1 Kings 5:9
My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.
My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea,.... 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:
unto the place that thou shalt 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 thou shalt receive them; by his servants appointed there to bring them to Jerusalem, which was forty miles from Joppa:
and thou shalt 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 {d} expresses; and we find in later times this place was supplied with bread corn from Judea, see Ezra 3:7
{d} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 8. c. 2. sect. 8.)