1st Kings 9


  So you have read me write about the Bible being a boring old book "NOT" a few times in the past. But that is usually about drama, intrigue, passion, sex, adultery, war, crime, and betrayal. However, today my claim is for the businesspeople in the crowd. There are huge business deals concluding in today’s chapter, and as is the norm in business, one party is happy, and one is feeling jipped! Click the link below to listen to this transaction between two kings.

  It would seem that giving a king 20 cities would be a very extravagant gift or payment for the cedar, cypress, and gold used to build the Temple and Solomon’s palace. But the King of Tyre (Hiram) was not pleased with the gift/payment. In fact, he named them Cabul (meaning worthless). But then Hiram sent Solomon 120 talents of Gold. I cannot figure out this transaction for the life of me. Why send so much gold if you didn’t like the payment of the cities? So I am going to research it for a few minutes and get back to this.

  After a bit more research, it seems that these 120 talents of gold refer to what Hiram had sent over the twenty years of building the Temple and Palace for the gold leaf and gold castings, not as a payment. It was not sent right after the unpleasant gift of the 20 cities. Sometimes these ancient Hebrew writings can get timing out of order, probably due to translation issues or the lack of punctuation in the original text. Or maybe even because it was read right to left, not like we do left to right.

  One more tidbit, that 120 talents of Gold would be valued at $5,364,000. today. So those cities/towns must not have been very valuable after all. But there does not seem to be a war brewing over this. Maybe Hiram was not very powerful and just had to take his lumps. Or maybe he felt he would make it up over time, continuing to trade with Israel as a whole.

  So yes, the Bible even has lessons on business, and in fact, business done God’s way can provide great wealth with the unusual benefit of being able to still sleep at night! If I had only learned that in my youth! When I was in business, it finally drove me to alcoholism, trying to medicate/pass out to sleep at night!

  Click the link below to listen for yourself! As always, we welcome your questions and comments via DMs!

  Talk with you soon!

https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=11&c=9

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