Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/239

Rh 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. Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because the loveth his people, he hath made thee king over them. Huram said moreover, Blessed be the, the God of Israel, that made heaven and earth, who hath given to David the king a wise son, endued with discretion and understanding, that should build an house for the, and an house for his kingdom. And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father's, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre,

10. measures] Heb. cors. A cor was the same as a ḥomer = about 11 bushels.

beaten wheat] 1 Kin. v. 11, wheat for food. The text is doubtful, and the phrase beaten wheat occurs nowhere else and is uncertain in meaning.

of barley] The barley and wine are not mentioned in 1 Kin. v. 11; there wheat and oil only are mentioned.

twenty thousand baths of oil] In 1 Kin. v. 11 (Heb.) twenty cors of pure oil. In liquid measure the bath = about 8-1/4 gallons. As ten baths went to a cor, the amount stated in Chron. is a hundred times as much as the amount given in 1 Kings.

11—16 [10—15, Heb.] (cp. 1 Kin. v. 7—9).&emsp;

Like the preceding vv. 3—10, these verses show considerable variations from the parallel in Kings.

12. The sequence is greatly improved if this verse is read before ver. 11. Probably the transposition should be made.

God of Israel] The Chronicler feels no incongruity in making Huram use the language of a worshipper of Jehovah.

13. I have sent] According to 1 Kin. vii. 13 Solomon himself sent and fetched Hiram the artificer.

of Huram my father's] Render either lit. as mg., even Huram my father, or better, even Huram my trusted counsellor. Huram the king calls Huram the artificer my father as a title of honour. Cp. iv. 16.

14. of Dan] in 1 Kin. vii. 14, of Naphtali. The reading of Chron. may have arisen from Ex. xxxi. 6 (Oholiab one of the artificers of the tabernacle was of the tribe of Dan).