1Solomon decided to build a house for the name of the LORD, and a royal palace for himself.
2Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to carry loads, and eighty thousand to cut stone in the mountain, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.
3Solomon sent word to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, "You dealt with my father David and sent him cedar wood to build himself a house to live in. Now deal with me in the same way."
4"Look, I am building a house for the name of the LORD my God, to set it apart for him. There we will burn sweet incense before him, and set out the bread of the Presence continually, and offer burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, and at the new moons, and at the appointed feasts of the LORD our God. This is a rule for Israel for ever."
5"The house I am building is great, for our God is greater than all gods."
6"But who is able to build him a house? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot hold him. So who am I to build him a house, except to burn sacrifices before him?"
7"So send me now a man skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze and iron, and with purple, crimson and blue cloth, and one who knows how to carve. He will work with the skilled men I have here in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom my father David provided."
8"Send me also cedar trees, fir trees and algum trees from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled at cutting timber in Lebanon. And look, my servants will work with your servants,"
9"to prepare a great deal of timber for me, for the house I am about to build will be very great and wonderful."
10"And look, I will give your servants, the men who cut the timber, twenty thousand measures of crushed wheat, twenty thousand measures of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil."
11Then Huram the king of Tyre replied in a letter which he sent to Solomon: "Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you king over them."
12Huram said further, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who made heaven and earth. He has given King David a wise son, with good sense and understanding, who will build a house for the LORD and a royal palace for himself."
13"Now I have sent you a skilled man, full of understanding, Huram-abi,"
14"the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan; his father was a man of Tyre. He is skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone and wood, and with purple, blue and crimson cloth and fine linen. He can do every kind of carving, and can work out any design given to him. He will work with your skilled men, and with the skilled men of my lord David your father."
15"So now let my lord send to his servants the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine that he has spoken of."
16"And we will cut wood from Lebanon, as much as you need. We will bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa, and you can carry it up to Jerusalem."
17Solomon counted all the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, in the same way that his father David had counted them. They were found to be one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred.
18He made seventy thousand of them carriers of loads, and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountain, and three thousand six hundred overseers to keep the people at work.