Second Book of Chronicles 2

¹ He impressed seventy thousand men for carrying loads, eighty thousand to quarry in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred overseers in charge of them.

² Solomon then despatched this message to Huram king of Tyre, ‘Deal with me as you dealt with my father David when you sent him cedars for him to build a house to live in.

³ I am now building a house for the name of Yahweh my God, to acknowledge his holiness, by burning incense of scented spices in his presence, by the loaves that are perpetually set out, by offering holocausts morning and evening, on the sabbath, New Moon, and the solemn festivals of Yahweh our God – and this for ever in Israel.

⁴ The house I am building will be large, for our God is greater than all gods.

⁵ Who would have the means to build him a house when the heavens and their own heavens cannot contain him? And I, for what purpose could I build him a house other than to burn incense in his presence?

⁶ So send me a man skilled in the use of gold, silver, bronze, iron, scarlet, crimson, violet, and the art of engraving too; he is to work with my skilled men here in Judah and Jerusalem, men my father David provided.

⁷ From Lebanon send me cedar wood, juniper and algummim, since I know your servants know the art of felling the trees of Lebanon. My servants will work with yours.

⁸ They will prepare wood in bulk for me, since the house I wish to build is to be of astounding size.

⁹ For the woodmen who are to fell the trees I assign twenty thousand kors of grain, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil – this is for the maintenance of your servants.’

¹⁰ In a letter sent to King Solomon, Huram king of Tyre replied, ‘Because Yahweh loves his people he has made you king.

¹¹ Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel’ Huram went on to say. ‘He has made the heavens and the earth, and given King David a wise son, endowed with discretion and discernment, who is going to build a house for Yahweh and another for himself and his court.

¹² And I am also sending you a skilled craftsman, Huram-abi,

¹³ the son of a Danite woman by a Tyrian father. He is skilled in the use of gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, wood, scarlet, violet, fine linen, crimson, in engraving of all kinds, and in the execution of any design suggested to him. Let him be put to work with your craftsmen and those of my lord David, your father.

¹⁴ So now let my lord send his servants the wheat, barley, oil and wine, as already suggested.

¹⁵ ‘For our part, we will fell all the wood you need from Lebanon, and bring it you in rafts by sea to Joppa, and it will be your responsibility to transport it to Jerusalem.’

¹⁶ Solomon took a count of all the aliens resident in the land of Israel, following the census that David his father had taken; it was found there were a hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred.

¹⁷ He impressed seventy thousand of these for carrying loads, eighty thousand for quarrying in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred as overseers to make sure the people worked.