Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 5:11

And 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.

11. And Solomon gave Hiram ] The supply mentioned by the Chronicler (2Ch 2:10) is more than what is here stated. There the payment is 20,000 measures of beaten wheat, 20,000 measures of barley, 20,000 baths of wine and 20,000 baths of oil. Josephus mentions wheat, wine and oil, but says nothing about barley. There appears to be some clerical error in respect of the oil in this verse. The twenty measures (here cor) would only be equal to 200 baths, which seems a small quantity compared with the amount of wheat.

pure oil ] Literally ‘beaten.’ It is the word used for describing the specially pure oil provided for the ever burning lamp in the tabernacle (Exo 27:20). It was made by pounding the olives in a mortar, and letting such oil as was thus extracted trickle out. The coarser oil was obtained by the use of the oilpress.

year by year ] i.e. During the period in which the work was carried on.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The number of measures of wheat was considerably less than Solomons own annual consumption, which exceeded 32,000 cors 1Ki 4:22; but the small amount of twenty cors of oil, which seems at first sight scarcely to match with the 20,000 cors of wheat, will not appear improbable, if we consider that the oil was to be pure – literally beaten – i. e., oil extracted from the olives by pounding, and not by means of the press.

Year by year – i. e., during all the years that Solomon was engaged in building and was helped by Hiram.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 11. And Solomon gave Hiram, c.] The information in this verse of the annual stipend paid to Hiram, is deficient, and must be supplied out of 2Ch 2:10. Here twenty thousand measures of wheat, and twenty measures of pure oil, is all that is promised: there, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, twenty thousand measures of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil, is the stipulation unless we suppose the first to be for Hiram’s own family, the latter for his workmen. Instead of twenty measures of oil, the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint, have twenty thousand measures, as in Chronicles. In 2 Chron., instead of cors of oil, it is baths. The bath was a measure much less than the cor.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Twenty measures of pure oil, Heb. twenty cors

of pure oil; but in 2Ch 2:10, it is twenty thousand baths of oil; to which is there added twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine. Either therefore, first, He speaks of several things, as was now said on 1Ki 5:9. Or, secondly, He speaks there of what Solomon offered; for it runs thus,

I will give; and here of what Hiram accepted; and accordingly Solomon gave, for it is here said

Solomon gave Hiram. Or, thirdly, The barley, and wine, and twenty thousand baths of common oil, mentioned 2Ch 2, must be added to the twenty thousand measures of wheat, and the twenty measures of pure oil, here expressed, and the whole sum is to be made up from both places; that Book of Chronicles being written to supply and complete the histories of the Books of Samuel and of the Kings.

Thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year; either, first, For sustenance to the workmen, during the years wherein they were employed in the cutting down and hewing of the timber. Or, secondly, For the yearly support of the kings house during the said time. And these words being left out in 2Ch 2, may seem to favour their opinion, that these places speak of divers passages, and several recompences, the one given to the kings house, the other to the labourers, although the argument is not cogent; and this might be omitted there, either because it was sufficiently implied in the nature of the thing, or because it had been plainly expressed here.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. food to his householdThiswas an annual supply for the palace, different from that mentioned in2Ch 2:10, which was for theworkmen in the forests.

1Ki5:13-18. SOLOMON’SWORKMEN AND LABORERS.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat [for] food to his household,…. This measure was the Hebrew measure “cor”, or “corus”, and, according to Bishop Cumberland e, its contents were 17,477 solid inches; it was equal to ten ephahs, each of which held two gallons and an half, and the cor held seventy five wine gallons five pints, and somewhat more; according to some f, what it held was equal to six hundred forty eight Roman pounds; so that twenty thousand of them contained 12,960,000 pounds of wheat:

and twenty measures of pure oil; squeezed out of the olives without breaking them; the same kind of measure is here expressed as before, and the quantity answered to 12,960 Roman pounds; another writer g reckons a cor to contain 1080 Roman pounds; so that Hiram had every year 21,600 pounds of oil. In 2Ch 2:10, it is twenty thousand baths of oil now not to take notice that the measures are different, a bath was but the tenth part of a cor, reference is had to different things; here the writer relates what was given to Hiram for his own family, there what was given to the workmen, where several other things are mentioned besides these:

thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year: so long as the building lasted, and the workmen were employed; but Abarbinel thinks that he gave it to him as long as he lived, out of his great munificence and liberality.

e Scripture Weights and Measures, c. 3. p. 86. f Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. p. 517. g Van Till in Cantic. Mosis, p. 54.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(11) Twenty thousand measures of wheat.This agrees well enough with the calculation in 1Ki. 4:22 of ninety measures a daysomething over 32,000 a yearfor Solomons Court, presumably greater than that of Hiram. But the twenty measures of oil even of the pure refined oilis so insignificant in comparison, that it seems best to adopt the Greek reading here (agreeing with 2Ch. 2:10, and with Josephus) of 20,000 baths, or 2,000 cors, of oil.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

11. Twenty thousand measures of wheat Or twenty thousand cors, about 222,000 bushels.

Pure oil Or beaten oil, the purest and finest kind, such as came from the olives by mere pounding and not by pressing. This was for Hiram’s household; but besides this, according to 2Ch 2:10, he furnished Hiram’s servants, the hewers, 20,000 cors of beaten wheat, 20,000 cors of barley, 20,000 baths of wine, and 20,000 baths of oil; the last evidently common oil, not the beaten. Hence there is no discrepancy between these passages, for they refer to different things. The land of Israel abounded in grain and oil, while in this respect Phenicia was poor. Compare Acts 12:26.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Arrangements Concerning Material

v. 11. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat, about 260,000 bushels, for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil, a little more than 1,600 gallons, this oil being obtained, not by pressing out the fruit, but by bruising the berries and then permitting the juice to run out freely. Thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year, that was the price agreed upon by them.

v. 12. And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as He promised him, not only in concluding this contract in a satisfactory manner, but also in making wise and good provisions for every part of the immense undertaking. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together, this alliance being to the advantage of the work undertaken by Solomon.

v. 13. And King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel, he drafted a number of Israelites, members of the nation, for this work; and the levy was thirty thousand men.

v. 14. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, engaged in felling and transporting cedar-and cypress-trees, and two months at home, attending to the cultivation of their land; and Adoniram, the superintendent of public works, was over the levy.

v. 15. And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains, men engaged in stone-cutting, these 150,000 servants being members of the Canaanitish, conquered races,

v. 16. beside the chief of Solomon’s officers, the foremen placed over the workmen, which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people that wrought in the work. In the total number of overseers 250 were Israelites, and 300 were foreigners, 2Ch 8:10.

v. 17. And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, immense, splendid stones, without a single flaw, to lay the foundation of the house, these being carefully shaped after being hewn out of the quarry.

v. 18. And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders did hew them, and the stone-squarers, the Giblites, the inhabitants of a Phoenician town in the foothills of the Lebanon. So they prepared timber and stones to build the house, every piece receiving the proper treatment with reference to its place in the great building which was to be erected. The Church of Jesus Christ, the great Temple not made by hands, is an eternal house and kingdom. And all servants of Christ, all believers, have been called to assist in building this Temple, in extending the Church of God throughout all the world.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

1Ki 5:11. Twenty measures of pure oil In the parallel place, 2Ch 2:10 it is twenty thousand baths of oil, which has the sanction of many of the versions, and seems the most probable reading in this place: and so in the 16th verse, instead of three hundred, it is six hundred in the Chronicles; to which reading the LXX give their authority.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Ki 5:11 And 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.

Ver. 11. And Solomon gave Hiram. ] Here was fair and faithful dealing on both sides.

“ In cuius subiere locum fraudesque, delique. ”

Twenty thousand measures of wheat, &c. ] Besides twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of oil, ordinary oil for the workmen, 2Ch 2:10 twenty thousand baths of wine also, not here mentioned.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

gave. Not the same as 2Ch 2:10. That was for Hiram’s workmen in Lebanon. This was for his royal household at Tyre.

measures. See App-51.

pure = bruised (as in a mortar), not crushed in a press.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

measures: Heb. cors, 1Ki 4:22, *marg. 2Ch 2:10

twenty measures: “Twenty thousand baths of oil” are mentioned in Chronicles; and the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint also have here “twenty thousand measures.” But as barley and wine are also spoken of there, it is probable that the wheat mentioned here, and the small quantity of fine oil, were intended for the use of Hiram’s own family, while that in Chronicles was for his workmen.

Reciprocal: Gen 27:28 – plenty Deu 8:8 – wheat 2Ch 2:15 – which my lord

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge