December 28, 2012 – 1 Kings 5

When you think “forced labor” you think slavery or something very close to that.  You might want to think that Solomon was a bad guy or dislike him.  But did you see what the time period was.  If you read it too quickly, you might miss it.  It says that many were put into forced labor and worked for one month, then were home for two months.  That seems pretty good from all that I have seen for forced labor.  I would imagine any slave in the south would have taken a month on and two off over what they actually had.  I don’t know if this was generally done back then or this strategy came from Solomon’s wisdom, but if you are going to force your people to work, giving them 2 months off in between their month of labor seems pretty generous.