The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 94

thou ahalt appoint [Heb. send] me [In 2 obtained by pounding the olives, when not Ohron. ii. 16, Hirnm assumes that this quite ripe, in a mortar. Tb.is was both of place will be Joppa, now Yitfo, the port of whiter colour and purer flavour, and also Jerusalem, nnd 40 miles distant from the gave a clearer light, than that furnished by Holy City. The transport over these 40 the ripe olives in the press. Bee the mileil, nlso of most rugged and trying road, authorities quoted in Bahr's Symbolik, i. must have involved, if possible, a still p. 419): thus gave Solomon to Hiram year greater toil tho.n that from Lebanon to the by year (probably so Jong as the building sea.] and w1ll cause them to be discharged lasted or timber was furnished. But the there, and thou shaJt receive them : and agreement may have been for a still longer thou shalt accompllsh [Heb. do, ea.me word period.] as in ver. 8, and probably used designedly Ver. 12.-And the Lord gave [Can there = " I will perform thy desire . . . and thou be any reference to the repeated " gave " of sha.lt perform my desire." There shall be a the two preceding verses ?] to Solomon Wis- strict quid pro quo] my desire, 111 giving dom, as he promised him (eh. iii. 12) and food for my household [Hiram states in his there was peace [one fruit of the gift. Cf. reply in what shape he would prefer the James iii. 17) between Hiram and Solomon, hire promised by Solomon (ver. 6). The and they two made· a league together food for the royal household must be care- (Heb. "cut a covenant." Cf. opicuz Tiµi·••v. fully distinguished from the food given to Covenants were ratified by the slaughter of the workmen (2 Chron. ii. 10). The fact victims, between the parts of which the that 20,000 cors of wheat formed a pa.rt of contracting parties passed (Gen. xv. 18 ; each has led to their being confounded (e.g. Jer. xxxiv. 8, 18, 19). Similarly ~rrovoii, in the marginal references). It is noticeable "libation," in the plural, means "league, that when the second temple was built, truce," and ~,rovoa!: Tip.v,w is found in cedo.r wood was again brought to Jerusalem, classic Greek.] via Joppa., in return for "meat and drink Ver. 13.-And Blllg Solomon raised a and oil unto them of Zidon '' (Ezra iii. 7), levy [Marg., tribute of men, i.e., conscrip- The selection of food as the hire of hie tion] out of ell Israel [i.e., the people, not servants by Hiram almost amounts to an the Jo.nd-Ewa.ld] and the levy was thirty undesigned coincidence. Their no.now strip thousand men. [That is, if we may trust of comlo.nd, between the roots of Lebanon the figures of the census given in 2 Sam. and the coast-PhCllnicia proper (" the :niv. 9 (which do not agree, however, with great plain of the city of Sid on," Josephus, those of 1 Chron. xxi. 5), the conscription Ant. v. 3, 1) is only 28 miles long, with an only affected one in forty of the male popu- average breadth of one mile-eompelled the lation. But even the lower estimate of importation of corn and oil. Ezekiel Samuel is regarded with some suspicion. (xxvii. 17) mentions wheat, honey, oil, and Such a levy was predicted (1 Sam. viii. 16). balm as exported from Palestine to the Ver. 14.-And he sent them to Lebanon, markets of Tyre. It has been justly re- ten thousand a month, by courses [Heb. marked that the faot that Phcenicia was changes]: a month they were In Lebanon, thus dependent upon Palestine for its and two months at home [they had to serve, breadstu.fla explains the unbroken peace tho.t is to say, four months out of the twelve that prevailed between the two countries -no very great hardship], and Adonlram (Heeren. See Diet. Bib. ii. p. 865). [see on eh. iv. 6; xii. 18) was over the levy. Ver. 10.-So Hiram gave [Heb. kept Ver. 15.-And Solomon had threescore giving, supplied] Solomon cedar trees and and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fir (or cypressJ trees, accordiDg to all h1s fourscore thousand hewers In the moun- desire. tains. [These 150,000, destined for the Ver. 11.-And Solomon gave Hiram more laborious and menio.l works, were not twenty thousand measures [Heb. cors. See Israelites, but Canaanites. We learn from 2 Chron. ii. 17, 18 that "all the strangers eh. iv. 22] of wheat for food [n':,:,t.:> for that were in the land of Israel " were sub- n':,:,~r.:,J to h1s household [Rawlinson re- jected to forced labour by Solomon-there marks that this was much less than were, that is to say, but 150,000 of them Solomon's own cons'l.lnlption (eh. iv. 22). remaining. They occupied a very different But he did not undertake to feed Himm's position from that of the S0,000 Hebrews. entire court, but merely to make an adequate None of the latter were reduced to bond- return for the timber and labour he received. age (eh. ix. 22), while the former had And the consumption of fine flour in long been employed in servile work. The Solomon's household was only about 11,000 Gibeonites were reduced to serfdom by core per annuu] and twenty measures of Joshua (Josh. ix. 27), and the rest of the pure oil [lit., beaten oi~ i.e., such 11s wns . Cannllllitcs 11s they were conquered (Josh.xvi.,  88 THE FIRST BOOK OF RINGS. [oa. v. 1-18.