" Solomon takes a census of all the foreigners in Israel, and those are the 153,600 people he sets to working building the Temple. How, exactly, is this different from the Egyptians enslaving the Jews to build their cities and temples?"

Exactly. It is not different. Which is why Solomon is not lauded as particularly moral. Wise, but not moral. (Even though, I would argue that this wasn't wise either. He was acting like every other monarch of the time. That's if we believe any of it. I don't think that BAR has published proof that David or Solomon existed. We can only hope for a stone tablet some day.)

And I agree with everyone--it's been a long bumpy and exciting ride through the Hebrew Bible. I look forward to seeing the book.

Chronicles was written largely to give the "new Jews" (newly come to their heritage) a sense of self-worth as a people. I believe the incident as written in Chronicles is bull bollix, It's purpose was to say:

"See, we were the big dicks on the block, too. We know how to do that. And, we can do that again."

"We bad?"

"Yeah, we bad!"

"How, exactly, is this different from the Egyptians enslaving the Jews to build their cities and temples?"

The primary difference is that the Hyksos who didn't escape to what is now northern Israel were captured and enslaved, spoils of war. Some tomb inscriptions mention the generosity of Ahmose in granting five or six Hyksos to some of his soldiers.

Solomon's builders, on the other hand, were corvee labor, a service tax in pre-monetary times. Agricultural societies have periods of down time when governemnt builders were raised or wars were fought and the rulers used these relatively inactive periods for purposes of the state. Much of Egypt was built in like manner, a core of skilled artisans working full time supplemented by "transient" laborers to do the grunt work after the crops were in or during the floods.

tsedek:

Solomon's builders, on the other hand, were corvee labor, a service tax in pre-monetary times. Agricultural societies have periods of down time when governemnt builders were raised or wars were fought and the rulers used these relatively inactive periods for purposes of the state. Much of Egypt was built in like manner, a core of skilled artisans working full time supplemented by "transient" laborers to do the grunt work after the crops were in or during the floods.

Quite right - this was not a slave class, but a non-monetary tax on land. There's a 17th century stone bridge in the neighborhood where I grew up that was built in this fashion - the inhabitants were told they had to either work for a set period or pay money to support that work. Slightly more sophisticated, since it implies a currency, but not different and certainly not slavery.

Compulsory service was called corvée and in the Near East dates back as far as the 18th century B.C.E. There are administrative texts from the ancient Syria which refer to corvée gangs conscripted by the government for personal service On the Syrian coast [Ugarit], tenant farmers were subject to similar duties unless granted immunity by the king.

Just as in many places at that time, conquered or subjugated peoples were frequently set to forced labor. In Egypt, taskmasters obliged the Israelites to slave for them in making bricks. In later time periods the Israelites put Canaanite inhabitants of the Promised Land to slavish labor, and similar practices were continued by David and Solomon.—Exodus 1:13, 14; 2 Samuel 12:31; 1 Kings 9:20, 21.

Samuel explained what the king’s rightful due would be. He would take his subjects to serve as charioteers and horsemen, to do plowing and harvesting, to make weapons, and so on. (1 Samuel 8:4-17) During the construction of Jehovah’s temple, while foreigners were subjected to slavish forced labor I Kings 9:22 states: “there were none of the sons of Israel that Solomon constituted slaves; for they were the warriors and his servants and his princes and his adjutants and chiefs of his charioteers and of his horsemen.”

As for the Israelites employed in building projects, 1 Kings 5:13, 14 says: “King Solomon kept bringing up those conscripted for forced labor out of all Israel; and those conscripted for forced labor amounted to thirty thousand men. And he would send them to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month. For a month they would continue in Lebanon, for two months at their homes.”

Says one scholar, ““There can be no doubt that the Israelite and Judean kings made use of the corvée as a means of securing unpaid labor for their building activities as well as for work on the crown-lands.”

The burden was so heavy and grievous under Solomon that when Rehoboam threatened to increase the loads, all Israel revolted and stoned the official appointed over those conscripted for forced labor. (1 Kings 12:12-18) The institution was not abolished, as the Scripture shows at 1 Kings 15:22 - Asa, Rehoboam’s grandson, summoned people of Judah to construct the cities of Geba and Mizpah, and “there was none exempt.”

" There's a 17th century stone bridge in the neighborhood where I grew up that was built in this fashion - the inhabitants were told they had to either work for a set period or pay money to support that work."

Even in more modern times small communities would band together to build a needed church or school or to help neighbors raise a barn or house. Corvee's roots can likely be traced to early days of humanity when the survivability of a band depended on how well they could work together in order to strengthen the group.

In our current time I know contractors who use slow periods for charitable work, fixing a little old lady's house or donating labor to the parish or working on a Habitat house. Keeps the skills sharp, makes good contacts, makes the world a better place.