And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.
Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel, х mac (H4522)] - (see the notes at 1 Kings 4:6, last clause.) The renewed notice of Solomon's divine gift of wisdom (1 Kings 5:12) is evidently introduced to prepare for this record of the strong but prudent measures he took toward the accomplishment of his work. So great a stretch of arbitrary power as is implied in this compulsory levy must have raised great discontent, if not opposition, had not his wise arrangement of letting the labourers remain at home two months out of three, added to the sacredness of the work, reconciled the people to this forced labour. The carriage of burdens and the irksome work of excavating the quarries was assigned to the remnant of the Canaanites (1 Kings 9:20; 2 Chronicles 8:7-9) and war-prisoners made by David, amounting to 153,600. The employment of persons of that condition in Eastern countries for carrying on any public work would make this part of the arrangements the less thought of.