Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 9:14

"And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold." — 1 Kings 9:14 (ASV)

Hiram sent to the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold. — The payment, by any calculation, was a large one, though little more than a sixth of Solomon’s yearly revenue (see 1 Kings 10:14). How it is connected with the previous verses is a matter of conjecture. It may possibly be a note referring back to 1 Kings 9:11, explaining the amount of gold that Hiram had sent. If this is not so, it would then seem to be a payment in acknowledgment of the cession of the cities, as being of greater value than the debt it was meant to discharge.

Hiram’s depreciation of the cities need not imply that he did not care to keep them. “It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth” (Proverbs 20:14). Josephus (Ant. viii. 5, 3) has a quaint story in connection with these dealings between Hiram and Solomon (quoted from Dios), declaring that a contest in riddles took place between these kings, and that when Hiram could not solve Solomon’s riddles, he “paid a large sum of money for his fine.” Josephus adds that Hiram later retaliated against Solomon with the help of Abdemon of Tyre. It appears from 2 Chronicles 7:2 that the cities were afterwards restored to Israel—how and why, we do not know.

The rest of the chapter consists of brief historical notes, partly referring back to the previous records. Thus, 1 Kings 9:15 refers back to 1 Kings 5:13; 1 Kings 9:20–22 to 1 Kings 5:15; 1 Kings 9:24 to 1 Kings 7:8; and 1 Kings 9:25 is a note connected with the history of the dedication of the Temple. The style is markedly different from the graphic and picturesque style of the passages preceding and following it.