First Book of Kings 5

⁷ <4:27 These administrators provided the food for Solomon and for all those who were admitted by him to the royal table, each for the period of a month; they saw to it that nothing was wanting.

⁸ <28 They also provided the barley and straw for the horses and draught animals, where required, each according to his own assignment.

² <22 The daily provisions for Solomon were: thirty measures of fine flour and sixty measures of meal,

³ <23 ten fattened oxen, twenty free-grazing oxen, one hundred sheep, besides deer and gazelles, roebucks and fattened cuckoos.

⁴ <24 For he was master of all Transeuphrates[*a] – of all the kings of Transeuphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza – and he enjoyed peace on all his frontiers.

⁵ <25 Judah and Israel lived in security, each man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan as far as Beersheba, throughout the lifetime of Solomon.

¹ <4:21 Solomon extended his power over all the kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines and the Egyptian border. They brought tribute and served him all his life long.

⁶ <26 For his chariots Solomon had four thousand stalls and twelve thousand horses.

⁹ <29 Yahweh gave Solomon immense wisdom and understanding, and a heart as vast as the sand on the seashore.

¹⁰ <30 The wisdom of Solomon surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the East, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

¹¹ <31 He was wiser than any other, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite,[*b] wiser than Heman and Calcol and Darda, the cantors.

¹² <32 He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.

¹³ <33 He could talk about plants from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing on the wall; and he could talk of animals, and birds and reptiles and fish.

¹⁴ <34 Men from all nations came to hear Solomon’s wisdom, and he received gifts from all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.

¹⁵ <1 Hiram the king of Tyre sent an embassy to Solomon, having learnt that he had been anointed king in succession to his father

¹⁶ <2 and because Hiram had always been a friend of David. And Solomon sent this message to Hiram,

¹⁷ <3 You are aware that David my father was unable to build a temple for the name of Yahweh, his God, because his enemies waged war on him from all sides, until Yahweh should put them under his control.

¹⁸ <4 But now Yahweh my God has given me rest on every side: not one enemy, no calamities.

¹⁹ <5 I therefore plan to build a temple for the name of Yahweh my God, just as Yahweh said to David my father, “Your son whom I will place on your throne to succeed you shall be the man to build a temple for my name”.

²⁰ <6 So now have cedars of Lebanon cut down for me; my servants will work with your servants, and I will pay for the hire of your servants at whatever rate you fix. As you know, we have no one as skilled in felling trees as the Sidonians.’

²¹ <7 When Hiram[*c] heard what Solomon had said, he was delighted. ‘Now blessed be Yahweh’ he said ‘who has given David a wise son to rule over this great people!’

²² <8 And Hiram sent word to Solomon, ‘I have received your message. For my part, I will supply all you want in the way of cedar wood and juniper.

²³ <9 Your servants will bring these down from Lebanon to the sea, and I shall have them towed by sea to any place you name; I shall discharge them there, and you will take them over. For your part, you will see to the provisioning of my household as I direct.

²⁴ <10 So Hiram provided Solomon with all the cedar wood and juniper he wanted,

²⁵ <11 while Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors of wheat to feed his household, and twenty thousand kors of pure oil. Solomon gave Hiram this every year.

²⁶ <12 Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised him; good relations persisted between Solomon and Hiram, and the two of them concluded a treaty.

²⁷ <13 King Solomon raised a levy throughout Israel for forced labour: the levy numbered thirty thousand men.

²⁸ <14 He sent these to Lebanon in relays, ten thousand a month; they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoram was in charge of the forced labour.

²⁹ <15 Solomon also had seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand quarrymen in the mountains,

³⁰ <16 as well as the administrators’ officials who supervised the work, three thousand three hundred of them in charge of the men employed in the work.

³¹ <17 At the king’s orders they quarried huge stones, special stones, for the laying of the temple foundations, dressed stones.

³² <18 Solomon’s workmen and Hiram’s workmen and the Giblites cut and assembled the wood and stone for the building of the Temple.