2 Chronicles 2:10 - Exposition

Beaten wheat . In 1 Kings 5:11 the language is "wheat for food" ( מַכֹּלֶת ), while the Septuagint gives καὶ μαχεὶρ . In our present passage the Septuagint gives εἰς βρώματα , suggesting at once that our Hebrew מִכּוֹת is an error for מַכֹּלֶת . The former Hebrew word is that constantly employed for "plagues," "strokes," etc; and it is nowhere but in this place rendered "beaten." I will give to thy servants . This passage is hard to reconcile with what is said in 1 Kings 5:11 ; but meantime it is not certain that it needs to be reconciled with it. It is possible that the two passages are distinct. The contents of the present verse, at all events, need not be credited with any ambiguity, unless, indeed, we would wish it more definite, whether the expression, "I will give to thy servants," may not be quite as correctly understood, " for thy servants," i.e. to thee as the hire of them. If this be so, it would enable us to give at once all the wheat, and two hundred out of the 20,000 baths of oil, for the consumption, not of the literal workmen, but of the royal household. Then this granted, the verse, though not identical with 1 Kings 5:11 , is brought into harmony with it. Reverting to the statement in 1 Kings 5:1-18 ; what we learn is that Solomon, in his application to Hiram, offers payment for the hire of his servants such as he shall appoint ( 1 Kings 5:6 ). Hiram's reply is that he shall be satisfied to receive as payment "food for his household " ( 1 Kings 5:9 ), the amount of it and the annual payment of it being specified in 1 Kings 5:11 . This is the whole case, the discrepancies in which are plain, but they do not amount to contradictions. The appearance that is worn on the face of things is that the writer in Chronicles gives what came to be the final arrangement as to remuneration, though confessedly it is placed as much as the account in Kings in the draft of Solomon's original application to Hiram. Measures . These were cots, and the cot was the same as the homer. From a calculation of some doubtfulness, however, made under the suggestions of 1 Kings 4:22 , it has been said that the consumption of the royal household of Solomon was above 32,000 measures. The cor, or homer, was the largest of the five dry measures of capacity, being equal to 180 cabs, 100 omers, 30 seahe, 10 ephahs , though what was the exact value of any one of these in modern measures has only been uncertainly and very approximately arrived at. Baths . The bath was the largest of the three liquid measures of capacity, being equal to 6 bins and 72 logs .