Preparations for Building the Temple^(A)

5 ^[a]King Hiram of Tyre sent his officials to Solomon when he heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father. Hiram had always been David’s friend.

² Solomon sent word to Hiram, by saying, ³ “You know that my father David was surrounded by war. He couldn’t build a temple for the name of Yahweh our Elohim until Yahweh let him defeat his enemies. ⁴ But Yahweh my Elohim has surrounded me with peace. I have no rival and no trouble. ⁵ Now I’m thinking of building a temple for the name of Yahweh my Elohim as Yahweh spoke to my father David: ‘Your son, whom I will put on your throne to succeed you, will build a temple for my name.’ ⁶ So order men to cut down cedars from Lebanon for me. My workers will work with your workers. I will pay you whatever wages you ask for your workers. You know we don’t have any skilled lumberjacks like those from Sidon.”

⁷ Hiram was very glad to hear what Solomon had said. Hiram responded, “May Yahweh be praised today. He has given David a wise son to rule this great nation.”

⁸ Hiram sent men to Solomon to say, “I’ve received the message you sent me. I will do everything you want in regard to the cedar and cypress logs. ⁹ My workers will bring logs from Lebanon to the sea, and I will have them make them into rafts to go by sea to any place you specify. There I will have them taken apart, and you can use them. You can pay me by providing food for my palace.” ¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and cypress wood he wanted. ¹¹ Solomon gave Hiram 120,000 bushels of wheat and 120,000 gallons of pure olive oil. Solomon paid Hiram this much every year.

¹² Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a treaty with one another.

¹³ King Solomon forced 30,000 men from all over Israel to work for him. ¹⁴ He sent a shift of 10,000 men to Lebanon for a month. They would spend one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of forced labor.

¹⁵ Solomon had 70,000 men who carried heavy loads, 70,000 who quarried stone in the mountains, ¹⁶ and 3,300 foremen who were in charge of the workers. ¹⁷ The king commanded them to quarry large, expensive blocks of stone in order to provide a foundation of cut stone for the temple. ¹⁸ Solomon’s workmen, Hiram’s workmen, and men from Gebal quarried the stone and prepared the logs and stone to build the temple.