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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Kings 5:1 - 5:1
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Solomon's negotiations with Hiram of Tyre. - 1Ki 5:1. When king Hiram of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in the place of David, he sent his servants, i.e., an embassage, to Solomon, to congratulate him (as the Syriac correctly explains) on his ascent of the throne, because he had been a friend of David the whole time (כָּל־הַיָמִי×, i.e., as long as both of them David and Hiram were kings). On Hiram and the length of his reign, see the remarks on 2Sa 5:11. This is passed over in the Chronicles as having no essential bearing upon the building of the temple.
1Ki 5:2-3
Solomon thereupon communicated to Hiram, by means of an embassy, his intention to carry out the building of the temple which his father projected, and asked him for building wood from Lebanon for the purpose. From the words, “Thou knowest that my father David could not build,†etc., it is evident that David had not only been busily occupied for a long time with the plan for building a temple, but that he had already commenced negotiations with Hiram on the matter; and with this 1Ch 22:4 agrees. “To the name of Jehovah:†this expression is based upon Deu 12:5 and Deu 12:11 : “the place which the Lord shall choose to put His name there, or that His name may dwell there.†The name of Jehovah is the manifestation of the divine nature in a visible sign as a real pledge of His presence (see at 1Ki 12:5), and not merely numen Jovae quatenus ab hominibus cognoscitur, colitur, celebratur (Winer, Thenius). Hence in 2 Sam 7, to which Solomon refers, בַּיִת לִי ×‘Ö¸Ö¼× Ö¸×” (1Ki 5:5, 1Ki 5:7) alternates with לִשְ×מִי בַּיִת ×‘Ö¸Ö¼× Ö¸×” (1Ki 5:13). On the obstacle which prevented it, “because of the war, with which they (the enemies) had surrounded me,†see at 2Sa 7:9. On the construction, סָבַב with a double accusative, compare the very similar passage, Psa 109:3, which fully establishes the rendering we have given, so that there is no necessity to assume that מִלְחָמָה, war, stands for enemies (Ewald, §317, b.).
1Ki 5:4
“And now Jehovah my God has given me rest roundabout,†such as David never enjoyed for a permanency (cf. 2Sa 7:1). “No adversary is there.†This is not at variance with 1Ki 11:14, for Hadad's enterprise belonged to a later period (see the comm. on that passage). “And no evil occurrence:†such as the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba, the pestilence at the numbering of the people, and other events which took place in David's reign.
1Ki 5:5
“Behold, I intend to build.†×ָמַר followed by an infinitive, as in Exo 2:14; 2Sa 21:16. “As Jehovah spake to David;†viz., 2Sa 7:12, 2Sa 7:13.
1Ki 5:6-7
“And now command that they fell me cedars from Lebanon.†We may see from 1Ki 5:8 that Solomon had also asked for cypresses; and according to the parallel passage 2Ch 2:6., he had asked for a skilful artist, which is passed over here, so that it is only in 1Ki 7:13-14 that we find a supplementary notice that Hiram had sent one. It is evident from this request, that that portion of Lebanon on which the cedars suitable for building wood grew, belonged to the kingdom of Hiram. The cedar forest, which has been celebrated from very ancient times, was situated at least two days' journey to the north of Beirut, near the northernmost and loftiest summits of the range, by the village of Bjerreh, to the north of the road which leads to Baalbek and not far to the east of the convent of Canobin, the seat of the patriarch of the Maronites, although Seetzen, the American missionaries, and Professor Ehrenberg found cedars and cedar groves in other places on northern Lebanon (see Rob. Pal. iii. 440,441, and Bibl. Res. pp. 588ff.). The northern frontier of Canaan did not reach as far as Bjerreh (see at Num 34:8-9). “My servants shall be with thy servants,†i.e., shall help them in the felling of the wood. “And the wages of thy servants will I give to thee altogether as thou sayest.†“For thou knowest that no one among us is skilful in felling trees like the Sidonians.†This refers to the knowledge of the most suitable trees, of the right time for felling, and of the proper treatment of the wood. The expression Sidonians stands for Phoenicians generally, since Sidon was formerly more powerful than Tyre, and that portion of Lebanon which produced the cedars belonged to the district of Sidon. The inhabitants of Sidon were celebrated from time immemorial as skilful builders, and well versed in mechanical arts (compare Rob. Pal. iii. 421ff., and Movers, Phoenizier, ii. 1, pp. 86ff.).
Hiram rejoiced exceedingly at this proposal on the part of Solomon, and praised Jehovah for having given David so wise a son as his successor (1Ki 7:7). It must have been a matter of great importance to the king of Tyre to remain on good terms with Israel, because the land of Israel was a granary for the Phoenicians, and friendship with such a neighbour would necessarily tend greatly to promote the interests of the Phoenician commerce. The praise of Jehovah on the part of Hiram does not presuppose a full recognition of Jehovah as the only true God, but simply that Hiram regarded the God of Israel as being as real a God as his own deities. Hiram expresses a fuller acknowledgment of Jehovah in 2Ch 2:11, where he calls Jehovah the Creator of heaven and earth; which may be explained, however, from Hiram's entering into the religious notions of the Israelites, and does not necessarily involve his own personal belief in the true deity of Jehovah.
1Ki 5:8-11
Hiram then sent to Solomon, and promised in writing (בִּכְתָב, 2Ch 2:10) to comply with his wishes. ×ֵלַי שָ×לַחְתָּ ×ֲשֶ×ר ×ֵת, “that which thou hast sent to me,†i.e., hast asked of me by messenger. בְרֹושִ××™× are not firs, but cypresses. “My servants shall bring down (the trees) from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts (i.e., bind them into rafts and have them floated) upon the sea to the place which thou shalt send (word) to me, and will take them (the rafts) to pieces there, and thou wilt take (i.e., fetch them thence).†The Chronicles give Yafo, i.e., Joppa, Jaffa, the nearest harbour to Jerusalem on the Mediterranean Sea, as the landing-place (see at Jos 19:46). “And thou wilt do all my desire to give bread for my house,†i.e., provisions to supply the wants of the king's court. “The שָׂכָר mentioned in 1Ki 5:6 was also to be paid†(Thenius). This is quite correct; but Thenius is wrong when he proceeds still further to assert, that the chronicler erroneously supposed this to refer to the servants of Hiram who were employed in working the wood. There is not a word of this kind in the Chronicles; but simply Solomon's promise to Hiram (1Ki 5:9): “with regard to the hewers (the fellers of the trees), I give thy servants wheat 20,000 cors, and barley 20,000 cors, and wine 20,000 baths, and oil 20,000 baths.†This is omitted in our account, in which the wages promised in 1Ki 5:6 to the Sidonian fellers of wood are not more minutely defined. On the other hand, the payment for the wood delivered by Solomon to Hiram, which is not mentioned in the Chronicles, is stated here in 1Ki 5:11. “Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cors of wheat as food (מַכֹּלֶת, a contraction of מַ×ְכֹלֶת, from ×ָכַל; cf. Ewald, §79, b.) for his house (the maintenance of his royal court), and 20 cors of beaten oil; this gave Solomon to Hiram year by year,†probably as long as the delivery of the wood or the erection of Solomon's buildings lasted. These two accounts are so clear, that Jac. Capp., Gramt., Mov., Thenius, and Bertheau, who have been led by critical prejudices to confound them with one another, and therefore to attempt to emend the one from the other, are left quite alone. For the circumstance that the quantity of wheat, which Solomon supplied to Hiram for his court, was just the same as that which he gave to the Sidonian workmen, does not warrant our identifying the two accounts. The fellers of the trees also received barley, wine, and oil in considerable quantities; whereas the only other thing which Hiram received for his court was oil, and that not common oil, but the finest olive oil, namely 20 cors of כָּתִית שֶ×מֶן, i.e., beaten oil, the finest kind of oil, which was obtained from the olives when not quite ripe by pounding them in mortars, and which had not only a whiter colour, but also a purer flavour than the common oil obtained by pressing from the ripe olives (cf. Celsii Hierobot. ii. pp. 349f., and Bähr, Symbolik, i. p. 419). Twenty cors were 200 baths, i.e., according to the calculations of Thenius, about ten casks (1 cask = 6 pails; 1 pail = 72 cans). If we bear in mind that this was the finest kind of oil, we cannot speak of disproportion to the quantity of wheat delivered. Thenius reckons that 20,000 cors of wheat were about 38,250 Dresden scheffeln (? sacks).
1Ki 5:12
The remark that “the Lord gave Solomon wisdom†refers not merely to the treaty which Solomon made with Hiram, through which he obtained materials and skilled workmen for the erection of the house of God (Thenius), but also to the wise use which he made of the capacities of his own subjects for this work. For this verse not only brings to a close the section relating to Solomon's negotiations with Hiram, but it also forms an introduction to the following verses, in which the intimation given by Solomon in 1Ki 5:6, concerning the labourers who were to fell wood upon Lebanon in company with Hiram's men, is more minutely defined.