Solomon Plans to Build the Temple
2 Chronicles 2, verse 1. Solomon selected seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand to quarry stone in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them. 2 Chronicles 2, verse 2. Then Solomon sent to Hiram king of Tyre, saying, “As you dealt with David my father and sent him cedars to build himself a house to dwell in, 2 Chronicles 2, verse 3. behold I, his son, am building a house for the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to Him, to burn sweet incense before Him, to offer showbread continually, and to offer up burnt offerings continually, morning and evening, and on the Sabbaths, on the New Moons, and on the festivals of the Lord our God. This is a perpetual ordinance for Israel; 2 Chronicles 2, verse 4. and the house I am going to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. 2 Chronicles 2, verse 5. Who is able to build Him a house, since heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain His glory? Who am I, then, to build Him a house, except to burn incense before Him? 2 Chronicles 2, verse 6. Therefore send me at once a wise man skilled to work in gold and silver, in bronze and iron, in purple and crimson and blue, who can work skillfully with the skilled men with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided. 2 Chronicles 2, verse 7. Also send me cedar and cypress and pine timber from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled in cutting timber in Lebanon. And indeed my servants and your servants 2 Chronicles 2, verse 8. will go to prepare an abundance of timber for me, because the house I am about to build is to be great and glorious. 2 Chronicles 2, verse 9. And indeed to your servants, the woodsmen who cut timber, I gave twenty thousand kors of wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.” 2 Chronicles 2, verse 10. Then Hiram king of Tyre sent an answer in writing to Solomon: “Because the Lord loves His people, He made you king over them.” 2 Chronicles 2, verse 11. Hiram also said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, for He gave King David a wise son, endowed with prudence and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal house for himself! 2 Chronicles 2, verse 12. And now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with discernment, Huram my father, 2 Chronicles 2, verse 13. the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilled at working in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, at weaving purple and blue, fine linen and crimson, and at making any engraving and accomplishing any plan that may be given to him, with your skillful men and with the skillful men of my lord David your father. 2 Chronicles 2, verse 14. Now therefore, let my lord send his servants the wheat, the barley, the oil, and the wine he spoke of, 2 Chronicles 2, verse 15. and we will cut as much wood from Lebanon as you need. We will bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa, and you will carry it to Jerusalem.”
Construction Begins on the Temple
2 Chronicles 2, verse 16. Then Solomon gathered all the foreigners in the land of Israel, after the census in which David his father had numbered them. And there were found to be one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred. 2 Chronicles 2, verse 17. And he made seventy thousand of them bearers of burdens, eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountain, and three thousand six hundred to oversee the people's work.