Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees, out of Lebanon,.... Of the two first of these, and which Hiram sent, see 1 Kings 5:10. The algum trees are the same with the almug trees, 1 Kings 10:11 by a transposition of letters; these could not be coral, as some Jewish writers think, which grows in the sea, for these were in Lebanon; nor Brazil, as Kimchi, so called from a place of this name, which at this time was not known; though there were trees of almug afterwards brought from Ophir in India, as appears from the above quoted place, as well as from Arabia; and it seems, as Beckius c observes, to be an Arabic word, by the article "al" prefixed to it:
for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon; better than his:
and, behold, my servants shall be with thy servants; to help and assist them in what they can, and to learn of them, see 1 Kings 5:6.
c In Targum in loc.