Preparations for Building the Temple

¹When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father David, he sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been on friendly terms with David.

²Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:

⁷When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was greatly pleased and said, “Praise be to the Lord today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.”

⁸So Hiram sent word to Solomon:

¹⁰In this way Hiram kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and juniper logs he wanted,

¹¹and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, in addition to twenty thousand baths of pressed olive oil. Solomon continued to do this for Hiram year after year.[#5:11 That is, probably about 3,600 tons or about 3,250 metric tons; #5:11 Septuagint (see also 2 Chron. 2:10); Hebrew twenty cors; #5:11 That is, about 120,000 gallons or about 440,000 liters]

¹²The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, just as he had promised him. There were peaceful relations between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

¹³King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel—thirty thousand men.

¹⁴He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.

¹⁵Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills,

¹⁶as well as thirty-three hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workers.[#5:16 Hebrew; some Septuagint manuscripts (see also 2 Chron. 2:2,18) thirty-six hundred]

¹⁷At the king’s command they removed from the quarry large blocks of high-grade stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple.

¹⁸The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and workers from Byblos cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.