1 Kings 5:13 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Levy out of all Israel. — This, though far from being onerous, appears to have been at this time exceptional. For in 1 Kings 9:22 we read that “of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains.” Thus exceptionally introduced at first for the special service of God, it may have been the beginning of what was hereafter an oppressive despotism over the Israelites themselves. Probably even now the Israelite labourers were (under the chief officers) put in authority over the great mass of 150,000 bondmen, evidently drawn from the native races. (See 2 Chronicles 2:17.) But the whole description suggests to us — what the history of Exodus, the monuments of Egypt, and the description by Herodotus of the building of the Pyramids confirm — the vast sacrifice of human labour and life, at which (in the absence of machinery to spare labour) the great monuments of ancient splendour were reared.