Solomon Asks Hiram To Help Build the Temple
(1 Kings 5.1-12)
1 Solomon decided to build a temple where the Lord would be worshiped, and also to build a palace for himself. 2 He assigned 70,000 men to carry building supplies and 80,000 to cut stone from the hills. And he chose 3,600 men to supervise these workers.
3 Solomon sent the following message to King Hiram of Tyre:
Years ago, when my father David was building his palace, you supplied him with cedar logs. Now will you send me supplies? 4 I am building a temple where the Lord my God will be worshiped. Sweet-smelling incense will be burned there, and sacred bread will be offered to him. Worshipers will offer sacrifices to the Lord every morning and evening, every Sabbath, and on the first day of each month, as well as during all our religious festivals. These things will be done for all time, just as the Lord has commanded.
5 This will be a great temple, because our God is greater than all other gods. 6 No one can ever build a temple large enough for God—even the heavens are too small a place for him to live in! All I can do is build a place where we can offer sacrifices to him.
7 Send me a worker who can not only carve, but who can work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as make brightly colored cloth. The person you send will work here in Judah and Jerusalem with the skilled workers that my father has already hired.
8 I know that you have workers who are experts at cutting lumber in Lebanon. So would you please send me some cedar, pine, and juniper logs? My workers will be there to help them, 9 because I'll need a lot of lumber to build such a large and glorious temple. 10 I will pay your woodcutters 2,000 tons of wheat, the same amount of barley, 400,000 liters of wine, and that same amount of olive oil.
11 Hiram sent his answer back to Solomon:
I know that the Lord must love his people, because he has chosen you to be their king. 12 Praise the Lord God of Israel who made heaven and earth! He has given David a son who isn't only wise and smart, but who has the knowledge to build a temple for the Lord and a palace for himself.
13 I am sending Huram Abi to you. He is wise and very skillful. 14 His mother was from the Israelite tribe of Dan, and his father was from Tyre. Not only is Huram an expert at working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, but he can also make colored cloth and fine linen. And he can carve anything if you give him a pattern to follow. He can help your workers and those hired by your father King David.
15 Go ahead and send the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine you promised to pay my workers. 16 I will tell them to start cutting down trees in Lebanon. They will cut as many as you need, then tie them together into rafts, and float them down along the coast to Joppa. Your workers can take them to Jerusalem from there.
Solomon's Work Force
17 Solomon counted all the foreigners who were living in Israel, just as his father David had done when he was king, and the total was 153,600. 18 He assigned 70,000 of them to carry building supplies and 80,000 of them to cut stone from the hills. He chose 3,600 others to supervise the workers and to make sure the work was completed.
1 Then Salomon determined to builde an house for the Name of the Lord, and an house for his kingdome. 2 And Salomon tolde out seuentie thousand that bare burdens, and fourescore thousande men to hewe stones in the mountaine, and three thousand and sixe hundreth to ouersee them. 3 And Salomon sent to Huram the king of Tyrus, saying, As thou hast done to Dauid my father, and didst sende him cedar trees to buylde him an house to dwell in, so do to me. 4 Behold, I buylde an house vnto the Name of the Lord my God, to sanctifie it vnto him, and to burne sweete incense before him, and for the continuall shewbread, and for the burnt offrings of the morning and euening, on the Sabbath dayes, and in the new moneths, and in the solemne feastes of the Lord our God: this is a perpetuall thing for Israel. 5 And the house which I buylde, is great: for great is our God aboue all gods. 6 Who is he then that can be able to buylde him an house, when the heauen, and the heauen of heauens can not conteine him? who am I then that I should buylde him an house? but I do it to burne incense before him. 7 Sende me nowe therefore a cunning man that can worke in golde, in siluer, and in brasse, and in yron, and in purple, and crimosin and blue silke, and that can graue in grauen worke with the cunning men that are with me in Iudah and in Ierusalem, whom Dauid my father hath prepared. 8 Sende mee also cedar trees, firre trees and Algummim trees from Lebanon: for I knowe that thy seruants can skill to hewe timber in Lebanon: and beholde, my seruantes shalbe with thine, 9 That they may prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I doe buylde, is great and wonderfull. 10 And behold, I will giue to thy seruants the cutters and the hewers of timber twentie thousand measures of beaten wheate, and twentie thousand measures of barley, and twentie thousand baths of wine, and twentie thousand baths of oyle. 11 Then Huram King of Tyrus answered in writing which he sent to Salomon, Because the Lord hath loued his people, he hath made thee King ouer them. 12 Huram sayd moreouer, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which made the heauen and the earth, and that hath giuen vnto Dauid the King a wise sonne, that hath discretion, prudence and vnderstanding to buylde an house for the Lord, and a palace for his kingdome. 13 Now therefore I haue sent a wise man, and of vnderstanding of my father Hurams, 14 The sonne of a woman of the daughters of Dan: and his father was a man of Tyrus, and he can skill to worke in golde, in siluer, in brasse, in yron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue silke, and in fine linen, and in crimosin, and can graue in all grauen workes, and broyder in all broydered worke that shalbe giuen him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord Dauid thy father. 15 Now therefore the wheate and the barley, the oyle and the wine, which my lorde hath spoken of, let him send vnto his seruants. 16 And we wil cut wood in Lebanon as much as thou shalt neede, and will bring it to thee in raftes by the sea to Iapho, so thou mayest cary them to Ierusalem. 17 And Salomon nombred al the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the nombring that his father Dauid had nombred them: and they were found an hundreth and three and fiftie thousand, and sixe hundreth. 18 And he set seuentie thousande of them to the burden, and fourescore thousande to hewe stones in the mountaine, and three thousande and sixe hundreth ouerseers to cause the people to worke.