Kings I 5:6

6 And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon Azotus, and he brought evil upon them, and it burst out upon them into the ships, and mice sprang up in the midst of their country, and there was a great and indiscriminate mortality in the city.

Kings I 5:6 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 5:6

Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedars out of
Lebanon
That is, order his servants to cut them down there for him. Some think that Lebanon belonged to the land of Israel, and therefore Solomon did not ask for the cedars upon it, but for his servants to hew them for him; but as it lay upon the borders of Israel, part of it might belong to them, and another part to Hiram, and on which the best cedars might grow, and so he furnished Solomon both with trees, and men to cut them, as it seems from ( 1 Kings 5:10 ) ; see also ( 2 Chronicles 2:3 2 Chronicles 2:8 ) ;

and my servants shall be with thy servants:
to assist them, and to carry the timber from place to place, and to learn how to hew timber:

and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants, according to all that
thou shalt appoint;
pay them for their work and service, as Hiram himself should judge fit and reasonable for them; no mention being made of paying for the timber, seems to countenance the notion that the trees were Solomon's; but when the quantity of provisions sent yearly to Hiram for his household, besides what the servants had, is observed, it seems to have been sent as an equivalent to the timber received by Solomon, see ( 1 Kings 5:10 1 Kings 5:11 ) ;

for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew
timber like unto the Sidonians;
it is not said Tyrians, the Sidonians, perhaps, being more skilful in this than they were; and the Sidonians are said by Homer ^F25 to be (poludaidaloi) , very ingenious: and they were both under the jurisdiction and at the command of Hiram; so Eupolemus

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 makes the inscription of Solomon's letter to him to run thus, to Suron (that is, Hiram) king of Tyre, Sidon, and Phoenicia. The Jews being chiefly employed in husbandry, and in feeding cattle, were very unskilful in mechanic arts, and in this of cutting down trees, and hewing timber; for there is skill to be exercised therein; the proper time of cutting down trees should be observed, the part in which they are to be cut, and the position in which they are to be put when cut down, as Vitruvius ^F1 directs, with other things, and Pliny ^F2 observes the same.

F25 Iliad. 23. ver. 743.
F26 Ut supra. (Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 32, 34.)
F1 De Architectura, l. 2. c. 9.
F2 Nat. Hist. l. 16. c. 39.

Kings I 5:6 In-Context

4 And it came to pass when they rose early in the morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands cut off each before the threshold, and both the wrists of his hands had fallen on the floor of the porch; only the stump of Dagon was left.

5 Therefore the priests of Dagon, and every one that enters into the house of Dagon, do not tread upon the threshold of the house of Dagon in Azotus until this day, for they step over.

6 And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon Azotus, and he brought evil upon them, and it burst out upon them into the ships, and mice sprang up in the midst of their country, and there was a great and indiscriminate mortality in the city.

7 And the men of Azotus saw that so, and they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god.

8 And they send and gather the lords of the Philistines to them, and say, What shall we do to the ark of the God of Israel? and the Gittites say, Let the ark of God come over to us; and the ark of the God of Israel came to Geth.

Footnotes

• [a]. great confusion of death.