John Gill Commentary 1 Kings 5:9

"My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea; and I will make them into rafts to go by sea unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and thou shalt receive them; and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household." — 1 Kings 5:9 (ASV)

My servants shall bring [them] down from Lebanon to the sea ,
&c.] The Mediterranean sea, on which Tyre stood:

and I will convey them by sea in floats ;
which were either a sort of carriage for the timber the Tyrians and Sidonians had, being furnished with various navigable vessels; or these were the timber itself, and the planks of it, which being fastened together, were set afloat under the direction of some boats with oars, of which they had plenty:

to the place that you shall appoint me ;
which was Joppa, as appears from (2 Chronicles 2:16) ; belonging to the land of Israel, in the same sea:

and will cause them to be discharged there ;
either to be unloaded from the vessels, or to be unloosed and taken up separately:

and you shall receive [them] ;
by his servants appointed there to bring them to Jerusalem, which was forty miles from Joppa:

and you shall accomplish my desire in giving food for my household ;
signifying, that all that he desired in return was, that he would supply him with corn or wheat, which he stood in need of, and his letter in Josephus ^F4 expresses; and we find in later times this place was supplied with bread corn from Judea, see (Ezra 3:7) (Ezekiel 27:17) (Acts 12:20) .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F4: Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 8. c. 2. sect. 8.)