1 Kings 5:18

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

the stonesquarers: or, Giblites, Joshua 13:5, Psalms 83:7, Ezekiel 27:9

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 6:7 - built of stone 2 Kings 12:12 - masons 2 Kings 22:6 - builders 1 Chronicles 14:1 - and timber 1 Chronicles 22:2 - masons 2 Chronicles 8:16 - General Proverbs 24:27 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 4:17
And Cain had relations with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Then Cain built a city and named it after his son Enoch.

Genesis 5:14
So Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died.

Genesis 5:15
When Mahalaleel was 65 years old, he became the father of Jared.

1 Chronicles 1:3
Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech.

Luke 3:37
the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew [them],.... The stones; for it seems Solomon had not only hewers of wood, but of stone, from Hiram:

and the stonesquarers; or rather the Giblites, the men of Gebal, which were under the jurisdiction of Tyre, and were skilful in this sort of work, as some of them were in others, see Ezekiel 27:9;

so they prepared timber and stones to build the house; both Solomon's and Hiram's builders, and the large number of workmen, both Israelites and strangers; which latter were an emblem of the Gentiles concerned in the building of the spiritual temple, the church of Christ, Zechariah 6:15; and whereas the number of strangers that wrought for the building was far greater than that of the Israelites, it may denote the greater number of Gentiles in the Gospel church state mentioned besides these: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year: so long as the building lasted, and the workmen were employed; but Abarbinel thinks that he gave it to him as long as he lived, out of his great munificence and liberality.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The stone-squarers - The Gebalites (see the margin), the inhabitants of Gebal, a Phoenician city between Beyrout and Tripolis, which the Greeks called Byblus, and which is now known as Jebeil.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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 the inhabitants of Biblos, at the foot of Mount Libanus, northward of Sidon, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; famous for its wines; and now called Gaeta. Both Ptolemy and Stephanus Byzantinus speak of a town called Gebala, to the east of Tyre: but this was different from Gebal, or Biblos. It seems more natural to understand this of a people than of stone-squarers, though most of the versions have adopted this idea which we follow in the text.