2 Then Solomon vowed to build a House for the Name of the LORD, and a house for his kingdom.

² And Solomon counted out seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand men to cut on the mountain, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.

³ And Solomon sent to Huram, the king of Tyre, saying, “Since you have done for David, my father, and sent him cedar trees to build himself a house to dwell in,

⁴ “behold, I am building a House to the Name of the LORD my God, to sanctify it to Him and to burn sweet incense before Him, for the continual showbread and for the Burnt Offerings of the morning and evening, on the Sabbath days and in the new months and at the solemn Feasts of the LORD our God. This is a perpetual thing for Israel.

⁵ “And the House which I will build is great. For great is our God, above all gods.

⁶ “Who is he, then, who is able to build Him a House when the heaven and the Heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I, then, that I should build Him a House? But I do it to burn incense before Him.

⁷ “Therefore, send me now a cunning man who can work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, in purple, in crimson and blue silk, and who is skilled in engraved work (as are the cunning men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem whom David my father has prepared).

⁸ “Also, send me cedar trees, fir trees and Algummim trees from Lebanon. For I know that your servants are skilled to cut timber in Lebanon. And behold, my servants shall be with yours,

⁹ “so that they may prepare timber for me in abundance. For the House which I shall build is great and wonderful.

¹⁰ “And behold, I will give to your servants, the woodsmen who cut timber: twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, twenty thousand measures of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.”

¹¹ Then Huram, king of Tyre, answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, “Because the LORD has loved His people, He has made you king over them.”

¹² Huram said moreover, “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, Who made the heaven and the Earth, and Who has given a wise son to David the king, who has discretion, prudence and understanding to build a House for the LORD and a palace for his kingdom.

¹³ “Now, therefore, I have sent a wise man of understanding, one of my father Huram’s,

¹⁴ the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan. And his father was a man of Tyre. And he is skilled to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, in timber, in purple, in blue silk, in fine linen, and in crimson, and is skilled in all engraving and in all embroidered work that shall be given to him by your cunning men and by the cunning men of my lord David, your father.

¹⁵ “Now, therefore, the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, which my lord has spoken of, let him send to his servants.

¹⁶ “And we will cut wood in Lebanon, as much as you shall need, and will bring it to you to Japho by sea, in rafts, so you may carry them to Jerusalem.”

¹⁷ And Solomon counted all the strangers who were in the land of Israel, in the same way that his father David had counted them. And one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred were found.

¹⁸ And he set seventy thousand of them to the burden, and eighty thousand to cut on the mountain, and three thousand six hundred overseers to make the people work.