The Torah Network

2 yrs

SERIES L --- THE NATION DIVIDES --- LESSON 05

TEMPLE PREPARATIONS

SOLOMON ASKS KING HIRAM FOR BUILDING MATERIALS

From 1 Kings 5:1-18; 7:13-14; 2 Chronicles 2:1-18

When Solomon became king of Israel, King Hiram of Tyre sent messengers to wish Solomon well. Hiram and Solomon’s father, King David, had always been good friends; Hiram loved and admired David greatly. Solomon responded by sending messengers to King Hiram, telling him about his plans to build a temple for Adonai and a royal palace for himself. He told Hiram that David had wanted to build the temple, but could not because there had always been some strife within the country or with neighbouring lands. [You know that my father could not build this temple because he was always involved in a war,] Solomon said. [But now Adonai has given us peace on every side, for no one wishes to fight us. It seems like a good time now to build the temple. This temple will be dedicated to Adonai our YHVH. We will burn incense and sweet spices before Him there, provide burnt offerings morning and evening and present an offering of the showbread. We will also have offerings for new moon celebrations and for special feasts. It will be a great temple, for our YHVH is greater than all other gods. And yet, who can ever build Him a home that is good enough? He is higher than the highest heavens. Who am I to build such a house? Nevertheless, I will build this temple where we can offer incense to Him. Now, I need from you skilled craftsmen who can work with gold, silver, bronze, iron and cloth of purple, crimson and blue. I need men who can engrave, who will work beside the men I will provide from Judah and Jerusalem, men who were chosen by King David my father. I also need beautiful wood from your land; cedar, cypress and red sandalwood; for no one can work with wood like your people. I will send some of my people to work with yours, to gather a great quantity of lumber for the temple, for this temple will be great and marvellous. [I will pay your woodcutters twenty thousand sacks of cracked wheat, twenty thousand sacks of barley, twenty thousand barrels of wine and twenty thousand barrels of olive oil.] King Hiram was pleased with Solomon’s request, so he sent this message back to Solomon. [Adonai must certainly love His people to make you their king,] he said. [Praise be to Adonai, the YHVH of Israel, Who made the heaven and the earth, for He has given David a wise son with the understanding and ability to build a temple for Adonai and a palace for himself. [I have received your request and will be pleased to give you what you need, including the cedar and cypress wood. I will supply my best craftsman, the famous Huram, who can do wonderful things with gold, silver, copper, iron and stone, as well as with fine linen in blue, purple, scarlet and even with engravings. He can also invent many good things. Huram is the son of a woman from the people of Dan in Israel and of a man who was a foundry worker in Tyre. He will work with your men. We will take the cedar and cypress logs to the Mediterranean Sea and tie them together into rafts, where they will float to the seaport of Joppa. There you can untie the logs and carry them to Jerusalem. In the meantime, you may ship the wheat, barley, oil and wine which you mentioned to the workmen as their reward.] Solomon sent the agreed payment, as well as twenty thousand sacks of wheat for Hiram himself, along with ninety-six gallons of olive oil. These things were for Hiram’s own household. Hiram set to work and cut the cedar and cypress wood that Solomon needed. As the work progressed, Solomon and Hiram made a formal treaty of peace. It became apparent that Solomon was as wise as YHVH had promised that he would be. From among his own people in Israel, Solomon gathered thirty thousand labourers to help with the work in Hiram’s land [which is called Lebanon today]. Each of Solomon’s workmen would spend a month working with Hiram’s men, then two months at home in Israel. Each month there were ten thousand Israelite labourers in the forest with Hiram’s men. The other twenty thousand were at home in Israel. In addition to the thirty thousand Israelites, Solomon forced the foreigners who lived in Israel to work on the temple, following the practice which David had begun. Of the one hundred and fifty-three thousand, six hundred foreigners in Israel, seventy thousand were assigned as labourers, eighty thousand as loggers or stonecutters and thirty-six hundred [or perhaps thirty-three hundred] as foremen. King Solomon commanded that great stones be quarried and cut into blocks for the foundation of the temple. This was very difficult work. Solomon’s workmen worked side by side with Hiram’s workmen and men from Gebal, cutting trees, making the trees into lumber, quarrying stones and doing other work necessary for the construction of the temple.

COMMENTARY

ISRAELITE OLIVE OIL

The Phoenician craftsmen who worked on Solomon’s temple were paid with wheat, barley, wine and olive oil. Altogether, twenty thousand barrels of olive oil were given instead of money, actually it may have been worth more than money to the Phoenicians, for Israelite olive oil was among the finest in the world. In Bible times, olive oil was used for many purposes, it was made in several grades of purity. The finest oil was called [beaten oil] because of the way it was made. Workers picked the fruit before it was fully ripe, then softly pounded or [beat] it with a pestle in a wide stone mortar. The oil was then carefully strained to remove every trace of impurity. The painstakingly slow process yielded a clear golden oil of superior quality. Beaten oil was used by the tabernacle priests to fuel the lamp that burned day and night inside the sanctuary. The sacred anointing oil, mixed with fragrant spices, was of the same quality. Makers of cosmetics all around the Mediterranean area also used beaten oil in perfumes and ointments. Most farmers however, used their olives to make oil for everyday use. And its uses were many. Ancient peoples not only cooked food in the nutritious oil, they also mixed it with special pastries and used it as a flavouring and as a spread. It provided the fuel for the pottery lamps that burned through the night in every Israelite home. Each household kept a separate supply of the sweet-smelling liquid to use as a skin cream and as protection from the burning sun. Physicians often cleaned open wounds with a salve like mixture of olive oil and wine. Olives were usually not harvested until fully ripe, in middle or late September. Armed with long poles, harvesters gathered the fruit by beating the gnarled branches until the fruit fell from the tree to the ground. They were carried in baskets from the hillside groves to the olive press. Some of the fruit was eaten fresh, some made into relish or pickled in brine. In fact, olives and wheat bread made up the staple food of most poor Israelites. But most of the fruit was crushed for its oil in a large stone mill. Wide basins held several bushels of olives. Work animals or teams of men crushed the olives by turning a large stone roller over the fruit in the basin. A side spout channelled the oil out as it welled up from the pulp. This first pressing yielded a good quality oil, best for cooking. After the first press, the olive pulp was placed in a small stone vat and covered with a heavy lid. A weighted lever kept constant pressure on the lid, squeezing every drop of oil from the mashed fruit. The last pressing was of poorer quality and used as a soap base or as a cheap and undependable fuel.

Comment

Discover Posts

The Art of Consecration - The Barking Fox