Bible Strands
1 Kings 5:11
and year after year Solomon would provide Hiram with 20,000 cors of wheat as food for his household, as well as 20,000 baths of pure olive oil.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records Solomon’s annual tribute to Hiram immediately after Hiram fulfills his obligation to supply cedar and cypress timber for the temple project.
The words — מַכֹּלֶת (ma.Ko.let) literally means “food,” designating the wheat as household sustenance for Hiram. כֹּר (kor) names a specific dry volume measure, defining the exact quantity of grain pledged each year.
The thread — The annual tribute of grain and oil reappears in 2 Chronicles 2:10 alongside barley and wine, while 1 Kings 4:22 details Solomon’s own daily provisions. The reciprocal agreement and resulting peace are documented in 1 Kings 5:12.
Why it lands — The text establishes a recorded, quantified exchange of resources between two sovereigns. It requires the reader to recognize the concrete logistics behind the temple’s construction and the political stability that enabled it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 2:10 I will pay your servants, the woodcutters, 20,000 cors of ground wheat, 20,000 cors of barley, 20,000 baths of wine, and 20,000 baths of olive oil.”
- 1 Kings 4:22 Solomon’s provisions for a single day were thirty cors of fine flour, sixty cors of meal,