The preparations for the temple

2 So David commanded that the foreigners who lived in Israel must gather together. When they did that, he appointed some of those men to cut huge stones from the quarries and to smooth their surfaces, to be used to build the temple of God. 3 David provided a large amount of iron for making nails and hinges for the doors in the gates of the temple. He also provided so much bronze for making the altar and various utensils, that no one could weigh it all. 4 He also provided money for buying a large amount of cedar logs. Because there was a huge number of them, no one was able to count them. Those were logs that men from Tyre and Sidon cities sent to David.

5 David provided all those things because he thought, “My son Solomon is still young and he does not know what he needs to know about building, and the temple of Yahweh must be ◄magnificent/very beautiful►. It must be a glorious building that will become famous, and people throughout the world must consider it to be glorious/splendid. So now I will begin to prepare for it to be built, and Solomon will be responsible for building it.” So David collected a great amount of building materials before he died.

6 When David was old, he summoned his son Solomon, and told him that he should arrange for a temple to be built for Yahweh, the God whom the Israelis worshiped. 7 He said to him, “I wanted [IDM] to build a temple to honor [MTY] Yahweh, my God. 8 But Yahweh told a prophet to tell me, ‘You have killed many men [MTY] in the battles that you have fought. I have seen the blood of all the people whom you killed, so you will not be the one who will arrange for a temple to be built to honor me [MTY]. 9 But you will have a son who will be king of Israel after you die. He will be a man who is peaceful and quiet, not a man who kills others. And I will cause that there will be peace between him and his enemies who are in all the nearby lands. His name will be Solomon, which sounds like the word for peace. During the time that he is king, people in Israel will be peaceful and safe. 10 He is the one who will arrange for a temple to be built to honor me [MTY]. He will be like a son to me, and I will cause some of his descendants to rule [MTY] over Israel forever [HYP].’

11 “So now, my son, I hope/wish that Yahweh will help you, and enable you to be successful in arranging for building the temple of Yahweh, your God, which is what he said that you would do. 12 I also hope/wish that he will enable you to be wise and to understand what you need to know, and enable you to obey his laws while you rule over Israel. 13 If you carefully obey all the laws and regulations/commands that Yahweh gave to Moses to give to us Israeli people, you will be successful. So be steadfast/strong and courageous. Do not be afraid of anything, and do not become discouraged!

14 “I have tried hard to provide materials for building the temple of Yahweh. I have provided nearly 4,000 tons of gold, and nearly 40,000 tons of silver. I have also provided a very large amount of iron and bronze; no one has been able to weigh it all. I have also gathered/provided lumber and stone for the walls of the temple, but you may need to get some more of those things. 15 There are many men in Israel who have good ability to cut big stones for making stone walls, and carpenters, and men who are very skilled at making various kinds of things. 16 There are many men who know how to make things from gold and silver and bronze and iron. So now I say to you, begin the work of building the temple, and I hope/wish that Yahweh will help/be with you.”

17 Then David commanded that all the Israeli leaders must assist Solomon. He said to them, 18 “Yahweh our God is certainly with/helping you [RHQ]. He has allowed you to have peace with all the nearby nations [RHQ]. He has enabled my army to conquer [IDM] them, so now Yahweh and my people control them. 19 Now you must obey Yahweh completely. Help Solomon to arrange for building the temple for Yahweh God, in order that you can bring the Sacred Chest that contains the Ten Commandments and the other sacred items that belong to God into the temple that you will build to honor Yahweh.”