1Ki 5:13-18 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 13 The levy was thirty thousand men - We find from the following verse that only ten thousand were employed at once, and those only for one month at a time; and having rested two months, they again resumed their labor. These were the persons over whom Adoniram was superintendent, and were all Israelites.

‏ 1 Kings 5:13-18

Verse 13

The levy was thirty thousand men - We find from the following verse that only ten thousand were employed at once, and those only for one month at a time; and having rested two months, they again resumed their labor. These were the persons over whom Adoniram was superintendent, and were all Israelites. Verse 15

Threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens - These were all strangers, or proselytes, dwelling among the Israelites; as we learn from the parallel place, 2Chr 2:17, 2Chr 2:18. Verse 16

Besides - three thousand and three hundred which ruled over the people - In the parallel place, 2Chr 2:18, it is three thousand six hundred. The Septuagint has here the same number. Verse 17

Great stones - Stones of very large dimensions.

Costly stones - Stones that cost much labor and time to cut them out of the rock.

Hewed stones - Everywhere squared and polished. Verse 18

And the stone-squarers - Instead of stone-squarers the margin very properly reads Giblites, הגבלים haggiblim; and refers to Eze 27:9, where we find the inhabitants of Gebal celebrated for their knowledge in ship-building. Some suppose that these Giblites were the inhabitants of Biblos, at the foot of Mount Libanus, northward of Sidon, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; famous for its wines; and now called Gaeta. Both Ptolemy and Stephanus Byzantinus speak of a town called Gebala, to the east of Tyre: but this was different from Gebal, or Biblos. It seems more natural to understand this of a people than of stone-squarers, though most of the versions have adopted this idea which we follow in the text.