Commentaria in III Regum
Chapter 5. Synopsis of the Chapter
Solomon makes a compact with Hiram about timber and workmen for the building of the temple.
1. And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon: for he heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father, because Hiram had always loved David. 2. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying: 3. Thou knowest the will of David my father, and that he could not build a house to the name of the Lord his God, because of the wars that were round about him, until the Lord gave them under the sole of his feet. 4. But now the Lord my God hath given me rest round about, and there is no adversary, nor evil occurrence. 5. Wherefore I purpose to build a temple to the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to David my father, saying: Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy place, he shall build a house to my name. 6. Command therefore that thy servants cut me cedar trees out of Libanus, and let my servants be with thy servants: and I will give thee for the hire of thy servants whatsoever thou shalt ask: for thou knowest that there is not in my people a man that hath skill to hew timber as the Sidonians have. 7. And when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced exceedingly, and said: Blessed be the Lord God this day, who hath given to David a most wise son over this numerous people.
8. And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying: I have heard all that thou hast desired of me: I will do all thy will as to the cedar trees and the fir trees. 9. My servants shall bring them down from Libanus to the sea: and I will put them in floats on the sea, to the place which thou shalt signify to me, and will land them there, and thou shalt take them: and thou shalt give me what is necessary for me, that food may be provided for my household. 10. So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees, and fir trees, according to all his desire. 11. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food for his household, and twenty measures of the purest oil: this Solomon gave to Hiram every year. 12. And the Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, as he had promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they two made a league. 13. And king Solomon chose workmen out of all Israel, and the levy was thirty thousand men. 14. And he sent them to Libanus, ten thousand every month by turns, so that two months they were at home: and Adoniram was over this levy. 15. And Solomon had seventy thousand that carried burdens, and fourscore thousand hewers of stones in the mountain, 16. besides the overseers who were over every work, in number three thousand three hundred, who ruled the people and them that did the work. 17. And the king commanded that they should bring great stones, costly stones, for the foundation of the temple, and should square them, 18. which the masons of Solomon and the masons of Hiram hewed; and the Giblians prepared timber and stones to build the house.
Verse 1.—1. AND HIRAM KING OF TYRE SENT HIS SERVANTS TO SOLOMON,—to congratulate him, as a new king, on his inauguration. The letters of Hiram and Solomon, taken from the Archives of the Tyrians, are recounted by Josephus and Eupolemus in Eusebius, book 9 On the Preparation. The title of them is: Suron to king Solomon the great, greeting; where he calls him a great king, as king of kings, on account of wisdom as well as wealth and power. For Hiram in Hebrew and by the Septuagint is called Chiram or Churam, as if Chirom or Tyrom, that is king of the Tyrians, says Serarius. By the Phoenicians Hiram is called Surom (for Tyre is called sor, that is rock, because it is situated on a rock: whence Sarrane purple is called Tyrian purple); by Theophilus of Antioch, Hieromus and Hieromenus, whose daughter Tatian asserts married Solomon. By Josephus, book 8 of the Antiquities, chapter 3, and book 1 Against Apion, he is called Iromus, the son of Abibalus.
Verse 4.—4. AND THERE IS NO ADVERSARY,—as if to say: There is no adversary, no enemy to me, with whom I must wage wars, or who may hinder me from building the temple.
Verse 7.—7. BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD THIS DAY, WHO HATH GIVEN TO DAVID A MOST WISE SON.—Hence it seems that Hiram, partly from familiarity with David, partly from the wisdom and happiness of Solomon, came to know the true God, whom they worshipped. For he calls him Jehovah (as the Hebrews have it), which is the proper name of the God of Moses and of the Hebrews. Hence also he cooperated zealously with Solomon in building the temple of the true God, by sending so many thousands of workmen, timber and stones; which he certainly would not have done if he had thought that Solomon’s God was not true but false: for he would have built an idol instead of a temple. King Seleucus of Asia did the like, 2 Machabees 3:3. For before this Hiram had worshipped Hercules and Astarte, the gods of the Tyrians, and had built temples for them, as Josephus asserts, book 1 Against Apion. Perhaps also Hiram worshipped the God of the Hebrews together with these gods of his country, as the Assyrians transported into Samaria did, as we shall hear in book 4, chapter 17. Hence Eucherius and Angelomus allegorically understand by Hiram the kings of the Gentiles, such as Constantine, Theodosius, Gratian, Charlemagne, who helped Christ and the Apostles in building and propagating the Church. Whence also Hiram or Chiram in Hebrew is the same as exalted life, or loftiness of life; or principality, or nobility, or their brightness, says Pagninus in the Hebrew Names.
10. SO HIRAM GAVE SOLOMON CEDAR TREES AND FIR TREES,—namely cedars and firs. 2 Paralipomenon 2:8 adds: “Arceuthine wood,” that is juniper, as the Septuagint translate, namely junipers, which there grow to a great height and thickness, so that beams are made from them for buildings. For although David had prepared timber and the rest of the material for the temple, as is said in 1 Paralipomenon 22:14, yet this did not suffice for Solomon, who was planning greater and more numerous buildings of his palaces. So Abulensis.
Allegorically, Eucherius and Angelomus: “The converted Gentile world,” he says, “sent to Christ certain men, famous according to the world, but by the axe of the Lord’s rebuke already cast down and humbled from the mountain of their pride, who, instructed according to the rule of evangelical truth, might be placed in the building of the Church each according to his merit or time. It sent also craftsmen: because the Gentile world offered to the Lord philosophers converted to true wisdom, who by the grace of learning might rightly be set over the peoples also to rule them, such as in the very times of the Apostles was Dionysius the Areopagite, such afterwards the most sweet doctor and most valiant martyr Cyprian, and very many others. It sent gold also, which is taken in almost the same signification, because it shows men renowned for wisdom and talent, for all which offerings the Gentile world expects from God the gifts of heavenly grace.”
11. AND SOLOMON GAVE HIRAM TWENTY THOUSAND MEASURES OF WHEAT.—For Tyre was then an island and surrounded on all sides by the sea, so that in it nothing could be sown or reaped. Whence Hiram, asking wheat from Solomon in his letter in Josephus, says: “We need wheat, for we are islanders”; but afterwards Tyre, besieged by Nabuchodonosor for thirteen years, with mounds of earth heaped into the sea so that it could be approached and taken, became a peninsula, as I said at Ezechiel 29:17 and 18, and Isaias 23:10.
13. AND KING SOLOMON CHOSE WORKMEN OUT OF ALL ISRAEL, AND THE LEVY WAS THIRTY THOUSAND MEN.—By “workmen” understand the chief men and craftsmen, or overseers of the works. For, as is said in chapter 9, verse 22, “But of the children of Israel Solomon made no bondmen, but they were men of war, and his servants, and princes, and captains, and chief over his chariots and horsemen.”
15. AND SOLOMON HAD SEVENTY THOUSAND THAT CARRIED BURDENS, AND FOURSCORE THOUSAND HEWERS OF STONES IN THE MOUNTAIN,—that is quarrymen, who cut stones from the mountain or rock. These were not Israelites, as I have already said, but proselytes: they were Gabaonites and other Chanaanites subject to the Hebrews and converted to Judaism. Of the proselytes, then, bearing burdens and hewing stone, there were in the building of the temple 150 thousand in all, of the Hebrews thirty thousand, as was said in verse 13; add these to the 150 thousand and they will make 180 thousand. Add to these the Tyrians and Sidonians, whom Solomon had asked of Hiram and who were sent to him, as is plain from verses 6 and 9, and the Egyptians whom Pharao, Solomon’s father-in-law, had destined for him, and there will be two hundred thousand and more of those who labored in the building of the temple; nay, if we believe Eupolemus in Eusebius, book 2 On the Preparation, there will be three hundred and forty thousand: for Eupolemus asserts that Hiram sent Solomon eighty thousand Tyrians, and Pharao as many thousand Egyptians, who joined make 160 thousand, and if you add these to the 180 thousand destined by Solomon, there will be 340 thousand. But this number seems excessive and as it were incredible. Whence some think that there is an error in the numbers of Eupolemus or Eusebius, and that eighty thousand has crept in for eight or eighteen thousand. Under quarrymen, that is stone-cutters, understand also woodcutters, but here the quarrymen alone are counted, because there were more stone-cutters than wood-cutters. So under those bearing burdens understand drivers, sailors, muleteers, grooms, etc.
16. BESIDES THE OVERSEERS, etc., IN NUMBER THREE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED.—You will say: in 2 Paralipomenon 2 three thousand six hundred are counted. I answer, of the six hundred, three hundred were over the overseers themselves, whom the book of Paralipomenon adds and supplies. So Vatablus, Dionysius, Cajetan and Salianus.
17. THAT THEY SHOULD BRING GREAT STONES, COSTLY STONES, FOR THE FOUNDATION OF THE TEMPLE.—These costly stones, therefore, were not diamonds, carbuncles or emeralds, but marble: for these are hard and strong, to be laid in the foundations and there sustain the whole building. Marble is of great price and of various kinds. One is called Ophites, because it has spots like serpents: for ophis is a serpent. Another is called Porphyrites, because it is red and dotted with white points. Another is Parian and white, another blackish, another green. Another is called sphengites, because it shines and is translucent.
18. AND THE GIBLIANS PREPARED TIMBER AND STONES.—Some think that these workmen were called Giblians from the Hebrew gebul, that is boundary, because by hewing they bounded the stones with an elegant shape. But I say that the Giblians or Biblians (for the letter g is sometimes changed with the letter b) are so called from the city Biblus, of which Adrichomius, page 185, number 41: “Biblus,” he says, “or Byblos, and Biblium, formerly Eve or Evaa, now called Gibel, Giblec and Bibleth, is a famous city of Phoenicia, which in Hebrew is Gebal and Gobel; its inhabitants are called Biblians or Giblians in the sacred writings. It is situated towards the north, three miles from the river Canis, and towards the south four miles from the city Botrys, on the sea, and is written to have been founded by Evaeus, the sixth son of Chanaan, of which we read in the third book of Kings thus: Moreover the Biblians prepared (for Solomon) timber and stones to build the house of the Lord.” Finally in Biblus were the temples of Adonis, says Strabo, book 16. Today it is called Gaeta.