Beginning of Temple Reconstruction (3:7–13)

Cedar logs … from Lebanon (3:7). As with Solomon’s temple (1 Chron. 22:2–4; 2 Chron. 2:7–15), the Phoenicians cooperated by sending timbers and workmen (1 Kings 5:7–12). The latter were paid in “money” (lit., “silver”) that would have been weighed out in shekels (see the sidebar “The Cedars of Lebanon”).

The Cedars of Lebanon

Ancient Phoenicia (modern Lebanon) had two advantages that Palestine to the south did not have: excellent harbors (Tyre and Sidon) and stands of coniferous trees, the famed “cedars of Lebanon.” Both the Egyptians and the Assyrians coveted her timber. As early as the fourth dynasty, Sneferu recorded trips to Lebanon: “Bringing forty ships filled (with) cedar logs … shipbuilding (of) cedarwood … making the doors of the royal palace (of) cedarwood.”A-18 Over a millennium later the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I (1114–1076 B.C.) reported: “I went to the Lebanon (Lab-na-a-ni). I cut (there) timber of cedars for the temple of Anu and Adad, the great gods, my lords, and carried (them to Ashur).”A-19

Cedars, mentioned seventy-one times in the Old Testament, can grow to a height of 120 feet with a girth of thirty to forty feet. Their fragrant wood resists rot and insects. The wood was floated on rafts down the coast and unloaded at Joppa (cf. 1 Kings 5:9; 2 Chron. 2:15–16).A-20

The Phoenicians, who could use their timbers to build ships, became the most daring seaman in the world, even circumnavigating Africa in a clockwise direction (according to Herodotus).A-21 In contrast to Phoenicia, Palestine did not have such natural harbors. For the most part the Hebrews (like Jonah) were terrified of the sea. Only Solomon, with the collaboration of Hiram king of Tyre, embarked on widespread maritime ventures (1 Kings 9–10).A-22