Solomon Secures Materials and Craftsmen for the Temple
2 Chronicles 2:1-18
1Solomon resolved to build a house for the name of the LORD and a house for his royalty.2Solomon counted seventy thousand burden bearers and eighty thousand men hewing in the mountain, and three thousand six hundred supervisors over them.3Solomon sent to Hiram king of Tyre, saying, "Just as you dealt with David my father and sent cedar to him to build a house for him to dwell in."4Behold, I am building a house for the name of the LORD my God to consecrate it to him, to burn incense of spices before him, and the row continually, and burnt offerings for the morning and for the evening, for the Sabbaths and for the new months and for the appointed festivals of the LORD our God forever; this is upon Israel.5The house that I am building is great, for our God is greater than all the gods.6Who has strength to build a house for him? Even the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot sustain him. Who then am I that I should build a house for him, except to burn incense before him?7Now therefore send me a wise man to work in gold and in silver and in bronze and in iron and in purple and crimson and blue, and who knows how to engrave engravings, with the wise men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father appointed.8Send me also cedar trees, cypress trees, and algum trees from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut trees of Lebanon, and behold, my servants will be with your servants.9Prepare for me trees in abundance, for the house that I am building is great and marvelous.10Behold, to the woodcutters, to those who cut the trees, I have given crushed wheat for your servants, twenty thousand kor, and barley, twenty thousand kor, and wine, twenty thousand baths, and oil, twenty thousand baths.11Hiram king of Tyre said in writing and sent to Solomon, "Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you king over them."12Hiram said, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who made the heaven and the earth, who gave to King David a wise son knowing understanding, who will build a house for the LORD and a house for his royalty."13Now I have sent a wise man knowing understanding, to Hiram and Ab my father.14The son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father was a Tyrian man knowing how to work in gold and in silver, in bronze, in iron, in stones, and in wood, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson, and to engrave every engraving, and to devise every design that is given to him, with your wise men and the wise men of my lord David your father.15Now therefore the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, which my lord said, let him send to his servants.16We will cut trees from Lebanon according to all your need, and we will bring them to you as rafts upon the sea to Joppa, and you shall take them up to Jerusalem.17Solomon counted all the men, the sojourners who were in the land of Israel, after the numbering that David his father had numbered them, and they were found to be one hundred fifty thousand three thousand six hundred.18Of them he made seventy thousand burden bearers and eighty thousand hewers in the mountain and three thousand six hundred supervisors to make the people serve.