1Now Solomon resolved to build a house for the name of Yahweh, and a house for his royal residence.
2Solomon counted out seventy thousand men as burden-bearers, and eighty thousand men as stonecutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred as overseers over them.
3Then Solomon sent word to Hiram king of Tyre, saying: “As you dealt with David my father and sent him cedars to build himself a house to dwell in, do so for me.”
4Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, to dedicate it to him, to burn before him incense of fragrant spices, and for the continual rows of bread, and for burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and at the new moons and at the appointed feasts of Yahweh our God—this being forever incumbent on Israel.
5And the house that I am building must be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
6But who is able to retain the strength to build him a house, when the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain him? So who am I that I should build him a house—except to burn incense before him?
7Now then send me a skilled man to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, and in iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue, and one who knows how to engrave engravings, to work alongside the skilled men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.
8And send me timbers of cedar, cypress, and algum from Lebanon, for I myself know that your servants know how to cut timbers of Lebanon; and behold, my servants will be with your servants,
9to prepare for me timber in abundance, for the house that I am building is to be great and wonderful.
10And behold, to the woodcutters, those who fell the timbers, I will give twenty thousand kors of crushed wheat for your servants, and twenty thousand kors of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.
11Then Hiram king of Tyre answered in a letter, and sent it to Solomon: “Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them.”
12And Hiram said: “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth, who has given to King David a wise son, endowed with prudence and understanding, who will build a house for Yahweh and a house for his kingdom.
13Now then I am sending a skilled man, endowed with understanding, Huram-abi,
14the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father a man of Tyre, one who knows how to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, in stone, and in wood, in purple, in blue, in fine linen, and in crimson, and to engrave every kind of engraving and to devise every kind of design that may be assigned to him, along with your skilled men and the skilled men of my lord David your father.
15Now then, let my lord send to his servants the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine of which he has spoken.
16And we ourselves will cut timbers from Lebanon, as much as you need, and bring them to you as rafts by sea to Joppa; and you will haul them up to Jerusalem.”
17Then Solomon counted all the foreign men who were in the land of Israel, following the census by which David his father had counted them; and there were found a hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred.
18And he made seventy thousand of them burden-bearers, and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to keep the people working.
Open in the interactive reader →