1 Kings 5:15

15 Solomon had seventy thousand {common laborers} and eighty thousand stone craftsmen 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.

---

FOOTNOTES:

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

1 Kings 5:15 In-Context

13 Then King Solomon conscripted a forced labor from all Israel, and the forced labor [numbered] thirty thousand men.

14 He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand {every month}; the work groups were a month in Lebanon and two months at home; now Adoniram was over the forced labor.

15 Solomon had seventy thousand {common laborers} and eighty thousand stone craftsmen in the hill country.

16 Besides the chiefs of the officers Solomon had, there were three thousand three hundred having charge over the people who were doing the work.

17 When the king commanded, they quarried great stones [and] precious stones to lay [the] foundation of the house [with] hewn stones.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "carrying burden"