1 Kings 5:11

Contextual Overview

¹⁰In this way Hiram kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and pine logs he wanted, ¹⁰ In this way Hiram kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and juniper logs he wanted, ¹⁰So Hiram gave Solomon as much as he desired of the cedar and cypress timber. ¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon as much as he desired of the cedar and cypress timber. ¹⁰ Aud so Hiram gaue Solomon Cedar trees and firre trees according to all his desyre. ¹⁰ And Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees, all his desire. ¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and fir logs that he wanted. ¹⁰ So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired, ¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of fir according to all his desire. ¹⁰ So Hiram gaue Solomon Cedar trees, and Firre trees, according to all his desire.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

measures: Heb. cors, 1 Kings 4:22, *marg. 2 Chronicles 2:10

twenty measures: "Twenty thousand baths of oil" are mentioned in Chronicles; and the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint also have here "twenty thousand measures." But as barley and wine are also spoken of there, it is probable that the wheat mentioned here, and the small quantity of fine oil, were intended for the use of Hiram's own family, while that in Chronicles was for his workmen.

Reciprocal: Genesis 27:28 - plenty Deuteronomy 8:8 - wheat 2 Chronicles 2:15 - which my lord

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat [for] food to his household,.... This measure was the Hebrew measure "cor", or "corus", and, according to Bishop Cumberland e, its contents were 17,477 solid inches; it was equal to ten ephahs, each of which held two gallons and an half, and the cor held seventy five wine gallons five pints, and somewhat more; according to some f, what it held was equal to six hundred forty eight Roman pounds; so that twenty thousand of them contained 12,960,000 pounds of wheat:

and twenty measures of pure oil; squeezed out of the olives without breaking them; the same kind of measure is here expressed as before, and the quantity answered to 12,960 Roman pounds; another writer g reckons a cor to contain 1080 Roman pounds; so that Hiram had every year 21,600 pounds of oil. In 2 Chronicles 2:10, it is twenty thousand baths of oil now not to take notice that the measures are different, a bath was but the tenth part of a cor, reference is had to different things; here the writer relates what was given to Hiram for his own family, there what was given to the workmen, where several other things are mentioned besides these:

thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year: so long as the building lasted, and the workmen were employed; but Abarbinel thinks that he gave it to him as long as he lived, out of his great munificence and liberality.

e Scripture Weights and Measures, c. 3. p. 86. f Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. p. 517. g Van Till in Cantic. Mosis, p. 54.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The number of measures of wheat was considerably less than Solomon’s own annual consumption, which exceeded 32,000 cors 1 Kings 4:22; but the small amount of twenty cors of oil, which seems at first sight scarcely to match with the 20,000 cors of wheat, will not appear improbable, if we consider that the oil was to be” pure” - literally “beaten” - i. e., oil extracted from the olives by pounding, and not by means of the press.

Year by year - i. e., during all the years that Solomon was engaged in building and was helped by Hiram.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 5:11. And Solomon gave Hiram, c. — The information in this verse of the annual stipend paid to Hiram, is deficient, and must be supplied out of 2 Chronicles 2:10. Here twenty thousand measures of wheat, and twenty measures of pure oil, is all that is promised: there, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, twenty thousand measures of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil, is the stipulation unless we suppose the first to be for Hiram's own family, the latter for his workmen. Instead of twenty measures of oil, the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint, have twenty thousand measures, as in Chronicles. In 2 Chron., instead of cors of oil, it is baths. The bath was a measure much less than the cor.