Preparations and Materials for the Temple

5 ^[a]Now King Hiram of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always been a friend to David.^{(A) 2} Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying, ³ “You know that my father David could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until he^[b] put them under the soles of his feet.^[c](B)

⁹ My servants shall bring it down to the sea from the Lebanon; I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you indicate. I will have them broken up there for you to take away. And you shall meet my needs by providing food for my household.”^{(A) 10} So Hiram supplied Solomon’s every need for timber of cedar and cypress. ¹¹ Solomon, in turn, gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household and twenty cors of fine oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year.^{(B) 12} So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.^(C)

¹³ King Solomon conscripted forced labor out of all Israel; the levy numbered thirty thousand men. ¹⁴ He sent them to the Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts; they would be a month in the Lebanon and two months at home;^[a] Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.^(D)