The big picture
Solomon’s temple project begins in the conditions created by peace. Hiram of Tyre, long friendly with David, becomes the partner through whom cedar, fir, transport expertise, and skilled labor can be secured. Solomon explains the project as the completion of a promise David could not fulfill during years of war, and he freely acknowledges that Sidonian workers know timber better than his own people. The agreement is reciprocal: wood moves toward Israel while wheat and oil support Hiram’s household, and the Book of 1 Kings connects the resulting league with the wisdom God has given Solomon. Then the chapter turns from correspondence to labor. Tens of thousands of workers rotate through Lebanon, carry burdens, quarry stone, supervise crews, and prepare materials for the foundation. The shift keeps the human cost of royal construction visible. A temple conceived through promise and diplomacy still has to be built by organized labor. By the chapter’s close, no finished sanctuary stands yet, but its cedar, stone, treaty relationships, schedules, and workforce are all in place.
In this chapter
- Rest Makes Room for a Different Kind of Work 1 Kings 5:1-6
The temple begins not with a stone but with a diplomatic letter.
- Cedars Travel One Way, Provisions the Other 1 Kings 5:7-12
Hiram answers Solomon’s request with enthusiasm and a logistics plan.
- The Workers Behind the Royal Verbs 1 Kings 5:13-18
Royal verbs can make a project sound effortless: Solomon raised, sent, commanded, built.
Scripture beside the summary
1 Kings · King James Version · 181 Kings 5:1-6
Rest Makes Room for a Different Kind of Work
The temple begins not with a stone but with a diplomatic letter. Hiram of Tyre had been close to David, and Solomon turns that old relationship toward a project David could desire but not complete. The difference Solomon names is rest. David’s reign was surrounded by war; Solomon now sees a moment in which the promised son can build the house for the LORD’s name. Yet the king famous for wisdom does not pretend wisdom makes his own workforce best at everything. He openly acknowledges the Sidonians’ skill with timber and asks for expertise Israel does not possess in the same measure. That admission gives the project a surprisingly practical beginning. Divine promise, royal intention, international cooperation, specialized labor, and negotiated payment all meet before construction starts. The house belongs to the LORD’s name, but the first cedar will not descend from Lebanon by miracle. It will be cut by people who know the work, alongside Solomon’s servants, under an agreement both kings understand.
Deep dive
Hiram’s embassy begins with continuity: he had long loved David and now recognizes the son anointed in his place. Solomon answers by contrasting his father’s wars with his own rest. The point is not that David never had peace, but that the present opportunity to build follows the removal of surrounding threats. The promised successor can undertake a task his father did not complete.
Solomon’s request is notably specific about expertise. He does not assume that possessing wisdom makes Israel’s workforce equally skilled at every trade. The Sidonians’ ability to cut timber is acknowledged, cooperation between the two workforces is proposed, and payment is promised. The house is repeatedly described in relation to the LORD’s name. Its origin lies in a divine promise and a royal intention, but the first practical step is a negotiated request to people who know how to handle the trees.
Words to trace: LORD, servants, build, David, father, Hiram
Verse-by-verse path
- 1 Kings 5:1
Hiram had sent cedar and craftsmen to build David’s own house (2 Samuel 5:11). “A lover of David” uses the vocabulary of ancient treaties, in which kings bound by alliance called each other lovers and brothers. Hebrew Bibles number this verse 5:15.
- 1 Kings 5:2
The verse is only a heading; the letter follows. Chronicles gives a fuller version (2 Chronicles 2:3–10), and Josephus claimed in the first century that copies of the letters between the two kings were still kept in the archives of Tyre.
- 1 Kings 5:3
Solomon gives war as the reason David did not build: he was too busy. Chronicles records a sharper reason in David’s own words, that he had “shed blood abundantly” and so was not to build (1 Chronicles 22:8). The two accounts explain the same delay differently.
- 1 Kings 5:4
“Adversary” is satan again, and “evil occurrent” means an evil occurrence, pega’, from the same root as the verb for Benaiah falling upon men in chapter 2. The claim of no adversary will not last: in 11:14 and 11:23 the LORD raises up adversaries against Solomon.
- 1 Kings 5:5
“I purpose” is literally “I say”, meaning I intend. “In thy room” repeats the phrase of verse 1: Hiram heard Solomon was anointed in his father’s room, and Solomon quotes God promising a son in his father’s room. Succession is the theme of the correspondence.
- 1 Kings 5:6
“Can skill to hew” uses skill as a verb, meaning to know how, a sense current in 1611. “Sidonians” was the general name for Phoenicians, whether of Tyre or Sidon; Deuteronomy 3:9 already uses it that way.
1 Kings 5:1-6
King James Version1And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David.
2And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,
3Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.
4But now the LORD my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent.
5And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name.
6Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.
1 Kings 5:7-12
Cedars Travel One Way, Provisions the Other
Hiram answers Solomon’s request with enthusiasm and a logistics plan. The timber will move from Lebanon to the sea, travel in floats, and be released where Solomon appoints. In return, Hiram wants food for his household. The exchange is almost refreshingly concrete. One king has cedar and skilled workers; the other has agricultural resources and a building project. Neither man’s “desire” simply overrides the other’s. Their arrangement moves timber one way and wheat and oil the other, year after year. Hiram’s praise of the LORD is recorded plainly, but the Book of 1 Kings does not turn that statement into a biography of his private faith. It says what he says and what he agrees to do. The paragraph closes by placing the treaty under a larger theme: the LORD has given Solomon wisdom, and there is peace between the kings. Temple preparation is therefore not merely a shopping transaction. It grows out of a stable relationship capable of sustaining repeated exchange over time.
Deep dive
Hiram’s response includes praise of the LORD for giving David a wise son. That spoken acknowledgment should neither be omitted nor expanded into an unrecorded account of Hiram abandoning every other religious allegiance. The passage tells what he says and what he undertakes to do. He also supplies the transport plan: timber is brought down to the sea, conveyed in floats, and released at Solomon’s appointed destination.
Both kings have desires to be met. Solomon needs timber; Hiram needs food for his household. The repeated language of desire is answered by an exchange rather than a unilateral demand. Wheat and pure oil move through an annual arrangement, and the Book of 1 Kings closes the correspondence by naming wisdom, peace, and a league between the rulers. The temple’s preparation therefore includes a sustained relationship beyond Israel, not merely the purchase of an isolated shipment.
Words to trace: Solomon, Hiram, gave, desire, cedar, concerning
Verse-by-verse path
- 1 Kings 5:7
“This great people” repeats Solomon’s own words in his prayer at Gibeon, “this thy so great a people” (3:9). A foreign king describes Israel in the same terms its king used before God, and blesses the LORD for its ruler.
- 1 Kings 5:8
“Fir” is berosh, probably juniper or cypress, a strong resinous conifer of the Lebanon; the King James name reflects English trees. “I have considered” is literally “I have heard”, and the letter answers point by point.
- 1 Kings 5:9
“Floats” are rafts of logs lashed together and towed down the coast; Chronicles names the landing place as Joppa (2 Chronicles 2:16). Tyre sat on a rocky island with little farmland, and Acts 12:20 still says its country was “nourished by the king’s country”.
- 1 Kings 5:10
“Desire” is chephets, a word for wish or delight, and it has now come three times in three verses: all thy desire, my desire, all his desire. Two kings each get exactly what they asked, in the vocabulary of a trade agreement.
- 1 Kings 5:11
Twenty thousand kors of wheat is a great deal of grain, a year’s bread for a city. “Pure oil” is beaten oil, crushed in a mortar rather than pressed, the grade reserved for the sanctuary lamp (Exodus 27:20). Chronicles gives a different and larger list.
- 1 Kings 5:12
“League” is berit, covenant. Deuteronomy 7:2 forbade covenants with the peoples of Canaan, but Tyre lay outside that list. Amos 1:9 later condemns Tyre because it “remembered not the brotherly covenant”, which may reach back to this one.
1 Kings 5:7-12
King James Version7And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the LORD this day, which hath given unto David a wise son over this great people.
8And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things which thou sentest to me for: and I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir.
9My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.
10So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according to all his desire.
11And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.
12And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.
1 Kings 5:13-18
The Workers Behind the Royal Verbs
Royal verbs can make a project sound effortless: Solomon raised, sent, commanded, built. The Book of 1 Kings slows down long enough to show the bodies underneath those verbs. Thirty thousand Israelites serve in rotating groups, ten thousand at a time, with one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Seventy thousand carry burdens, eighty thousand cut stone, and thousands more supervise. The schedule matters because the account is not describing one faceless mass of permanent labor. It records who goes, how often, and who oversees the levy. At the same time, the enormous numbers make the human scale impossible to miss. Great and costly foundation stones do not arrive merely because a king wants them. They are quarried, moved, shaped, and coordinated by workers from Solomon’s system and Hiram’s. The chapter ends before a wall rises, with timber and stone prepared. The invisible work beneath the finished sanctuary is already immense, and Adoniram’s administrative title has become a workforce under his charge.
Deep dive
The thirty thousand men levied from Israel serve in three rotating groups. Each group spends one month in Lebanon and two at home. Those intervals are worth retaining: the account gives both the demand and the schedule rather than presenting a single undifferentiated mass of labor. Adoniram, previously named over tribute, now has a concrete task overseeing the levy.
The additional numbers for burden bearers, stonecutters, and supervisors widen the view from kings to the people who make royal construction possible. This paragraph does not identify every group’s ancestry; chapter 9 will distinguish the continuing bondservice of surviving non-Israelite populations from the Israelites’ status. It would be premature to merge all these labor categories. The closing emphasis falls on preparation: costly stones are cut for the foundation, and both workforces ready timber and stone. Much of the temple’s essential work will never be visible in the finished walls.
Words to trace: stones, levy, builders, house, king, Lebanon
Verse-by-verse path
- 1 Kings 5:13
Samuel warned that a king would take the people’s sons to plough his ground and reap his harvest, “and ye shall be his servants” (1 Samuel 8:11–17). The levy, mas, is drawn “out of all Israel”, not only from conquered peoples.
- 1 Kings 5:14
Lebanon lay far to the north, so a month’s shift meant travel on top of work. The rotation mirrors the provision officers’ monthly rota in 4:7: Solomon’s kingdom runs on monthly shifts. Adoniram’s name here is the reason his stoning in 12:18 carries such weight.
- 1 Kings 5:15
Seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand quarrymen. Chronicles says these were the resident aliens in the land, counted by Solomon for the purpose (2 Chronicles 2:17–18), which separates them from the thirty thousand Israelites of verse 13.
- 1 Kings 5:16
Chronicles has 3,600 supervisors (2 Chronicles 2:18). Add the 550 chief officers of 9:23 to this 3,300, and the 250 of 2 Chronicles 8:10 to Chronicles’ 3,600, and both come to 3,850. The two books divide the same total differently.
- 1 Kings 5:17
“Hewed stones” is gazit, dressed ashlar, squared blocks. Foundation stones were cut large and costly because no one would see them once the building rose; they carried the weight, not the show.
- 1 Kings 5:18
“Stonesquarers” is in Hebrew “the Gebalites”, men of Gebal, the Phoenician city the Greeks called Byblos. Ezekiel 27:9 names “the ancients of Gebal” as Tyre’s shipwrights. The King James took the town name for a trade.
1 Kings 5:13-18
King James Version13And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.
14And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home: and Adoniram was over the levy.
15And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains;
16Beside the chief of Solomon’s officers which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people that wrought in the work.
17And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house.
18And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.
Questions to keep in mind while reading
- Track who acts, who speaks, who is affected, and what changes.
- Notice repeated promises, failures, rescues, and consequences.
- Do not assume the account approves every action that is reported.
Text first
Where readers differ
The chapter summary begins with what the passage says and how its parts fit together. It does not assume one denomination has already settled every question. Where a conclusion depends on a tradition, literary theory, or historical reconstruction, that dependence is named openly.
The KJV text is presented first. Interpretive conclusions are labeled, and differences are introduced only when they help a reader understand why serious communities do not always reach the same answer.
Comparative interpretive notes for this chapter are in preparation. Until reviewed notes are ready, this page separates the KJV text from summary and application without claiming that serious readers agree on every question.
Questions beneath the surface
- What account of God, human freedom, responsibility, and the good life emerges from 1 Kings 5?
- Which tension does the chapter refuse to resolve quickly?
- What changes when the chapter is read as part of the whole canon rather than as an isolated moral lesson?
- Where might a sincere reader confuse a familiar tradition with something the text states directly?
Questions for serious personal contemplation
These open-ended questions make room for tension, honest response, prayer, and conclusions that remain accountable to the chapter.
Observe without rushing
What part of 1 Kings 5 makes you stop, feel unsettled, or feel surprised, and why?
Which detail in the passage would be easiest to overlook? How does that detail change your understanding?
Where do you see tension between what happens and this focus: 1 Kings 5 develops its own movement around Solomon, Hiram, LORD, house, servants?
What important question does the passage leave open instead of resolving quickly?
Examine your inner life honestly
Which person, response, fear, or desire in the passage feels most like your own life right now?
What assumption about God, other people, or yourself does this text challenge?
Which part would you rather soften, avoid, or explain away too quickly? What might that reaction reveal?
If this Scripture could ask you one direct question, what do you think it would ask?
Respond with wisdom and courage
What do you need to remember, confess, grieve, thank God for, or trust after reading this passage?
How might another faithful person read this situation differently without ignoring the text?
What obedient response would be costly, uncomfortable, or slow, yet still faithful to Scripture?
What question will you carry into prayer this week, and which verses will you keep in front of you?
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
