1 Kings 5:15

15 Solomon also had seventy thousand burden-bearers and eighty thousand hewers of stone in the hill country,

1 Kings 5:15 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 5:15

And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens,
&c.] Seventy thousand to carry the stones from the mountains out of which they were dug, and which were near Jerusalem, to the city; these were strangers in Israel, as were those that follow:

and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains:
eighty thousand that dug the stones out of the quarries, and squared them; these, with the others, made 150,000, see ( 2 Chronicles 2:17 ) ; according to Jacob Leon ^F7, the number of workmen at the temple for seven years was 163,600, and some make them more.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Relation of Memorable Things in the Temple, ch. 3. p. 14.

1 Kings 5:15 In-Context

13 King Solomon raised a levy of forced labor out of all Israel; and the levy numbered thirty thousand men.

14 And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in relays; they would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home; Adoni'ram was in charge of the levy.

15 Solomon also had seventy thousand burden-bearers and eighty thousand hewers of stone in the hill country,

16 besides Solomon's three thousand three hundred chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

17 At the king's command, they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones.