2
1 Now
Solomon decided to build
a house for the
LORD’s name, and
a house for
his kingdom.
2 Solomon counted out seventy
thousand men to
bear burdens, eighty thousand men
who were stone cutters
in the mountains,
and three thousand six hundred
to oversee them.
3 Solomon sent
to Huram the king
of Tyre, saying, “As
you dealt with David
my father, and
sent him cedars to
build him a
house in which
to dwell, so deal
with me.
4 Behold,
I am about to
build a house
for the name of
the LORD my God,
to dedicate it to
him, to burn before
him incense of sweet spices,
for the continual show bread,
and for the burnt
offerings morning and evening,
on the Sabbaths,
on the new moons,
and on the
set feasts of the
LORD our God. This
is an ordinance
forever to Israel.
5 “The
house which I am
building will be
great, for our
God is greater
than all gods.
6 But
who is able to
build him a house,
since heaven and
the heaven of heavens
can’t contain him?
Who am I then,
that I should
build him a house,
except just to burn incense
before him?
7 “Now
therefore send me
a man skillful
to work in gold,
in silver, in bronze,
in iron, and
in purple, crimson, and blue,
and who knows
how to engrave engravings,
to be with
the skillful men
who are with
me in Judah and
in Jerusalem, whom
David my father
provided.
8 “Send me
also cedar trees, cypress
trees, and algum
trees out
of Lebanon, for
I know that
your servants know how
to cut timber
in Lebanon. Behold, my servants
will be with
your servants,
9 even
to prepare me
timber in abundance;
for the house
which I am about
to build will
be great and wonderful.
10 Behold, I
will give to
your servants, the cutters
who cut timber, twenty thousand cors
of beaten wheat, twenty thousand baths
of barley, twenty thousand baths
of wine, and twenty thousand baths
of oil.”
11 Then
Huram the king
of Tyre answered in
writing, which he
sent to Solomon, “Because
the LORD loves his
people, he has
made you king
over them.”
12 Huram continued, “Blessed be
the LORD, the
God of Israel, who
made heaven and earth,
who has given to
David the king a
wise son, endowed
with discretion and understanding,
who would build a house
for the LORD
and a house for
his kingdom.
13 Now
I have sent
a skillful man,
endowed with understanding,
Huram-abi,
14 the son
of a woman of
the daughters of Dan;
and his father was
a man of Tyre. He
is skillful to work
in gold, in silver,
in bronze, in iron,
in stone, in timber,
in purple, in blue,
in fine linen, and
in crimson, also to engrave any kind
of engraving and
to devise any device, that
there may be
a place appointed to
him with
your skillful men,
and with
the skillful men
of my lord David
your father.
15 “Now
therefore, the wheat,
the barley, the oil,
and the wine which
my lord has spoken
of, let him send
to his servants;
16 and
we will cut wood
out of Lebanon, as
much as you need.
We will bring
it to you
in rafts by sea
to Joppa; then you
shall carry it up
to Jerusalem.”
17 Solomon counted
all the foreigners
who were in
the land of Israel,
after the census
with which David
his father had counted
them; and
they found one
hundred fifty-three thousand six
hundred.
18 He set seventy thousand of
them to bear burdens, eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the
mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to assign the
people their work.