2 Chronicles 2:2 Sermons: Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, and eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand and six hundred to oversee them.

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◄ 2 Chronicles 2:2 ►

So he conscripted 70,000 porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.

Sermons

A Great Project: the Building of a Temple	T. Whitelaw	2 Chronicles 2:1-10
Solomon's Predestined Work	J. Parker, D.D.	2 Chronicles 2:1-16
Human Labour	W. Clarkson	2 Chronicles 2:2, 3, 7-10

Pulpit Commentary Homiletics

Human Labour

2 Chronicles 2:2, 3, 7-10

W. Clarkson

Concerning the work in which we are engaged as men of action and production, we have here four suggestions.

I. THE AMPLITUDE OF MATERIAL WITH WHICH GOD HAS SUPPLIED US. We have mention made (ver. 7) of different metals - gold, silver, brass, iron; and this enumeration is far from being exhaustive. We have reference (ver. 8) to different trees; and these are only a reminder of all the kinds of timber to be had in the forests of the earth. We have a statement of articles of food (ver. 10), representing various industries; and these again are only suggestive of a large number at our command. The Divine Author of our nature and Builder of our home has given us many tastes and cravings; he has also supplied us with the most ample material on which our skill and our labour can be expended, so that all our wants and even our wishes may be supplied.

II. THE NECESSITY, DIVINELY ORDERED, FOR CORDIAL CO-OPERATION. Solomon had to negotiate with Hiram; the skilled labour of Israel had to be supplemented with the more skilled labour of Tyre (vers. 3, 8). The servants of one sovereign had to "be with," to co-operate with, those of another, if the house was to be built. And not only had land to work with land, but citizen with citizen, according to individual culture; some had to "bear burdens," others to "hew trees," others to overlook both of these workmen (ver. 2). As one country produces valuable commodities which another lacks; and as one man has a natural faculty of which another is devoid; as the interchange of products and of industries is spreading comfort and acquisition; - we are learning that God has so made this earth and so constituted us, his children, that we may work together, and make one another inheritors of the results of our thought and toil. Commerce is not more human in its outworking than it is Divine in its origin.

III. THE GRADATIONS IN LABOUR. To overlook implies more trained intelligence than manual labour itself involves (ver. 2). And men "cunning to work" and men that bad skill to hew (ver. 8) were superior workmen to those that did the labour of carrying. Work has its gradations; it ascends in rank as it involves natural intelligence and sagacity, long and careful training, faithfulness and trustworthiness.

IV. THE ADVANTAGE OF INTEGRITY TO THOSE WHO COME AFTER US. (Ver. 30 Solomon invited Hiram to treat with him "as thou didst deal with David my father." And Hiram responded; for we read (1 Kings 5:1), "Hiram was ever a lover of David." He found that he could trust the King of Israel - that with him piety meant truthfulness and equity. Thus David's integrity made the path of Solomon smooth and easy; it perhaps contributed as much to the work as the various materials he had so carefully stored up for his son. It is impossible to reckon how much thoroughness and uprightness in our labour have to do with our own real success, and how much they do for those who come after us. In this way one generation truly serves another.

V. THE RIGHTEOUS CLAIM OF LABOUR TO A FULL RECOMPENSE. (Ver. 10.) "The workman is worthy of his hire" (see James 5:4).

VI. OUR DUTY TO DO OUR BEST. "The house shall, be wonderfully great" (ver. 9). Solomon meant to make it worthy, not only of himself and his kingdom, but even, as far as that might be, of the Lord for whom it was to be erected. It should be constructed of the best materials and with the greatest skill he could command.

1. What we do in the direct service of God has a distinct claim on our highest faculties, on our largest resources. What we do for Christ should be done at the full height of our capacity and opportunity. In his worship and service we should be at our very best.

2. All work, as rendered unto God, should be done faithfully and heartily. Into all the labour of our hands we should put our mind and our strength, because everything is done in the presence of the Master, and should be done with a view to his approval. - C.

Biblical Illustrator

And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel.

2 Chronicles 2:17, 18

Naturalisation of foreigners

Bibical Museum.

I. A GOOD GOVERNMENT WILL TEND TO MAKE A COUNTRY ATTRACTIVE TO FOREIGNERS.

II. FOREIGNERS THUS ATTRACTED ARE AMENABLE TO THE LAWS OF THE STATE.

III. THUS PROTECTED, THEY MAY CONTRIBUTE MATERIALLY TO THE ENRICHMENT OF A STATE BY THE IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN INDUSTRIES. Silk-weavers of Spitalfields.

V. BE KIND TO STRANGERS.

(Bibical Museum.)

Strangers in the city

T. De Witt Talmage.

I. STRANGERS IN A CITY ARE IN DANGER FROM THE TEMPTATION TO EXPLORE THE UNDERGROUND LIFE OF THE COMMUNITY. I believe that three-fourths of the young men of our cities are ruined for the simple reason that they went to look at iniquity. In 1794, during the Reign of Terror in Paris, there were people who, to hide from their persecutors, got into the sewers under the city, and went on mile after mile amid the stifling atmosphere, poisoned and exhausted, coming out after a while at the river Seine, where they washed and breathed again the pure air. But, alas! that so many men who attempt to explore underground New York life never come to a river Seine, where they can wash, and they die horribly in the sewers. I stand on a mountain of Colorado, six thousand feet high. There is a man standing beneath me who says, "I see a peculiar shelving to this rock," and he bends towards it. I say, "Stop, you will fall." He says, "No danger; I have a steady hand and foot, and see a peculiar kind of moss." I say, "Stand back"; but he says, "I am not afraid"; and he bends farther and farther, and after a while his head whirls and his feet slip — and the eagles know not that it is the macerated flesh of a man they are picking at, but it is. So I have seen men come to the very verge of the life of this city, and they look away down in it. They say, "Don't be cowardly. Let us go down." They look farther and farther. I warn them to stand back; but Satan comes behind them, and while they are swinging over the verge, pushes them off. People say they were naturally bad. They were not? They were engaged in exploration. No man can afford to sail so near the coast of eternal fire for the purpose of discovering how hot it is. Stand off from that exploration. If you are a good swimmer, and you see a man drowning, leap for him and bring him ashore; but if you are merely going to jump in to see him drown, stand back.

II. STRANGERS IN A CITY ARE IN DANGER FROM THE TEMPTATION TO DESECRATE THE SABBATH. There is not one in ten who knows how to keep the Lord's day when he is away from home and absent from all Christian influences.

III. STRANGERS IN A CITY ARE NOT SAFE WITHOUT CHRISTIAN RESTRAINT.

(T. De Witt Talmage.).

People

Abi, Dan, David, Hiram, Huram, Solomon

Places

Jerusalem, Joppa, Lebanon, Tyre

Topics

Assigned, 600, Bear, 80000, Bearing, Burden, Burdens, Carriers, Carry, Counted, Cutters, Cutting, Eighty, Foremen, Fourscore, Hew, Hewers, Hewing, Hill, Hills, Hundred, Loads, Mountain, Mountains, Numbered, Numbereth, Oversee, Overseers, Quarry, Seventy, Six, Solomon, Stone, Stonecutters, Stone-masons, Superintend, Supervise, Ten, Thirty-six, Thousand, Threescore, Transport

Outline

1. Solomon's laborers for the building of the temple
3. His ambassage to Huram for workmen and provisions
11. Huram sends him a kind answer
17

Dictionary of Bible Themes

2 Chronicles 2:2

     4366   stones
     5266   conscription
     5403   masons
     5531   skill
     7748   overseers

Library

Hiram, the Inspired Artificer
BY REV. W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D. The Temple of Solomon was the crown of art in the old world. There were temples on a larger scale, and of more massive construction, but the enormous masses of masonry of the oldest nations were not comparable with the artistic grace, the luxurious adornments, and the harmonious proportions of this glorious House of God. David had laid up money and material for the great work, but he was not permitted to carry it out. He was a man of war, and blood-stained hands were …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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