Solomon’s Letter to Hiram

¹Solomon decided to build a temple for the name of the Lord and a royal palace for himself,[#2:1 1Kg 5:5; 2Ch 2:12]

²so he assigned 70,000 men as porters, 80,000 men as stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 as supervisors over them.[#2:2 1Kg 5:15–16; 9:23; 2Ch 2:18; 8:10]

³Then Solomon sent word to King Hiram , of Tyre:[#2:3 Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr, Vg; other Hb mss read Huram ; 2Sm 5:11; 1Kg 5:1–2; #2:3 2Sm 5:11; 1Kg 5:1–2; #2:3–10 1Kg 5:2–6,10–11]

Hiram’s Reply

¹¹Then King Hiram of Tyre wrote a letter and sent it to Solomon:[#2:11 Lit Tyre said in writing]

¹²Hiram also said:

Solomon’s Workforce

¹⁷Solomon took a census of all the male resident foreigners in the land of Israel, after the census that his father David had conducted, and the total was 153,600.[#2:17 2Sm 24:1–9; 1Ch 21:1–5]

¹⁸Solomon made 70,000 of them porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors to make the people work.[#2:18 1Kg 5:15–16; 2Ch 2:2]