II
C H R O N I C L E S
CHAP. II.
Solomon's trading,
which we read of in the close of the foregoing chapter, and the encouragement
he gave both to merchandise and manufacturers, were very commendable. But
building was the work he was designed for, and to that business he is here
applying himself. Here is, I. Solomon's determination to build the temple and
a royal palace, and his appointing labourers to be employed herein, ver. 1, 2,
17, 18. II. His request to Huram king of Tyre
to furnish him both with artists and materials, ver. 3-10. III. Huram's
obliging answer to, and compliance with, his request, ver. 11-16.
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Preparations to Build the
Temple
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B.
C. 1015.
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1 And Solomon determined to build a house for
the name of the LORD,
and a house for his kingdom. 2 And Solomon told out threescore and
ten thousand men to bear burdens, and fourscore thousand to hew in the
mountain, and three thousand and six hundred to oversee them. 3
And Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As thou didst deal with
David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him a house to dwell
therein, even
so deal with me. 4 Behold, I build a house to the name of the
LORD
my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him sweet
incense, and for the continual showbread, and for the burnt offerings morning
and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts
of the LORD
our God. This is an ordinance for ever to
Israel.
5 And the house which I build is
great: for great is our God above all gods. 6 But who is
able to build him a house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot
contain him? who am I then, that I should build him a house, save only
to burn sacrifice before him? 7 Send me now therefore a man
cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in
purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave with the cunning
men that are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father
did provide. 8 Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum
trees, out of Lebanon: for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in
Lebanon; and, behold, my servants shall be with thy
servants, 9 Even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house
which I am about to build shall be wonderful great. 10
And, behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty
thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and
twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.
Solomon's wisdom was given him, not merely for speculation, to entertain
himself (though it is indeed a princely entertainment), nor merely for
conversation, to entertain his friends, but for action; and therefore to
action he immediately applies himself. Observe,
I. His resolution within himself concerning his business (v. 1): He
determined to build, in the first place, a house for the name of the
Lord. It is fit that he who is the first should be served--first a temple
and then a palace, a house not so much for himself, or his own convenience and
magnitude, as for the kingdom, for the honour of it among its neighbours and
for the decent reception of the people whenever they had occasion to apply to
their prince; so that in both he aimed at the public good. Those are the
wisest men that lay out themselves most for the honour of the name of the Lord
and the welfare of communities. We are not born for ourselves, but for God and
our country.
II. His embassy to Huram, king of Tyre, to engage his assistance in the
prosecution of his designs. The purport of his errand to him is much the same
here as we had it 1 Kings v. 2, &c., only here it is more largely set
forth.
1. The reasons why he makes this application to Huram are here more fully
represented, for information to Huram as well as for inducement. (1.) He
pleads his father's interest in Huram, and the kindness he had received from
him (v. 3): As thou didst deal with David, so deal with me. As
we must show kindness to, so we may expect kindness from, our fathers'
friends, and with them should cultivate a correspondence. (2.) He represents
his design in building the temple: he intended it for a place of religious
worship (v. 4), that all the offerings which God had appointed for the
honour of his name might be offered up there. The house was built that it
might be dedicated to God and used in his service. This we should aim at in
all our business, that our havings and doings may be all to the glory of God.
He mentions various particular services that were there to be performed, for
the instruction of Huram. The mysteries of the true religion, unlike those of
the Gentile superstition, coveted not concealment. (3.) He endeavours to
inspire Huram with very great and high thoughts of the God of Israel, by
expressing the mighty veneration he had for his holy name: Great is our God
above all gods, above all idols, above all princes. Idols are nothing,
princes are little, and both under the control of the God of Israel; and
therefore, [1.] "The house must be great; not in proportion to the
greatness of that God to whom it is to be dedicated (for between finite and
infinite there can be no proportion), but in some proportion to the great
value and esteem we have for this God." [2.] "Yet, be it ever so
great, it cannot be a habitation for the great God. Let not Huram think that
the God of Israel, like the gods of the nations, dwells in temples made
with hands, Acts xvii. 24. No, the heaven of heavens cannot contain
him. It is intended only for the convenience of his priests and
worshippers, that they may have a fit place wherein to burn sacrifice before
him." [3.] He looked upon himself, though a mighty prince, as unworthy
the honour of being employed in this great work: Who am I that I should
build him a house? It becomes us to go about every work for God with a due
sense of our utter insufficiency for it and our incapacity to do any thing
adequate to the divine perfections. It is part of the wisdom wherein we ought
to walk towards those that are without carefully to guard against all
misapprehension which any thing we say or do may occasion concerning God; so
Solomon does here in his treaty with Huram.
2. The requests he makes to him are more particularly set down here. (1.) He
desired Huram would furnish him with a good hand to work (v. 7): Send
me a man. He had cunning men with him in Jerusalem and Judah, whom
David provided, 1 Chron. xxii. 15. Let them not think but that Jews had some
among them that were artists. But "send me a man to direct them.
There are ingenious men in Jerusalem, but not such engravers as are in Tyre;
and therefore, since temple-work must be the best in its kind, let me have the
best workmen that can be got." (2.) With good materials to work on (v.
8), cedar and other timber in abundance (v. 8, 9); for the house must
be wonderfully great, that is, very stately and magnificent, no cost
must be spared, nor any contrivance wanting in it.
3. Here is Solomon's engagement to maintain the workmen (v. 10), to
give them so much wheat and barley, so much wine and oil. He did not feed his
workmen with bread and water, but with plenty, and every thing of the best.
Those that employ labourers ought to take care they be not only well paid, but
well provided for with sufficient of that which is wholesome and fit for them.
Let the rich masters do for their poor workmen as they would be done by if the
tables were turned.
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Solomon's Treaty with Hiram.
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B.
C. 1015.
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11 Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in
writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because the LORD
hath loved his people, he hath made thee king over them. 12 Huram
said moreover, Blessed be the LORD
God of Israel, that made heaven and earth, who hath given to David the king a
wise son, endued with prudence and understanding, that might build a house for
the LORD,
and a house for his kingdom. 13 And now I have sent a cunning man,
endued with understanding, of Huram my father's, 14 The son of a
woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre,
skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in
timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave
any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him,
with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy
father. 15 Now therefore the wheat, and the barley, the oil, and
the wine, which my lord hath spoken of, let him send unto his servants:
16 And we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need: and we
will bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa; and thou shalt carry it up to
Jerusalem. 17 And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were
in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had
numbered them; and they were found a hundred and fifty thousand and three
thousand and six hundred. 18 And he set threescore and ten
thousand of them to be bearers of burdens, and fourscore thousand to
be hewers in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to
set the people a work.
Here we have, I. The return which Huram made to Solomon's embassy, in which he
shows a great respect for Solomon and a readiness to serve him. Meaner people
may learn of these great ones to be neighbourly and complaisant. 1. He
congratulates Israel on having such a king as Solomon was (v. 11): Because
the Lord loved his people, he has made thee king. Note, A wise and good
government is a great blessing to a people, and may well be accounted a
singular token of God's favour. He does not say, Because he loved thee
(though that was true, 2 Sam. xii. 24) he made thee king, but because
he loved his people. Princes must look upon themselves as preferred for
the public good, not for their own personal satisfaction, and should rule so
as to prove that they were given in love and not in anger. 2. He blesses God
for raising up such a successor to David, v. 12. It should seem that
Huram was not only very well affected to the Jewish nation, and well pleased
with their prosperity, but that he was proselyted to the Jewish religion, and
worshipped Jehovah, the God of Israel (who was now known by that name
to the neighbouring nations), as the God that made heaven and earth,
and as the fountain of power as well as being; for he sets up kings. Now that
the people of Israel kept close to the law and worship of God, and so
preserved their honour, the neighbouring nations were as willing to be
instructed by them in the true religion as Israel had been, in the days of
their apostasy, to be infected with the idolatries and superstitions of their
neighbours. This made them high, that they lent to many nations and did not
borrow, lent truth to them, and did not borrow error from them; as when they
did the contrary it was their shame. 3. He sent him a very ingenious curious
workman, that would not fail to answer his expectations in every thing, one
that had both Jewish and Gentile blood meeting in him; for his mother was an
Israelite (Huram though she was of the tribe of Dan, and therefore says so
here, v. 14, but it seems she was of the tribe of Naphtali, 1 Kings
vii. 14), but his father was a Tyrian--a good omen of uniting Jew and Gentile
in the gospel temple, as it was afterwards when the building of the second
temple was greatly furthered by Darius (Ezra vi.), who is supposed to have
been the son of Esther--an Israelite by the mother's side. 4. He engaged for
the timber, as much as he would have occasion for, and undertook to deliver it
at Joppa, and withal signified his dependence upon Solomon for the maintenance
of the workmen as he had promised, v. 15, 16. This agreement we had, 1
Kings v. 8, 9.
II. The orders which Solomon gave about the workmen. He would not employ the
free-born Israelites in the drudgery work of the temple itself, not so much as
to be overseers of it. In this he employed the strangers who were proselyted
to the Jewish religion, who had not lands of inheritance in Canaan as the
Israelites had, and therefore applied to trades, and got their living by their
ingenuity and industry. There were, at this time, vast numbers of them in the
land (v. 17), who, if they were of any of the devoted nations, perhaps
fell within the case, and therefore fell under the law, of the Gibeonites, to
be hewers of wood for the congregation: if not, yet being in many respects
well provided for by the law of Moses, and put upon an equal footing with the
native Israelites, they were bound in gratitude to do what they could for the
service of the temple. Yet, no doubt, they were well paid in money or money's
worth: the law was, Thou shalt not oppress a stranger. The distribution
of them we have here (v. 2, and again v. 18), in all 150,000.
Canaan was a fruitful land, that found meat for so many mouths more than the
numerous natives; and the temple was a vast building, that found work for so
many bands. Mr. Fuller suggests that the expedient peculiar to this structure,
of framing all beforehand, must needs increase the work. I think it rather
left so much the more room for this vast multitude of hands to be employed in
it; for in the forest of Lebanon they might all be at work together, without
crowding one another, which they could not have been upon Mount Sion. And, if
there had not been such vast numbers employed, so large and curious a fabric,
which was begun and ended in seven years, might, for aught I know, have been
as long in building as St. Paul's.
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