1 Kings

1 Kings 5:1-6

When Hiram, King of Tyre, heard that David had passed away and Solomon was now king he sent a delegation to Solomon.  This was Hiram recognizing Solomon, honoring him and offering a continued relationship.  Solomon received this delegation maintained the friendship with Hiram that was started with his father. 

Solomon makes it sound like Hiram would have known David couldn't build the temple, but that God said he would.  He asked Hiram to join him in this building project.  The sidonians had a worldwide reputation of being skilled in timbering.  Solomon was hiring the best for the job. 

1 Kings 5:7

Solomon talked to Hiram as if he were a fellow Jew; Hiram spoke like a Jew in response to King Solomon's proposal.

1 Kings 5:8-12

Josephus wrote that the letter Solomon wrote Hiram and the response of Hiram back to Solomon were kept in archives during his day.  This was huge building project that would certainly employ lots of people.  Hiram's reply was the delivery details and requested food for his household as payment.  How much food was this?  Was Hiram's staff as large as Solomons?  The payment seemed to be left up to Solomon who didn't want to offend Hiram.  So the provision had to large enough to impress Hiram; maybe even lavish! 

This was a large load of lumber.  In response Hiram was given 20,000 kors; this is 100,000 bushell of wheat and about 1600 gallon of oil.  This wasn't a 'one time' payment either, this was year by year.  Remember this is in a time when trees were cut by had and growing grain involved mostly manuel labor. 

1 Kings 5:13-18

This project is getting extremely expensive already.  Already, many people would have had to worked hard to supply the grain and oild to Hiram.  Then Solomon gets 30,000 workers from within Israel; another 70,000 laborers; 80,000 in the quarry along with 3300 supervisors, all of which need to eat and be sheltered.  It is somewhat assumed this is Canaanite slave labor.  This would be an incredibe feat with today's conveniences; it's hard to imagine what it took in those days. 

©2016 Doug Ford