And, behold, I will give... barley. — Rather, And, behold, for the hewers, that is, for the woodcutters, I will give wheat as food for thy servants, viz., twenty thousand kors, and barley twenty thousand kors, &c. “For the hewers” may mean “as for the hewers,” or perhaps “on account of the hewers” (Genesis 4:23). The latter sense would bring the verse into substantial harmony with 1 Kings 5:11, where we read: “And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty kors” (LXX., 20,000 baths) “of pure oü: so used Solomon to give to Hiram year by year,” i.e., during his building operations.
Beaten wheat. — The Hebrew (hittîm makkôth) is literally wheat — strokes. But it is obvious that makkôth is a misreading for makkôleth, food, the word used in 1 Kings 5:11; and so the LXX. renders. The expression “thy servants” here seems to correspond with the phrase” his household “there; and the drift of the whole passage is that, in return for the services of the Tyrian artificers, Solomon engages to supply Hiram’s royal household with provisions of corn and wine and oil.
Others assume, without much likelihood, that the two passages relate to two distinct agreements, by one of which Solomon undertook to supply Hiram’s court, and by the other his Tyrian workmen, with provisions.
Hewers (hôtĕbîm). — An old word, not recurring in the chronicle, and therefore explained by the writer.
Measures (kôrîm). — The kor was a dry measure = one quarter. (Syriac, reb‘e, “quarters.”) The bath, a liquid measure, of six or seven gallons’ capacity. Both words occur in the Greek of Luke 16:6-7.