1 Kings 5

This chapter is written in Biblical Hebrew. In the Hebrew Bible, it is divided into 32 verses. In most Christian Bibles, material corresponding to the first 14 verses is numbered as 4:21–34, leaving 18 verses in chapter 5.

Textual witnesses

Early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in the Masoretic Text tradition include the Codex Cairensis (traditionally dated to 895 CE, though this dating has been disputed), the Aleppo Codex (10th century), and the Leningrad Codex (1008).

The chapter was also translated into Koine Greek as part of the Septuagint. Extant manuscripts containing its text include Codex Vaticanus (B; ^B; 4th century CE) and Codex Alexandrinus (A; ^A; 5th century CE).

Related passages

The account has parallels in 2 Chronicles 2:

• Solomon's request to Hiram and Hiram's response.
• Solomon's labor force and preparations for construction.

The account of Hiram continues the preceding description of Solomon's wisdom. Christian theologian Peter Leithart reads 1 Kings 5:9–26 as a chiasm in which notices of Solomon's wisdom frame the exchange of messages between the two kings. The arrangement associates wisdom with diplomacy and administration: Solomon secures cedar and skilled labor from Hiram, while supplying food for his household, and their agreement is summarized as both peace and a covenant.

Solomon presents the Temple as the fulfillment of the promise that David's son would build a house for God's name (Biblical Hebrew: בַּיִת לְשֵׁם ה׳, romanized: bayit ləšēm HaShem, lit. 'a house for the Name of the Eternal'). David's wars had prevented the Temple's construction, with 1 Chronicles 22:6–10 later giving the related explanation that David had shed much blood. Solomon, in contrast, states that he has obtained the rest from surrounding enemies required to undertake its construction:

The agreement with Hiram also places the project in an international economic context: Phoenician timber, expertise, and transport are exchanged for Israelite agricultural produce.

The chapter's final section emphasizes the scale of the royal administration. Solomon levies 30,000 Israelites for rotational service in Lebanon and employs additional porters, quarriers, and supervisors. (The narrator does not identify the ethnicity of the 70,000 porters and 80,000 quarriers.) The text presents this organization as enabling the Temple project, but the levy also anticipates the complaint after Solomon's death that his government had imposed a heavy burden.

In their discussions recorded in the Talmud, Chazal, referencing 1 Kings 6:7, focus on how the dressed stones were prepared without the sound of iron tools at the Temple Mount. The Talmud records one view that Solomon used a worm known as a shamir (שָׁמִיר, šāmîr) to hew the stones and another that they were cut with iron outside the Temple precinct, and Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi reconciles the two views by distinguishing the Temple from Solomon's palace:

Rabbi Nehemiah said to Rabbi Yehudah: "And is it possible to say so? But isn't it already stated: 'All these were costly stones, according to the measures of hewn stones, sawed with saws' (2 Kings 7:9), which indicates that saws, which are iron implements, were used to shape the stones? If so, what is the meaning when the verse states: And hammer, ax, and any tool of iron were not heard in the house when it was being built'" (1 Kings 6:7)? It means that he would prepare the stones outside the Temple Mount using tools and bring them inside already cut, so that no iron tools were used inside the Temple itself. Rabbi [Judah Ha-Nasi] said: "The statement of Rabbi Yehuda that no iron tools were used appears to be correct with regard to the Temple stones, and the statement of Rabbi Nehemiah that tools were used appears to be correct with regard to the stones of the king's own house."

A longer aggadah (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אַגָּדָה, romanized: ʾaggādā, lit. 'telling' or 'narrative') recounted in tractate Gittin 68a–68b describes Solomon consulting the Jewish sages and Benaiah obtaining the shamir through Ashmedai; this develops the method of stone preparation rather than the chapter's account of labor organization.

Hiram I of Tyre, who had previously supplied David with timber and craftsmen, sent an embassy to Solomon after his accession. Solomon used the contact to obtain cedar timber and skilled woodcutters from Lebanon for the Temple. The two kingdoms supplied complementary resources: Hiram provided access to timber, Phoenician expertise, and maritime transport, while Solomon furnished workers and agricultural produce.

Solomon explained that David's wars had prevented him from building the Temple, whereas the rest granted to Solomon enabled him to fulfill the promise that David's son would build a "house for the name of God" (בַּיִת לְשֵׁם ה׳, bayit ləšēm HaShem). First Chronicles 22 gives the related explanation that David had shed too much blood to build the Temple.

Hiram accepted the proposal and arranged for cedar and beroshim timber to be floated by sea to a place designated by Solomon. In return, Solomon provided annual quantities of wheat and oil for Hiram's household. The botanical identification of beroshim is uncertain; English translations variously render the term as "cypress", "fir", or "juniper". The account concludes that there was peace between the kings and that they made a covenant.

Verse 1/15

• New King James Version versification: "Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, because he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always loved David".
• Hebrew Biblical versification: "King Hiram of Tyre sent his officials to Solomon when he heard that he had been anointed king in place of his father; for Hiram had always been a friend of David".
  • "Hiram" (חִירָם, ḥîrām): king of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre. His embassy to Solomon continued the diplomatic relationship established with David, to whom he had previously sent cedar, carpenters, and stonemasons. Josephus preserves extracts attributed to the Hellenistic historians Dius and Menander of Ephesus concerning Hiram's building activity and relations with Solomon. In the account attributed to Menander, Hiram lived for 53 years and reigned for 34. Modern reconstructions based partly on this literary tradition have dated his reign to c. 980–947 BCE and identify him as the successor of Abibaal and predecessor of his son Baal-Eser I.

Solomon imposed a levy of 30,000 men from "all Israel" and sent them to Lebanon in rotating groups of 10,000, each serving there for one month and spending two months at home. The labor system demonstrates the scale of Solomon's royal administration, but it also anticipates the complaint after his death that he had imposed harsh service and a heavy yoke. That grievance contributed to the northern tribes' rejection of Rehoboam and the division of the kingdom. A further 70,000 laborers carried loads, 80,000 quarried stone in the hills, and 3,300 officials supervised the work. A later passage states that Solomon imposed permanent forced labor on the remaining non-Israelite population while assigning Israelites other forms of royal service.

Verse 18/32

• New King James Version versification: "So Solomon's builders, Hiram's builders, and the Gebalites quarried them; and they prepared timber and stones to build the Temple".
• Hebrew Biblical versification: "Solomon's masons, Hiram's masons, and those from Gebal shaped them. Thus the timber and the stones for building the house were made ready."
  • "Gebalites" (הַגִּבְלִים, haggiblîm): workers from Byblos, a Phoenician coastal city north of Tyre. The passage associates them with shaping the building materials; their precise task is not specified beyond this.
  • "House" (הַבַּיִת, habbayit, 'the house'): the Hebrew term rendered "house" refers here to the Temple whose construction begins in the following chapter.