1Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, for he had heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father; for Hiram had always been a friend to David.
2And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying:
3“You yourself know that David my father was not able to build a house for the name of Yahweh his God, because of the warfare that surrounded him, until Yahweh put them under the soles of his feet.
4But now Yahweh my God has given me rest on every side; there is no adversary and no evil calamity.
5So I intend to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, just as Yahweh spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your son whom I will set in your place upon your throne, he shall build the house for my name.’
6Now therefore command that they cut cedars for me from Lebanon; and my servants will be with your servants, and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say. For you yourself know that there is none among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
7When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be Yahweh this day, who has given David a wise son over this great people!”
8And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard what you have sent to me. I will do all your desire concerning the cedar timber and the cypress timber.
9My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place you designate to me. There I will break them apart, and you will carry them away; and you shall do my desire by providing food for my household.”
10So Hiram kept giving Solomon cedar timber and cypress timber, all he desired.
11And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty kors of pressed oil. Thus Solomon gave to Hiram year by year.
12And Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom, just as he had promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a covenant.
13King Solomon raised a labor force out of all Israel, and the labor force numbered thirty thousand men.
14He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts: they were in Lebanon a month and at home two months. And Adoniram was over the labor force.
15Solomon had seventy thousand who carried burdens and eighty thousand who quarried in the mountains,
16besides Solomon’s chief officers who were over the work, three thousand three hundred, who supervised the people doing the work.
17And the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones.
18And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites cut them, and they prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.
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