And, behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil. (2 Chronicles 2:10)
The payment was in food. A measure, or cor, was 220 liters, 61/4 bushels; a bath, 22 liters—5.8 U.S. gallons. The arrangement entered into was mutually advantageous, for Hiram needed foodstuffs of which Phoenicia produced little, and of which Israel had an oversupply, and Solomon needed timber, of which he had little and Phoenicia had much.