Deeper Commentary
1Ki 5:1 Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon; for he had
heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father: for Hiram
had always admired David-
So very often does Solomon speak of "David my father", and
that God had made him king "instead of David my father" (e.g. 1 Kings 3:7).
Thus he asks Hiram to deal with him just as he had done with David his
father (1 Kings 5:2-7; and cp. 1 Kings 5:1 with 2 Sam. 5:11). The number
of times these phrases occur in the records is so large that we simply have to recognize
that God is pointing something out to us about the
relationship between Solomon and David (1 Kings 2:24,26,32,44;
3:6,7,14; 5:3,5; 6:12; 8:15,17,18,20,24,25,26; 9:4; 11:33; 2 Chron. 1:8,9;
2:3,7,14; 6:4,7,8,10,15,16; 7:17). Solomon was raised a believer, and he
lived out parental expectation; but in later life, he himself was revealed
as having no real faith at all, and he turned away from Yahweh to
idolatry. So often in his prayers to God does Solomon make reference to
David; for example: "Thou hast showed unto thy servant David
my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee
in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with
thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given
him a son to sit upon his throne" (1 Kings 3:6).
1Ki 5:2 Solomon sent to Hiram saying-
As noted on :1, Solomon was obsessed with living out the image of his
father. As Hiram had sent messengers to David (2 Sam. 5:11), so Solomon
sends to Hiram.
1Ki 5:3 You know how that David my father could not build a house for the
name of Yahweh his God for the wars which were about him on every side,
until Yahweh put his enemies under the soles of his feet-
Solomon had a way of spinning things, even God’s word, in his own
selfish way. David had insisted that God had told him that he couldn’t
build the temple because he had shed so much blood in war (1 Chron. 22:8).
But Solomon just slightly spins this when he asks Hiram to come and help
him build the temple, because, he says, his father David hadn’t had the
time to get around to the job because of being busy fighting wars (1 Kings
5:3). He says nothing about David shedding blood; the moral aspect of it
all is nicely ignored by Solomon.
1Ki 5:4 But now Yahweh my God has given me rest on every side. There is no
adversary nor any evil occurrence-
As is typical of the Solomon record, this was true in Solomon's
mind and self-presentation, but not in reality. For 1 Kings 11:14,23,25
list Solomon's adversaries, using the same word. We likewise have to
doubt, therefore, the veracity of his claims in :3.
Solomon imagines that his kingdom is the promised "rest" of the
Messianic kingdom promised to David. But his degree of "rest" was only in
his imagination. For he had various adversaries on the borders, Hadad,
Rezon and others (1 Kings 11:14,23,25). So again, Solomon is spinning
things to fit his narrative.
The Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament uses the Greek word diabolos to translate the Hebrew 'Satan'. Hence Devil and Satan are effectively parallel in meaning. Thus we read in the Septuagint of David being an adversary [Heb. Satan, Gk. diabolos] in 1 Sam. 29:4 ["turns against us"]; the sons of Zeruiah (2 Sam. 19:22), Hadad, Rezon and other opponents to Solomon (1 Kings 5:4; 11:14,23,25). We face a simple choice- if we believe that every reference to 'Satan' or 'Devil' refers to an evil cosmic being, then we have to assume that these people weren't people at all, and that even good men like David were evil. The far more natural reading of these passages is surely that 'Satan' is simply a word meaning 'adversary', and can be applied to people [good and bad], and even God Himself- it carries no pejorative, sinister meaning as a word. See on :18.
1Ki 5:5 Behold, I purpose to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God,
as Yahweh spoke to David my father saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on
your throne in your place, he shall build the house for My name’-
Again this is a spin; because it was David who had purposed to build
the temple, and had prepared for it. And again we see Solomon assuming
that the promises of 2 Sam. 7 were totally fulfilled in him; whereas being
the Messianic son of David was conditional. And the house to be built was
more essentially the house of God's family which God was to build for
David rather than any physical temple. But Solomon totally missed all
this. We note he speaks of "the" house, not "a house". He
saw the promised "house" to be built as solely and exclusively fulfilled
in his temple. The idea of Messiah building a house of people for God's
Name was far from him. And he was hardly the promised begotten son of God,
to be born after David "slept with his fathers".
Jer. 32:31 states that God's anger and fury were against the temple from the day it was built until the day He destroyed it, it was a provocation of His anger. Just as He gave Israel a king in His anger and took him away in His wrath. But He patiently and even desperately tried to work with Israel through both the temple and the kingship. His glory entering the temple was therefore a concession to their weakness. Solomon was provoking God to wrath by building the temple and we must bear this in mind as we read the record of his apparently zealous building of it. And remember that in Ecclesiastes he says that he just had an obsession with all manner of building projects. God's temple was just one of them.
2 Chron. 2:4 adds the detail that Solomon said: "The temple that I am going to build will be great, for great is our God beyond all the gods". He is alluding [as always] to the words of his father David in Ps. 135:5: "For I am certain that Yahweh is great and great is our Lord beyond all gods". It is Yahweh who is great. But Solomon turns this into a statement that therefore the temple he builds must be "great" and greater than any temple built to other gods. This explains why the style of the temple is so similar to that of other temples from the time- it's just bigger and more lavish. Solomon reduces the greatness of Yahweh, and His infinite superiority over the other gods, to the simple term of having a greater temple than the other gods. Any purely religious approach to God diminishes His true greatness, which is in His grace. Solomon reduces the unique greatness of Yahweh to the uniqueness of the temple he is going to build Him. A temple Yahweh never wanted anyway. He fails to see Yahweh's greatness as being in terms of His grace and eternal salvation, which He had demonstrated for all time in His salvation of David regarding his affair with Solomon's mother Bathsheba. David made the same mistake in confusing the greatness of his projected temple with the greatness of Yahweh Himself. He says in 1 Chron. 29:11 "To you, Yahweh, belong the utmost greatness, might, distinction, eminence, and splendor- yes all that is in heaven and on earth" but then in 1 Chron. 22:5 "The temple I am about to build for Yahweh must become utterly great, for fame and distinction throughout all lands".
2 Chron. 2:6 fills out what Solomon told Hiram: "But who is able to build Him a house, since heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain Him? Who am I then, that I should build Him a house, except just to burn incense before Him?". "Who am I?" is a quotation of David's words about the temple in 1 Chron. 29:14: "But who am I..?". But this in turn had been David's response when God first told him that He didn't want a temple, but rather would build a house for David from his descendants. David totally misrepresented God's response as saying that He did in fact welcome the idea of a grandiose physical temple, and so by repeating his response at the time, he is surely guilty of a false humility. Solomon quotes these words of apparent humility and applies them to himself. But just as we cannot sing words of humility in a Christian song or hymn and thereby be humble, Solomon failed to realize that humility is not a bought or inherited position. It has to come from the heart. And he had no sense of personal sin or possibility of failure, and therefore no humility. Solomon claims that he solely wanted to build a temple in order to offer incense and sacrifice. But the obvious counter to that is that God only asked for an altar roughly made of earth or at best, unhewn stones, in order for man to offer sacrifice. A grandiose temple wasn't required for sacrifice.
2 Chron. 2:9 further fills out Solomon's words to Hiram: "for
the house which I am about to build shall be great and wonderful".
The greatness and wonder of the house was a big theme with David and
Solomon. But God's response to David's initial suggestion of a temple was
that He is a humble God, and doesn't like grandiose structures; rather
does He wish above all for men to allow Him to work according to His grace
in building a house for His glory made out of contrite, responsive hearts.
Form eclipsed content for Solomon, religion overtook spirituality, as has
happened constantly in the history of God's people. "Great and wonderful"
is a Hebrew phrase consistently used about what God does for men by His
grace; and not what man can do for God (Job 5:9; 9:10; 37:5; Ps. 86:10
"You are great, and do wondrous things";
136:4 "Him who alone does great wonders; for His grace endures forever"; Jer. 32:17
"by Your great power... there is nothing too wonderful for You, who show
loving kindness to thousands" of sinners). In a time of greater humility,
David had vowed not to exercise himself in anything great and wonderful
apart from to marvel at God's grace (s.w. Ps. 131:1 "nor do I concern
myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me"). But now,
Solomon is seeking to build a great and wonderful place for God, rather
than allowing God to build that great and wonderful house of humbled human
hearts.
1Ki 5:6 Now therefore command that they cut me cedar trees out of Lebanon.
My servants shall be with your servants; and I will give you wages for
your servants according to all that you shall say. For you know that there
is not among us any who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians-
Perhaps this was connected with the Divine wisdom about cedar trees
which God had given Solomon (1 Kings 4:33). The irony is that
David had told God that he was unhappy living in a house of cedar, and
wanted to build God a house; and God had specifically said that He did not
want such a house as David had, i.e. of cedar.
1Ki 5:7 It happened, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he was
very pleased and said, Blessed is Yahweh this day, who has given to David
a wise son over this great people-
Hiram's usage of the Yahweh Name could suggest he had become a
proselyte and was therefore eager to assist with building the temple.
1Ki 5:8 Hiram sent to Solomon saying, I have heard the message which you
have sent to me. I will do all your desire concerning timber of cedar and
concerning timber of fir-
"Fir" is LXX pine wood. This would have created a distinctive and
pleasant smell in the temple.
1Ki 5:9 My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. I will
make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you shall appoint me,
and will cause them to be broken up there, and you shall receive them. You
shall accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household-
The appointed place was Joppa (2 Chron. 2:16). Tyre was built on a
small island, and so as a maritime trading nation, regular provision of
fresh food was greatly sought after by them.
1Ki 5:10 So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of fir according
to all his desire-
There is the hint that Solomon's work for the temple was really not
so much for God, as a fulfilment of his own desires. He served God only
insofar as it was attractive to him. We note from Ecclesiastes that he was
obsessed with building work; and his work for the temple was just part of
that. We need to learn the lesson; that service of God is not according to
what we want to do, but according to what people need and what will
glorify God.
1Ki 5:11 Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food for
his household, and twenty measures of pure oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram
year by year-
The different figures in 1 Kings 5:11 cp. 2 Chron. 2:10 could be
because part of the amount was for Tyre generally, and part for Hiram's
personal household. Twenty measure of pure oil appears relatively small;
but it is the same word used for the oil of the tabernacle rituals (Ex.
27:20), and as a proselyte Hiram may well have built his own kind of
tabernacle system. I suggest on Ez. 28:14 that he indeed did so, but it
turned into apostacy.
1Ki 5:12 Yahweh had given Solomon wisdom, as He promised him; and there
was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a treaty together-
The implication is that the way of peace is the way of wisdom.
1Ki 5:13 King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was
thirty thousand men-
Solomon's lack of sensitivity to God's word led him to be tragically
insensitive to people; in short, he showed no love. The way Solomon raised
a "levy" or tribute from Israel, whereby the men of Israel had to serve
him one month out of three and 'bear burdens', with 3,300 taskmasters over
them (1 Kings 5:13-15), who 'bore rule' over (Heb. 'trampled down') the
people (1 Kings 5:16)... is all reminiscent of Samuel's warning about the
kind of King which Israel would have. And the language also recalls their
bondage in Egypt; note that the levy was also in order to build treasure
cities for Solomon, just as Pharaoh did (1 Kings 9:19). The Hebrew word
for "levy" in 1 Kings 5:13 strictly means 'a burden causing to faint', and
is rendered "taskmaster" in the record of Israel's suffering in Egypt (Ex.
1:11). One even wonders if Solomon's father-in-law- who also happened to
be a Pharaoh of Egypt- influenced him (consciously or unconsciously) to
act like the Exodus Pharaoh.
1Ki 5:14 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
men subject to forced labour-
The emphasis upon the forced labour brigades is significant (1 Kings
4:6; 5:13,14; 12:18), and it was Solomon's brutal treatment of his people which
led to the complaint after his death that he had whipped the people and
abused them. This was exactly as Samuel had warned the people would happen
if they chose a human king rather than God as their king; for God is
kinder than men. We see therefore that Solomon was no better than Saul.
All his wisdom failed to make him value the meaning
of the human person. It
was therefore only held by him in theory not in practice. Making
men work one month out of three meant that labour would have been lacking
in their homes- and that meant reduced food for families.
1Ki 5:15 Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty
thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains-
1 Kings 5:13-16 reveals that Solomon had 153,000
full time and 90,000 part time male
servants. Israel's complaint that Solomon
had whipped them implies that he treated them like
slaves, with himself as the slave-driver. 600,000 adults came
out of Egypt (Ex. 12:37), and assuming the population only rose slightly over the next 550 years, we
have the picture of an Israel where almost half the males
(i.e. probably the majority of the working population) were pressganged
into slavery to a despotic King Solomon.
This huge number of men involved in quarrying and transportation of the
stones was because of the obsession with building projects which Solomon
admits he had in Ecclesiastes. Just as Solomon's abundance of wives led to
having a few thousand mouths to feed, and Israel needed to provide for
that; so his obsession with thousands of horses meant that there was a
need for a huge amount of fodder for them (1 Kings 4:28). And all Israel
had to provide this- all for the sake of Solomon's obsessive desires. That
he reigned for as long as he did was truly a sign of God's grace to him
for the sake of his father David, and is a tacit reflection of how much
God loved David despite all his failures.
1Ki 5:16 besides Solomon’s chief officers who were over the work, three
thousand three hundred, who bore rule over the people who laboured in the
work-
See on :13. This levy was evidently one of the reasons which led the
next generation to complain that Solomon had chastised the people with
whips (1 Kings 12:11; the happiness of the people which the Queen of Sheba
observed in 1 Kings 10:8 was therefore just an impression Solomon arranged
for her to receive). Yet "this is the reason of the levy which king
Solomon raised: in order to build the house of the Lord, and his own
house..." (1 Kings 9:15). Solomon justified his zest for power and control
by saying it was in order to do the Lord's work, to build His house... and
yet had he listened to God's word more carefully, he would have realized
that the true house of Yahweh was in fact people... yet Solomon abused
people in order to build a visible house for God. And so very often
religious people have gone down the same path- devaluing the meaning and
value of persons, because they want to be seen as achieving something
visible for God, no matter how many people they abuse on the way. The ends
simply don't justify the means; Solomon told himself that they did, and he
ended up as bad as Saul and Pharaoh, who are alluded to in the records of
his levy of slaves from Israel. And yet the 1 Kings record gives the
impression of all happily working together to create a great temple for
God. When we probe deeper, we find this was far from the case.
David had prophesied that his great son would "have dominion from sea to sea" (Ps. 72:8). 'Have dominion' is again the Hebrew word translated 'rule over' in 1 Kings 5:15. David's vision of his Messianic son having a world-wide Kingdom, in which all people blessed him for his grace and beneficence, was abused by Solomon into justifying 'having dominion' over people as his personal slaves; and they certainly didn't bless him for it but rather complained (1 Kings 12:11). It's as if Solomon grabbed the word 'rule over / have dominion', wrenched it out of context, and used it to justify his actions, giving a quasi-Biblical justification to his pure selfishness. This is where knowledge of God's word can be a dangerous thing; leading people into a stronger self-justification than they would otherwise have had if they were guided by self-recognized greed alone.
We note the similarities to Israel's forced labour in Egypt, and so we can read an irony in 1 Kings 6:1, just a few verses later, when Israel's coming out of slavery in Egypt is mentioned as a time marker.
1Ki 5:17 The king commanded, and they cut out great stones, costly stones,
to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone-
But 1 Kings 9:15 says that all this labour regarding quarrying was
not simply for the temple; but also for his own house, which was far
larger than God's house, and took nearly twice as long to build. He
justified his own serving of his own desires under the guise of serving
God. He justified the temple as being
merely a place for sacrifice. But God had asked men to build Him altars of
dirt, or unhewn stones. Yet there is huge emphasis upon Solomon's cutting
and hewing of stones. He is presented [to the thoughtful, Biblically aware
reader] as fake all the way through, justifying his own passions in the
name of God... we think of William Golding's novel, The Spire.
1Ki 5:18 Solomon’s builders along with Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites
cut them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house-
The idea of Israelites and Gentiles working together to build God's house
looks ahead to the greater fulfilment in the things of the Kingdom of the
Lord Jesus. The kingdom of Solomon can indeed be viewed as a type of the
future kingdom of the Lord Jesus (see on 1 Kings 4:2). But in reality it
was rather that Solomon had been potentially empowered to be the Messianic
seed with a Messianic kingdom as promised to David, but he failed. And the
Lord Jesus fulfilled the potentials of the seed perfectly, leaving Solomon
and his kingdom as a failed, marred reflection of Him.
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