Labor in the Time of Solomon

1 Kings 5:13, 15-16: “King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel—thirty thousand men… He had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills, as well as three thousand three hundred foremen who supervised the project.”

This marks the first time in the Bible that Israelites were conscripted for forced labor. At that time, the able-bodied population of Israel was 1.3 million (2 Samuel 24:9), so 30,000 men represented about 2.3% of that. The “seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills” were primarily foreigners residing in the land of Israel (2 Chronicles 2:17-18). From David’s time onward, he “gathered the foreigners living in Israel and assigned them to be stonecutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God” (1 Chronicles 22:1). The “three thousand three hundred foremen” were also very likely foreigners. The Temple was built through the cooperative effort of both Israelites and foreigners, reflecting God’s intention for the Temple to be a “house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7). God’s grace was also meant to extend through the Temple to the foreigners who turned to Him (1 Kings 8:41-43).