Dual PanelBuilding of the temple
1WHEN Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father's place, he sent envoys to him, because he had always been friendly with David.
2Solomon sent this message to Hiram:
3“You know that my father David could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God, because of the armed nations surrounding him, until the LORD made them subject to him.
4But now on every side the LORD my God has given me peace; there is no one to oppose me, I fear no attack.
5So I propose to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, following the promise given by the LORD to my father David: ‘Your son whom I shall set on the throne in your place will build the house for my name.’
6If therefore you will now give orders that cedars be felled and brought from Lebanon, my men will work with yours, and I shall pay you for your men whatever sum you fix; for, as you know, we have none so skilled at felling trees as your Sidonians.”
7Hiram was greatly pleased to receive Solomon's message, and said, “Blessed be the LORD today who has given David a wise son to rule over this great people.”
8He sent Solomon this reply: “I have received your message. In this matter of timber, both cedar and pine, I shall do all you wish.
9My men will bring down the logs from Lebanon to the sea and I shall make them up into rafts to be floated to the place you appoint; I shall have them broken up there and you can remove them. You, for your part, will meet my wishes if you provide the food for my household.”
10So Hiram kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and pine that he wanted,
11and Solomon supplied Hiram with twenty thousand kor of wheat as food for his household and twenty kor of oil of pounded olives; Solomon gave this yearly to Hiram.
12The LORD bestowed wisdom on Solomon as he had promised him; there was peace between Hiram and Solomon and they concluded a treaty.
13King Solomon raised a forced levy from the whole of Israel amounting to thirty thousand men.
14He sent them to Lebanon in monthly relays of ten thousand, so that the men spent one month in Lebanon and two at home; Adoniram was superintendent of the levy.
15Solomon had also seventy thousand hauliers and eighty thousand quarrymen,
16apart from the three thousand three hundred foremen in charge of the work who superintended the labourers.
17By the king's orders they quarried huge, costly blocks for laying the foundation of the LORD's house in hewn stone.
18The builders supplied by Solomon and Hiram, together with the Gebalites, shaped the blocks and prepared both timber and stone for the building of the house.