מלכים א, פרק ה׳, פסוק כ״ט

The monumental task of building the Temple required an immense amount of manpower. Beyond the timber brought from Lebanon, the structure was primarily built from heavy stones, demanding a complex system of quarrying and transportation [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. To meet this need, a workforce of one hundred and fifty thousand laborers was assembled and divided into two main working groups. The primary approach among commentators is that these laborers were not Israelites, but rather foreigners or converts. There are different perspectives on their exact identity. Some suggest they were individuals from other nations who chose to convert after witnessing King Solomon's immense wealth and greatness [רש״י]. Others identify them as resident aliens from the nations that had remained in the land, specifically the Gibeonites. Because the Gibeonites had a long history of serving as woodchoppers and water drawers, they were naturally drafted for the grueling manual labor of this construction project [מלבי״ם, מצודת דוד, רלב״ג].

The workforce was split based on their specific tasks. A group of eighty thousand men served as quarrymen, tasked with cutting and separating the stones from the bedrock [מצודת ציון]. This group was larger than the group of carriers because quarrying was exceptionally difficult work. It also required intense precision to ensure the stones were cut to the exact measurements predetermined for the building [רלב״ג].

The remaining seventy thousand laborers functioned as carriers, bearing the heavy physical burden of the project [מצודת ציון]. Their primary responsibility was to load the massive stones onto their shoulders and transport them from the quarries to the construction site in Jerusalem [רש״י, מצודת דוד]. Some clarify that these men only carried the stones on their shoulders until they reached paths where wagons could take over the transport [רד״ק]. Additionally, the carriers were responsible for transporting the timber that arrived from Lebanon at the coast of Jaffa [מלבי״ם]. To manage this enormous logistical effort and ensure that the laborers maintained their pace without slacking, thousands of foremen and officers were appointed to oversee the work and monitor the progress of the construction [רלב״ג, רד״ק, צאינה וראינה].