UST 1 KI Chapter 5

◄ 1 KI 5 ► ║ ═ ©

5 Hiram, the king of the city of Tyre, had always been an ally of King David. So when he heard that Solomon had succeeded his father David as king, he sent messengers to Solomon to congratulate him. 2 In response, Solomon sent his own messengers to Hiram to give him this message: 3 ”You know that my father David wanted to build a temple in which we could worship Yahweh our God. But he was not able to do that, because the enemy kings around him kept attacking him. Yahweh finally enabled him to defeat all his enemies. 4 Yahweh our God has enabled us to have peaceful relations now with all of the countries around us. No one is attacking us, and nothing bad is happening. 5 So I am now planning to build a temple in which we can worship Yahweh our God. I will be doing what Yahweh promised my father David when he told him, ‘I am going to make one of your sons the next king after you die, and that son will build a temple where you Israelites can worship me.’ 6 So I am asking you to order your workers to cut down cedar trees in Lebanon to make lumber for me. My men will work with them, and I will pay your workers whatever you ask. I want to hire your workers because, as you know, none of us Israelites know how to cut down trees as well as you Sidonians do.”

7 When Hiram heard the message from Solomon, he was very happy. He said, “I thank Yahweh today for giving David such a wise son to rule that great nation!” 8 He sent this message back to Solomon, “You sent messengers to ask me to do something, and I agree to do it. I will provide as many cedar and cypress logs as you want. 9 My workers will bring the logs down from the Lebanon mountains to the sea. Then they will tie the logs together to make rafts, and they will float them along the coast to the place that you indicate to me. Then my workers will untie the rafts, and your workers can take the logs out of the sea and bring them to Jerusalem. In exchange, I ask you to supply food for the people to whom I serve meals in my palace.” 10 Solomon agreed, so Hiram arranged for his workers to supply all the cedar and cypress logs that Solomon wanted. 11 Each year Solomon provided Hiram with over 2,000 metric tons of wheat and over 4,000 liters of pure olive oil to feed the people in his palace. 12 Yahweh had promised that he would make Solomon wise, and he did that. Solomon and Hiram made a treaty with each other and agreed to be friends.

13 King Solomon required 30,000 Israelite men to become his workers. 14 Solomon’s official Adoniram supervised these men. Each month 10,000 of them went to Lebanon and worked for a month there. Then those men went back home for two months and other men went to work in Lebanon. 15 Solomon also forced 80,000 men to cut large blocks of stone out of the hills and 70,000 men to haul those stones to Jerusalem. 16 Solomon also assigned 3,300 men to supervise the work of all these other men. 17 The stone workers did what King Solomon had ordered them to do. They cut huge blocks of stone from quarries. They made sure that the stone in the blocks was solid. They trimmed the blocks to make them smooth and straight. That way the blocks could be the foundation of the temple. 18 So the men who worked for King Solomon and for King Hiram shaped the stones and prepared the timber to build the temple. Men from the city of Gebal who were experts in that kind of work helped them.

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UST 1 KI Chapter 5

UST 1 KI Chapter 5