1 Kings 5:13

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁰So Hiram provided Solomon with all the cedar and cypress timber he wanted, ¹¹and year after year Solomon would provide Hiram with twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, as well as twenty thousand baths of pure olive oil. ¹²And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty. ¹³Then King Solomon conscripted a labor force of thirty thousand men from all Israel.¹⁴He sent them to Lebanon in monthly shifts of ten thousand, so that they would spend one month in Lebanon and two months at home. And Adoniram was in charge of the labor force. ¹⁵Solomon had 70,000 porters and 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, ¹⁶not including his 3,300 foremen who supervised the workers. ¹⁷And the king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones. ¹⁸So Solomon's and Hiram's builders, along with the Gebalites, quarried the stone and prepared the timber and stone for the construction of the temple.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

levy: Heb. tribute of men, 1 Kings 4:6

the levy: 1 Kings 9:15

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 5:1 - Hiram 1 Kings 9:21 - levy 2 Chronicles 2:17 - numbered 2 Chronicles 8:8 - to pay Ecclesiastes 5:11 - they

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel,.... Not of money, but of men, as follows:

and the levy was thirty thousand men; for what purpose, and how they were employed, 1 Kings 5:14 shows.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A levy out of all Israel - This was, apparently, the first time that the Israelites had been called upon to perform forced labor, though it had been prophesied 1 Samuel 8:16. David had bound to forced service “the strangers” 1 Chronicles 22:2; but hitherto the Israelites had escaped. Solomon now, in connection with his proposed work of building the temple, with the honor of God as an excuse, laid this burden upon them. Out of the 1,300, 000 able-bodied Israelites 2 Samuel 24:9, a band of 30,000 - one in forty-four - was raised, of whom one-third was constantly at work in Lebanon, while two-thirds remained at home, and pursued their usual occupations. This, though a very light form of task work, was felt as a great oppression, and was the chief cause of the revolt of the ten tribes at Solomon’s death 1 Kings 12:4.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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 superintendent, and were all Israelites.