¹⁶ Thus all the work of Solomon was accomplished, from^[a] the day the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid until the house of the Lord was finished completely.

⁷ The house was built with stone finished at the quarry so that neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple while it was being built.^(A)

¹⁸ So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites did the stonecutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.