2 Chronicles 2

1Now Solomon determined to build a house for the name of Yahweh and a house for his kingdom.

2Solomon numbered seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand men to cut in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.

3Solomon sent to Huram, king of Tyre, saying, "As you dealt with David my father and sent him cedars to build him a house to dwell in it,

4Behold, I am building a house for the name of Yahweh my God, to consecrate it to him, to burn incense of fragrant spices before him, and the continual rows of bread, and burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the appointed feasts of Yahweh our God forever—this for Israel.

5The house that I am building is great, for our God is great above all gods.

6Who has the strength to build him a house, for the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? Who am I, that I should build him a house, except to burn incense before him?

7So now send me a skilled man to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, purple, crimson, and blue, one who knows how to engrave engravings alongside the skilled men who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father prepared.

8Send me cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees from Lebanon, for I know your servants know how to cut trees there; look, my servants will be with your servants.

9to prepare timber in abundance for me, for the house that I am building is great and marvelous.

10See, I have given your servants, the hewers and tree cutters, twenty thousand kors of beaten wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.

11Huram king of Tyre replied in writing, which he sent to Solomon: "Because Yahweh loves his people, he has set you king over them."

12Huram said, "Blessed be Yahweh, God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who gave David the king a wise son who knows prudence and discernment, who will build a house for Yahweh and a house for his kingdom."

13Now I have sent a wise man acquainted with understanding, Huram my father.

14The son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, whose father was a Tyrian man skilled at working gold, silver, bronze, iron, stones, and timber, purple, blue, fine linen, and crimson, and at engraving any engraving and devising any design given to him, alongside your wise men and the wise men of my lord David your father.

15Now let my lord send to his servants the wheat and the barley, the oil, and the wine he has spoken of.

16We will cut wood from Lebanon, as much as you need, and we will bring it to you on rafts by sea to Joppa, and you will carry it up to Jerusalem.

17Solomon counted all the sojourning men who were in the land of Israel, after the census that his father David had taken of them, and they were found one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.

18He appointed seventy thousand of them burden bearers, eighty thousand cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to put the people to work.