Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 5:13

"And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men." — 1 Kings 5:13 (ASV)

Levy out of all Israel. —This, though far from being burdensome, appears to have been exceptional at this time. For in 1 Kings 9:22 we read that “of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains.” Thus, exceptionally introduced at first for the special service of God, it may have been the beginning of what was later an oppressive despotism over the Israelites themselves.

Probably, even then, the Israelite labourers (under the chief officers) were put in authority over the great mass of 150,000 bondmen, evidently drawn from the native races. (See 2 Chronicles 2:17.) But the whole description suggests to us—what the history of Exodus, the monuments of Egypt, and the description by Herodotus of the building of the Pyramids confirm—the vast sacrifice of human labour and life, at which (in the absence of machinery to save labour) the great monuments of ancient splendour were built.