revolt against Solomon's son (1 Kings 12:18).

5:15

"Bare burdens" means carried loads: porters hauling stone and timber. According to 1 Kings 9:20-22 and 2 Chronicles 2:17-18, this larger workforce was drawn from the non-Israelite peoples remaining in the land, as distinct from the thirty thousand Israelites conscripted in verse 13.

5:16

The parallel account in 2 Chronicles 2:18 gives three thousand six hundred supervisors rather than three thousand three hundred; ancient numbers in these lists often differ between the two books.

5:17

Quarried blocks were cut and squared at the quarry itself, so that the stones arrived ready to set. "Costly" refers to the labor and size involved, not to precious material.

5:18

The King James "stonesquarers" reflects a misunderstanding of the Hebrew word Giblim, which means men of Gebal, the Phoenician port later known as Byblos, on the coast north of Beirut. Its craftsmen were known for stonework and shipbuilding.