Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 2:18
Solomon made 70,000 of them porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The chronicler records Solomon’s administrative actions during the temple preparation phase. He specifies how the 153,600 foreign men listed in 2 Chronicles 2:17 were assigned to labor and oversight roles.
The words — The text uses סַבָּל (sa.Bal) for “burden-bearers” and חֹצֵב (cho.Tzev) for “stonecutters.” These terms distinguish manual transport labor from skilled quarry work in the hill country.
The thread — This identical labor distribution appears in 2 Chronicles 2:2, where Solomon initially conscripts the same numbers. The repetition across both chapters emphasizes the organized scale of the workforce.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge the systematic allocation of human resources for a religious construction project. It presents the logistical reality of the operation without commentary, leaving the evaluation of its cost or necessity to the reader.
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 he set threescore and ten thousand of them to be bearers of burdens, and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people a work.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 2:2 So he conscripted 70,000 porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.