2 Chronicles 2

¹ And Solomon allocated seventy thousand men to be porters and eighty thousand to quarry in the hillsand three thousand six hundred overseers for them.

² And Solomon sent this message to Huram king of Tyre, 'Do as you did for my father David when yousent him cedars for him to build himself a palace to live in.

³ You see, I am building a house for the name of Yahweh my God, to acknowledge his holiness so thatperfumed incense may be burnt before him, the loaves of permanent offering be perpetual y laid out and theburnt offerings be made morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, New Moons and solemn festivals of Yahwehour God, as prescribed to Israel for ever;

⁴ and the house which I am building must be large, for our God is greater than al gods;

⁵ even so, who would not find it an impossible task to build a house for him, when the heavens and theheavens of the heavens cannot contain him? And who am I to build a house for him except to burn incensebefore him?

⁶ So now send me a man skil ed at working in gold, silver, bronze, iron, scarlet, crimson and violetmaterials, and who knows the art of engraving too; he is to work with my skil ed men in Judah and Jerusalem,whom my father David has provided.

⁷ Also send me cedar, juniper and algum trunks from the Lebanon, for I know that your servants knowthe art of fel ing timber in the Lebanon. And, my servants will work with your servants

⁸ in preparing a vast quantity of timber for me, since the house which I intend to build is to be of a size tomarvel at.

⁹ Furthermore, for the upkeep of the woodcutters whom you employ to cut the timber, I shal providetwenty thousand kor of wheat, twenty thousand kor of barley, twenty thousand bat of wine and twenty thousandbat of oil.'

¹⁰ In a letter sent to King Solomon, Huram king of Tyre replied, 'Because Yahweh loves his people hehas made you their king!'

¹¹ Huram went on to say, 'Praised be Yahweh, God of Israel, who made heaven and earth and has givenKing David a wise son, endowed with discretion and discernment, to build a house for Yahweh and a palace inwhich to reign!-

¹² I am now sending you a skil ed and intelligent man, Huram-Abi

¹³ the son of a Danite woman by a Tyrian father. He knows the arts of working in gold, silver, bronze,iron, stone, wood, scarlet, violet, fine linen and crimson materials, and is competent to carry out any kind ofengraving and to execute any design which may be entrusted to him, in col aboration with your skilled men andthose of my lord David, your father.

¹⁴ 'So now let my lord send his servants the wheat, barley, oil and wine as promised

¹⁵ and we wil fel all the wood you need from Lebanon, and bring it you in rafts by sea to Jaffa; and it wilbe your responsibility to transport it to Jerusalem.'

¹⁶ Solomon then took a census of al the aliens resident in Israel similar to the census which his fatherDavid had taken; it was found that there were a hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred.

¹⁷ He impressed seventy thousand of them as porters, eighty thousand as quarrymen in the hil s andthree thousand six hundred as overseers to make sure the people worked.