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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Kings 5:13 - 5:13
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The tributary labourers out of Israel. - 1Ki 5:13, 1Ki 5:14. Solomon raised a tribute (מַס, tribute-labourers, as in 1Ki 4:6) out of all Israel, i.e., out of the whole nation (not “out of the whole territory of Israel,” as Ewald supposes), 30,000 men, and sent them up to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in rotation; one month they were on Lebanon (doing tribute work), two months at home (looking after the cultivation of their own ground). וַיַּעַל, from הֶעֱלָה, does not mean in tabulas referre, in support of which appeal is made to 1Ch 27:24, though on insufficient ground, but ascendere fecit, corresponding to the German ausheben (to raise). He raised them out of the nation, to send the up Lebanon (cf. 1Ki 9:25). These 30,000 Israelitish labourers must be distinguished from the remnants of the Canaanites who were made into tribute-slaves (1Ki 5:15 and 1Ki 9:20). The latter are called עֹבֵד מַס, tribute-slaves, in 1Ki 9:21 as in Jos 16:10. That the Israelites were not to render the service of bondsmen is evident from the fact, that they only rendered tribute for four months of the year, and were at home for eight months; and the use of the epithet מַס is not at variance with this. For even if this word is applied elsewhere to the Canaanitish bondsmen (e.g., Jos 17:13; Jdg 1:28, Jdg 1:30, and 2Ch 8:8), a distinction is decidedly made in our account of Solomon between מַס and עֹבֵד מַס, inasmuch as in 1Ki 9:22, after the Canaanitish bondsmen have been mentioned, it is expressly stated that “of Israel Solomon made no one a slave” (עֲגָלִים). The 30,000 Israelitish tribute-servants are “to be thought of as free Israelites, who simply performed the less severe work of felling trees in fellowship with and under the direction of the subjects of Hiram _(see at 1Ki 5:6), according to the command of the king, and probably not even that without remuneration” (Thenius). For Adoniram see at 1Ki 4:6.