¹¹ Then King Huram of Tyre answered in a letter that he sent to Solomon, “Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you king over them.”^{(A) 12} Huram also said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son endowed with discretion and understanding who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.^(B)

¹³ “I have dispatched Huram-abi, a skilled artisan endowed with understanding, ¹⁴ the son of one of the Danite women, his father a Tyrian. He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned him, with your artisans, the artisans of my lord, your father David.^{(C) 15} Now, as for the wheat, barley, oil, and wine of which my lord has spoken, let him send them to his servants.^{(D) 16} We will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you as rafts by sea to Joppa; you will take it up to Jerusalem.”^(E)

¹⁷ Then Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were residing in the land of Israel, after the census that his father David had taken, and there were found to be one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.^{(F) 18} Seventy thousand of them he assigned as laborers, eighty thousand as stonecutters in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred as overseers to make the people work.^(G)