Preparations for the Temple
And Solomon said to build a house for the name of the LORD, and a house for his kingdom.
And Solomon counted out seventy thousand men as burden-bearers, and eighty thousand men as stonecutters in the hill country, and overseers over them: three thousand six hundred.
And Solomon sent to Huram, king of Tyre, saying: “As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build himself a house to live in —
look, I am building a house for the name of the LORD my God, to consecrate it to him, to burn before him incense of spices, and for the continual arrangement of bread, and for burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and at the new moons, and at the appointed feasts of the LORD our God. This is forever upon Israel.
And the house that I am building is great — for great is our God, above all gods.
And who could retain the strength to build him a house, when the heavens, and the heavens of the heavens, cannot contain him? And who am I, that I should build him a house — except to burn offerings before him?
And now, send me a skilled man, to work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, one who knows how to cut engravings — to be with the skilled men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.
And send me cedar, cypress, and algum timber from Lebanon — for I know that your servants know how to cut the timber of Lebanon; and look, my servants will be with your servants —
to prepare timber for me in abundance; for the house that I am building will be great and wonderful.
And look — to the woodcutters, those who cut the timber, I give crushed wheat for your servants, twenty thousand cors, and barley, twenty thousand cors, and wine, twenty thousand baths, and oil, twenty thousand baths.”
Hiram’s Reply to Solomon
And Huram, king of Tyre, answered in writing, and sent it to Solomon: “Because the LORD loves his people, he has set you over them as king.”
And Huram said: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth, who has given David the king a wise son, knowing insight and understanding, who will build a house for the LORD and a house for his kingdom.
And now I send a skilled man, knowing understanding — Huram-abi,
the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father a man of Tyre — who knows how to work in gold, and in silver, in bronze, in iron, in stone, and in wood, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson, and to cut every engraving, and to devise every design that is given to him — with your skilled men, and the skilled men of my lord David your father.
And now, the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, of which my lord spoke — let him send them to his servants.
And we will cut timber from Lebanon, as much as you need; and we will bring it to you as rafts on the sea, to Joppa; and you shall carry it up to Jerusalem.”
And Solomon counted all the foreign men who were in the land of Israel, after the counting with which David his father had counted them; and they were found: a hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred.
And he made of them seventy thousand burden-bearers, and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred overseers, to put the people to work.