1 Kings 5 Study Notes

5:8-11 These were the terms of the business arrangements. Solomon bartered food for lumber and other products as well. Hiram’s men would cut the lumber, bring it to the sea, and lash it into rafts. Then the rafts were floated south and beached, probably at Joppa, the port nearest Jerusalem. From there they were taken to Jerusalem by the road that passed near Gezer. The amount of grain mentioned here was somewhat more than half the amount of grain collected for Solomon’s governmental structure (4:22-23). However, the book of 2 Chronicles adds an equal supply of barley to this amount (2Ch 2:10).

5:12 This verse matches v. 7 and shows that Solomon’s wisdom extended to international economics.

5:13-18 These projects were so big that Solomon sent Hebrew forced laborers to Phoenicia to help in the work. In this context thousand may be a general term with a meaning somewhat like “battalion.” The Gebalites were the people of ancient Byblos. The few cedars of Lebanon that remain today are in the mountains inland from Byblos. This passage confirms that Byblos was then under Hiram’s control.