And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.
And the stone-squarers. The margin, which renders it 'the Giblites' (Joshua 13:5), has long been considered a preferable translation. This marginal translation also must yield to another which has lately been proposed, by a slight change in the Hebrew text, and which would be rendered thus: 'Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them and bevel them' (Thenius). These great beveled or grooved stones, measuring some 20 feet, others 30 feet in length, and from 5 to 6 feet in width, are still seen in the substructures about the ancient site of the temple; and in the judgment of the most competent observers, were those originally employed 'to lay the foundation of the house.' Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 8:, ch. 2:, sec. 9) says that King Solomon ordered large stones for the foundation of the temple to be hewn, and that they should be prepared and united, and then removed to the city. [The Septuagint adds: kai heetoimasan tous lithous kai xula tria etee, and they spent three years in preparing the stones and the timber.]