1 Kings 5:15

15 Solomon also had seventy thousand laborers and eighty thousand stonecutters 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 conscripted forced labor out of all Israel; the levy numbered thirty thousand men.

14 He sent them to the Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts; they would be a month in the Lebanon and two months at home; Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.

15 Solomon also had seventy thousand laborers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country,

16 besides Solomon's three thousand three hundred supervisors who were over the work, having charge of the people who did 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.