Now Solomon purposed to build a house for the name of Jehovah and his royal palace.

And Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens and eighty thousand men as stonecutters in the mountains and three thousand six hundred men to oversee them.

And Solomon sent word to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As you did to David my father, in that you sent him cedars to build a house for him to dwell in, so do for me.

I am now about to build a house for the name of Jehovah my God to sanctify to Him, for the burning of fragrant incense before Him and the arranging of the rows of bread continually and the offering up of burnt offerings in the morning and in the evening, on Sabbaths and on new moons and on the appointed feasts of Jehovah our God, this being an ordinance for Israel forever.

And the house which I am building will be great; for greater is our God than all the gods.

But who is able to build Him a house? For the heavens and the heaven of heavens is not able to contain Him. And who am I, that I should build Him a house, except to burn incense before Him?

So now send me a man, skillful in working with gold and with silver and with bronze and with iron and with purple and crimson and blue cloth, and who knows how to make engravings, to be with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father prepared.

Send me timber of cedar, cypress, and algum from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut the timber of Lebanon. And now my servants will be with your servants,

To prepare for me timber in abundance; for the house which I am building will be great and wonderful.

And now I will give to your servants, the hewers who cut timber, twenty thousand cors of crushed wheat and twenty thousand cors of barley and twenty thousand baths of wine and twenty thousand baths of oil.

And Huram the king of Tyre answered by letter, sending it to Solomon, saying, Because Jehovah loves His people, He has made you king over them.

Huram also said, Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth, who has given King David a wise son endowed with discernment and understanding, who will build a house for Jehovah and his royal palace.

And now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, Huram-abi,

The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father is a man of Tyre, who knows how to work in gold and in silver and in bronze and in iron, in stones and in wood, in purple, in blue cloth, and in fine linen and in crimson cloth and who knows how to make all kinds of engraving, and to fashion any design which is given to him, to work with your skillful men and the skillful men of my lord David your father.

And now let my lord send to his servants the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine of which he spoke;

And we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you on rafts by sea to Joppa, and you can bring it up to Jerusalem.

And Solomon numbered all the men who were sojourners who were in the land of Israel after the census which David his father had made of them, and they found one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.

And he appointed seventy thousand of them as burden bearers and eighty thousand as stonecutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to make the people work.