1 Kings 5:1

Solomon Gathers Building Materials for the Temple

5:1 (5:15) King Hiram of Tyre sent messengers to Solomon when he heard that he had been anointed king in his father’s place. (Hiram had always been an ally of David.)

1 Kings 5:8-12

5:8 Hiram then sent this message to Solomon: “I received the message you sent to me. I will give you all the cedars and evergreens you need. 5:9 My servants will bring the timber down from Lebanon to the sea. I will send it by sea in raft-like bundles to the place you designate. There I will separate the logs and you can carry them away. In exchange you will supply the food I need for my royal court.”

5:10 So Hiram supplied the cedars and evergreens Solomon needed, 5:11 and Solomon supplied Hiram annually with 20,000 cors 10  of wheat as provision for his royal court, 11  as well as 20,000 baths 12  of pure 13  olive oil. 14  5:12 So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. And Hiram and Solomon were at peace and made a treaty. 15 


sn The verse numbers in the English Bible differ from those in the Hebrew text (BHS) here; 5:1-18 in the English Bible corresponds to 5:15-32 in the Hebrew text. See the note at 4:21.

map For location see Map1-A2; Map2-G2; Map4-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

tn Heb “his servants.”

tn Heb “heard.”

tn Heb “I will satisfy all your desire with respect to cedar wood and with respect to the wood of evergreens.”

tn Heb “I will place them [on? as?] rafts in the sea to the place where you designate to me.” This may mean he would send them by raft, or that he would tie them in raft-like bundles, and have ships tow them down to an Israelite port.

tn Heb “smash them,” i.e., untie the bundles.

tn Heb “as for you, you will satisfy my desire by giving food for my house.”

tn Heb “and Hiram gave to Solomon cedar wood and the wood of evergreens, all his desire.”

10 sn As a unit of dry measure a cor was roughly equivalent to six bushels.

11 tn Heb “his house.”

12 tc The Hebrew text has “twenty cors,” but the ancient Greek version and the parallel text in 2 Chr 2:10 read “twenty thousand baths.”

13 tn Or “pressed.”

14 tn Heb “and Solomon supplied Hiram with twenty thousand cors of wheat…pure olive oil. So Solomon would give to Hiram year by year.”

15 tn Heb “a covenant,” referring to a formal peace treaty or alliance.