10; xvii. 13 ; Juclg. i. 29, 30). In l Chron. Israelites, whilst in Kings it ie one of status, x:xii. 2, we find some of them employed on i.e., 3,300 inferior and 660 superior officers. public works by David. By the " hewers" It follows consequently that all the inferior me.ny co=entators have supposed that and 300 of the superior overseers were stone-cutters alone are intended (so Jos., Cane.a.nites] which ruled over the people Ant., viii. 2. 9) partly because stone is men- that wrought 1n the work. tioned presently, and pe.rtly because :l"ir Ver. 17.-And the king commanded and is mostly used of the quarrying or cutting they brought [or cut out, quarried (Gesen.), of stone, as in Deut. vi. 11 ; viii. 9 ; 2 Kings as in Eccles. x. 9 ; see also eh. vi. 7 (Heb.) J xii. 12, &c. Gesenius w1derstands the great stones, costly [precious, not heavy, as word both of stone and wood cutters. But Thenius. Cf. Psa. x.xxvi. 8; xlv. 9 ; Esth. is it not probable that the latter a.lone a.re i. 4 in the Heb.], stones and [omit and. indicated? That the word is sometimes The hewed stones were the great and costly used of wood-cutting Isa.. x. 15 shows. And stones] hewed stones [ or squared (Isa. ix. 10 ; the words, "in tlu mountain" (ii:1~) almost cf. eh. vi. 36; vii. 9; xi. 12). We learn from compel us so to nndersta.nd it here. " The eh. vii. 10 that the stones of the foundation monntain " must be Lebanon. But surely of the palace were squared to 8 cubits and the stone was not transported, to any great 10 cubits] to lay the foundation of the house. extent, like the wood, so great a. distance [Some of these great squared stones, we can over land and sea, especially when it abonnded hardly doubt, are found in situ at the on the spot. (The tradition that the stone present day. The stones at the south-east was quarried at Baalbek is quite unworthy angle of the walls of the Haram (Mosque of of credence. It has no doubt sprung from Omar) are "unquestionably of Jewish ma. the huge stones found there. "The temple sonry" (Porter, Handbook, p. 115). "One was built of the beautiful white stone of the is 23 ft. 9 in. long ; whilst others vary country, the hard missal" (Warren, p. 60.) from 17 to 20 feet in length. Five courses It is true the number of wood-cutters would of them are nearly entire" (ib.) AB Herod, thus appear to be very great, but it is to be in rebuilding the edifice, would seem to have remembered how few comparatively were the had nothing to do with the foundations, we appliances or machines of those days : al- may safely connect these huge blocks with most everything must be done by manual the time of Solomon. It is also probable le.bonr. And Pliny tells us that no less than that some at least of the square pillars, 360,000 men were employed for twenty years ranged in fifteen rows, and mea.suring five feet on one of the pyramids. It is possible, each side, which form the foundations of however, that the huge founde.tions men- the Mosque El Aksa, and the supports of the tioned below (ver. 17) were brought from area of the Haram, are of the same date Leba.non.J and origin (cf. Ewald, Hist. Israel, iii. 233). Porter holds that they are "coeval with the Ver. 16.-Beeide [without counting] the oldest part of the external walls." Many of chief of Solomon's oflicers [Heb. the princes them, the writer observed, were monoliths. of the overseers, i.e., the princes who acted The extensive vaults which they enclose are as overseers, principes qui praejecti erant unquestionably " the subterranean vaults of (Vatabl.) ] which were over the work three the temple area" mentioned by Josephus thousand and three hundred [This large (B. J, v. 3. 1), and the "cavati sub terra number proves that the " chiefs of the over- montes " of Tacitus. It may be added here seers" cannot be meant. Were all the that the recent explora.tions in Jerusalem 3,300 superior officers, there must have been have brought to light ma.ny evidences of quite an army of subalterns. But we read Phcenician handiwork.] of none. In eh. ix. 23, an additional num- Ver. 18.-And Solomon's builders and ber of 550 " princes of the overseers " (same Hira.m's builders did hew them, and the expression) is mentioned, making a total of stone-squarers : [the marg. Giblites, i.e., 3,850 superintendents, which agrees with people of Gebal, ie to be preferred. For the total stated in the Book of Chronicles. Gebal ( =mountain) see Josh. xiii. 5 (" the It is noteworthy, however, that the details land of the Giblites and Lebanon") ; Pea. differ from those of the Kings. In 2 Chron. lxxxiii. 7 (" Gebal and they of Tyre") ; and ii. 17 we read of a body of 3,000 "overseers Ezek. xxvii. 9, where the LXX. translate the to set the people a work," whilst in eh. viii. • word Biblus, which was the Greek name of 10 mention is made of 250 " princes of the the city and district north of the famous overseers." These differences result, no river Adonis, on the extreme border of doubt, from difference of classification and Phamicia. It is now known as J ebeil. It h11s arrangement (J. H. Michaelis). In Chron. been 11lready remarked that Tyre and Sidon, the arrangement is one c,f race, i.e., 3,600 as well as Gebo.I, have Hebrew meanings. aliens C1jl ; cf. 2 Chroo. ii. 18) and 250 These aro among tho proofs of the practical CB, V. 1-18.] r TilE FlRB1 BOOK OF KINGS, 89
identity of the Hebrew and Phranician port that the land transport ended, and the tongues. The Are.mman immigrants (Deut. rafts were made. A road ran anciently from :uvi. 6 ; Gen. xii. 6) no doubt adopted the Gebal to Baalbak, so that the transport was language of Canaan (Diet. Bib., o.rt. 11 Phrani- not impracticable. But as the forests were ci&ns "). Keil renders, 11 even the Giblites." probably of great extent, there may have He would understand, i.e., that the Zidonian been two or three depots at which the workmen were Giblites; but this is doubtful. timber was floated] so they prepared The Giblites are selected, no doubt, for timber [Heb. the timber] and stones [Heb. special mention because of the prominent the stones] to build the house. [The LXX. part they took in the work. Gebal, as its (Vat. and Alex. alike) add here, "three ancient and extensive ruins prove, was a years." It is barely possible that these place of much importance, and lying as it words may have dropped out of the text, did on the coast, and near the cedar forests, but they look more like a gloss, the infer- would naturally have an important share in ence from the chronological statement of the cutting and shipping of the timber. In- eh. vi. l.] deed, it is not improbable that it was at this