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.”

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Solomon speaks to Hiram king of Tyre, specifying the exact payment for timber needed to construct the temple. This declaration occurs during active negotiations, immediately after Solomon's request for abundant wood and before Hiram's written response.

The words — The Hebrew נָתַתִּי (na.tat.ti) literally means "I give," anchoring the verse in a direct financial commitment. The terms לַֽחֹטְבִים (la./cho.te.Vim) and לְֽכֹרְתֵ֣י (le./kho.re.Tei) both identify the laborers who will process the wood.

The thread — The identical quantities of wheat, barley, wine, and oil are recorded in 1 Kings 5:11 as part of the ongoing tribute agreement. The temple's structural dimensions and bronze fixtures are detailed in 1 Kings 7:26 and 1 Kings 7:38.

Why it lands — The text requires acknowledgment of the precise material provisions necessary to fund a sacred project. It asks the reader to see religious construction as dependent on concrete economic arrangements rather than abstract devotion.

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, behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.

Cross-references

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.
1 Kings 7:26 It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.
1 Kings 7:38 He also made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits across, one basin for each of the ten stands.
Ezra 7:22 up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred cors of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of olive oil, and salt without limit.
Luke 10:7 Stay at the same house, eating and drinking whatever you are offered. For the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
Romans 13:7 Pay everyone what you owe him: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.