2 Chronicles 2:17

17 Solomon counted all the foreigners living in Israel. (This was after the time his father David had counted the people.) There were one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred foreigners in the country.

2 Chronicles 2:17 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 2:17

And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land
of Israel
Which, according to Kimchi, were the remains of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites, see ( 2 Chronicles 8:8 ) , yet not idolaters, or they would not have been suffered by David and Solomon to have dwelt in the land, but were such as were become proselytes of the gate:

after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them;
not at the time Israel was numbered by him, but in order to provide workmen for the building of the temple, ( 1 Chronicles 22:2 ) ,

and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and six hundred;
men able to bear burdens, and hew timber.

2 Chronicles 2:17 In-Context

15 "Now send my servants the wheat, barley, oil, and wine you promised.

16 We will cut as much wood from Lebanon as you need and will bring it on rafts by sea to Joppa. Then you may carry it to Jerusalem."

17 Solomon counted all the foreigners living in Israel. (This was after the time his father David had counted the people.) There were one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred foreigners in the country.

18 Solomon chose seventy thousand of them to carry loads, eighty thousand of them to cut stone in the mountains, and thirty-six hundred of them to direct the workers and to keep the people working.