Text -- 1 Kings 5:15-18 (NET)

5:15 Solomon also had 70,000 common laborers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hills, 5:16 besides 3,300 officials who supervised the workers. 5:17 By royal order they supplied large valuable stones in order to build the temple’s foundation with chiseled stone. 5:18 Solomon’s and Hiram’s construction workers, along with men from Byblos, did the chiseling and prepared the wood and stones for the building of the temple.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 1Ki 5:15

¹ tn Heb “carriers of loads.”

² tn Heb “cutters” (probably of stones).

NET Notes: 1Ki 5:16

¹ tc Some Greek mss of the OT read “3,600”; cf. 2 Chr 2:2, 18 and NLT.

² tn Heb “besides thirty-three hundred from the officials of Solomon’s governors who were over the work, the ones ruling over the people, the ones doing the work.”

NET Notes: 1Ki 5:17

¹ tn Heb “and the king commanded.”

NET Notes: 1Ki 5:18

¹ tn Heb “builders.”

² tn Heb “the Gebalites.” The reading is problematic and some emend to a verb form meaning, “set the borders.”

³ tc The LXX includes the words “for three years.”