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

¹⁸ The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram^(A) and workers from Byblos^(B) cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.

²¹ Solomon conscripted the descendants^(A) of all these peoples remaining in the land—whom the Israelites could not exterminate^[a](B)—to serve as slave labor,^(C) as it is to this day.