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Solomon's preparations to build the church. 1 Kings 5:1. And Hiram king of Tire sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that he had been anointed king in the place of his father; for Hiram was David's friend all his life. (Heb. 15). Hiram (2 Chronicles 2:2), or Khuram (as in Hebrew), in Josephus Ἐιρωμος, Phoenician. Akhir, according to the news of Diy and Menander - from I. Flavius ​​(Jewish Ancients VIII, 2, 6; Archpriest Apion I, 17, 18), was the son of King Abibaal, reigned for 34 years (969-936 BC) and died in the 53rd year of his life, transferring the throne to his son Baleazar. (2 Chronicles 2:3), as well as (1 Kings 5:1), directly states that Hiram, who upon Solomon’s accession to the throne sent a congratulatory embassy to him and then helped him in his construction work, is identical with Hiram, a contemporary of David, who also helped the latter in the construction of the royal palace (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Chronicles 14:1). But according to (1 Kings 9:10–13), cf. (1 Kings 6:1), Solomon's contemporary Hiram was still alive at least in the 24th year of Solomon's reign; therefore, at the same time as David, Hiram could rule for no more than 10 years (34–24). However, the mentioned buildings of David with the help of Hiram are described at the beginning, and not at the end, of the history of David's reign (2 Sam. 5:9-11). In explanation of this, it is believed that the sacred writer of the 2nd book of Samuel in this case adhered to a systematic, rather than chronological order in describing the events of the reign of David. Another explanation (Cleric and others) considers the king friendly to David to be a different person than Solomon’s friend - Abibal, the father of Hiram. But this explanation clearly contradicts (1 Kings 5:1–2; 2 Chronicles 2:3). Tyre, along with Sidon, which was the most important city of Phenicia, is represented by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 26:4,14) as a city standing on a bare rock, which corresponds to the Hebrew name Tire tsor (related to tsur - rock). 1 Kings 5:2. And Solomon also sent to Hiram, saying: 1 Kings 5:3. You know that David, my father, could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of wars with the surrounding nations, until the Lord subdued them under the soles of his feet; 1 Kings 5:4. now the Lord my God has granted me peace from everywhere: there is no enemy and no more obstacles; 1 Kings 5:5. and behold, I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to my father David, saying: “Your son, whom I will set in your stead on your throne, he will build a house for My name”; 1 Kings 5:6. So order that cedars from Lebanon be cut for me; and behold, my servants will be together with your servants, and I will give you the wages for your servants, whatever you will appoint; for you know that we have no people who know how to cut down trees like the Sidonians. In a response letter to Hiram, Solomon presents the work he is undertaking to build the church by fulfilling the plan and preparations of David (2 Samuel 7:8-13; 1 Chronicles 22:7-11), indicates the need for construction in Phoenician workers, especially residents of the city of Sidon (Hebrew cidom - near Lebanon, Onomastic. 871) and asks for cedar wood (v. 6), cypress (v. 8) and all kinds of wood and metal craftsmen (cf. 1 Kings 7:13–14; 2 Chronicles 2:6–7). 1 Kings 5:7. When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he was very happy and said: Blessed is the Lord today, who gave David a wise son to rule this numerous people! 1 Kings 5:8. And Hiram sent to Solomon saying: I have listened to what you sent to me for, and I will fulfill all your desire for cedar trees and cypress trees; The words of blessing put by the sacred writer into the mouth of Hiram - “blessed is Jehovah” (according to (2 Chronicles 2:12): “blessed is Jehovah, the God of Israel”) do not prove that Hiram was a proselyte of Judaism, as the old interpreters believed: history does not know this, and the words of Hiram’s blessing represent a simple answer to Solomon’s expression of faith in Jehovah. 1 Kings 5:9. my servants will bring them from Lebanon to the sea, and I will deliver them on rafts by sea to the place that you assign to me, and there I will lay them down, and you will take them; but you also fulfill my desire to deliver bread for my house. According to (2 Chronicles 2:16), the timber, chopped by Phoenician workers, was floated in rafts to the seaside city of Jaffa or Joppa (in the tribe of Dan) (Joshua 19:46), and from here Solomon’s workers received it and delivered it to Jerusalem. 1 Kings 5:11. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cows of wheat to feed his house, and twenty thousand cows of olive oil: this is what Solomon gave Hiram every year. Every year, during the entire construction work, Solomon undertook to deliver to Hiram’s court 20,000 cows, (about 30,000 quarters) of wheat and the same amount of the best olive oil (“beaten”, Hebrew rolls, cf. (Exodus 27:20,29:40), i.e., obtained not by pressing, but by pricking unripe olive berries). According to (2 Chronicles 2:11) and I. Flav. Jewish Ancients VIII, 2, 8, a formal contract was concluded between Solomon and Hiram, copies of which were kept in both Jerusalem and Tire. 1 Kings 5:13. And King Solomon imposed taxes on all Israel; the duty consisted of thirty thousand people. 1 Kings 5:14. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand per month, alternately; They were in Lebanon for a month, and in their home for two months. Adoniram was in charge over them. To carry out the work, Solomon had to impose constant taxes on the natural Israelites (who were very burdened by this: (1 Kings 12:4)): 30,000 Israelis annually worked in three shifts in Lebanon along with the Phoenicians. 1 Kings 5:15. Solomon also had seventy thousand heavy bearers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountains, 1 Kings 5:16. besides three thousand three hundred captains who were appointed by Solomon over the work to supervise the people who did the work. Solomon entrusted an even more difficult, now purely burdensome, service to the Canaanite “aliens” Gerim (2 Chronicles 2:17; cf. Josh. 16:10; Judges 1:27), who worked continuously: 80,000 of them hewed and hewed stones in the mountains, and 70,000 delivered building material to the construction site. Such a huge number of workers was required due to the absence of all kinds of machines in ancient times (an even larger number of workers were, for example, during the construction of the famous Egyptian pyramids). The number of overseers placed over the workers is determined differently in the 3rd book of Kings and in 2 Chronicles, but their overall figure is the same: according to (1 Kings 5:16) - 3,300 people. and according to (1 Kings 9:23) – 550 people; according to (2 Chronicles 2:18) – 3,600, according to (2 Chronicles 8:10) – 250 people; in both cases the total amount of the guards is the same: 3850. 1 Kings 5:17. And the king ordered to bring large stones, expensive stones, for the foundation of the house, dressed stones. 1 Kings 5:18. So the workmen of Solomon and the workmen of Hiram and the Gilites hewed them, and prepared wood and stones for the building of the house [for three years]. The stones were not brought from Lebanon, but were carved in Canaan itself; dressed stones – Heb. abne gazit. the term gazit is a technical term meaning a peculiar Hebrew decoration of stones, called “edging with issues”: on all edges of the front face of the stone there was a ribbon-like border or issue, so that the middle field of the stone rose somewhat above its edges and to an observer from a distance it seemed as if inserted into a frame, and each stone stood out so prominently in the general background of the wall that it could be counted at a considerable distance (cf. Mark 13:1 ) all the stones (Prof. Olesnitsky, Holy Land, Kyiv, 1875, vol. I, pp. 15–16. His same. Old Testament Temple in Jerusalem St. Petersburg. 1889, 565–566). "Givlitians" - inhabitants of the Phoenician city of Ebal, Greek. Γυβλος, near ancient. Sidon, now between Tripoli and Beirut; in (Ezek.27:9) its inhabitants are shipbuilders, and here they are stonemasons. Increase in the LXX text and Slavic-Russian in Art. 18: “three years” expresses the correct idea that Solomon carried out the preparatory work during the first 3 years of his reign, and already in the 4th year (1 Kings 6:1; 2 Chronicles 3:2) he began laying the foundation of the building (cf. Blessed Theodoret, question 22). These preparatory works consisted, according to I. Flavius, among other things, in planning Mount Moriah intended for the church (2 Chronicles 3:1) with the help of huge stone blocks with earth, as well as a deliberately built wall at the foot of the hill (Jewish Ancients XV, 11, 3). You might be interested in: