Solomon prepares to build the temple
5
📚And Hiram 📖 king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father. For Hiram had always loved David. 2 📚And 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 wars which surrounded him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet 📖. 4 📚But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil event. 5 📚And, see, I purpose to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spoke to my father David, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, will build a house for my name.’ 6 📚Now therefore, give orders for cutting cedar trees for me out of Lebanon. And my servants will be with your servants, and I will pay the wages of your servants in accordance with all you determine. For you know that there is no one among us who can skillfully cut timber like the Sidonians”.
5:6 Lebanon was famous for its cedar trees.⚜
7 📚And when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, it came about that he greatly rejoiced, and said, “Blessed be the LORD 📖 this day, who has given to David a wise son over this great people”.
8 📚And Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, “I have considered the things about which you sent me word. I will do everything you want about cedar logs and fir logs. 9 📚My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will have them sent on by sea in rafts to the place you appoint for me, and I will have them separate them there. Then you can take them away. And you shall fulfill my desire of providing food for my household”.
10 So Hiram gave Solomon cedar and fir logs, as many as he wanted. 11 📚And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat as food for his household, and twenty measures of pressed olive oil. Solomon gave this year by year to Hiram.
12 📚So the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together.
5:12 Solomon’s wisdom was seen in part in the way he dealt with neighboring countries.⚜
13 📚Then King Solomon raised up a labour force from all Israel, and the labour force was thirty thousand men.
5:13 Note at 4:6. Those conscripted were non-Israelites living in the land. Solomon did not conscript any Israelites for labor. See 1 Kings 9:22-23.⚜
14 📚And he sent them to Lebanon in shifts, ten thousand a month. They were one month in Lebanon, and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the labour force. 15 📚Solomon had seventy thousand who carried burdens, and eighty thousand who quarried stones in the mountains, 16 📚besides thirty-three hundred from among the chief deputies of Solomon who supervised the people who were labouring in the work. 17 📚And the king gave orders, and they brought great stones, costly stones, cut stones, to lay the foundation of the house. 18 📚And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders, and the men from Gebal 📖, did the cutting. So they prepared timber and stones to build the house.
5:15-18 The work was great and required a great number of people.⚜