5 Then King Hiram of Tsor (Tyre) sent his servants to Shelomoh when he heard that he’d been anointed as king to replace his father, because Hiram had always been a friend of David. 2 Shelomoh replied to Hiram, 3 “You yourself knew David my father, and you knew that he wasn’t able to build a temple for his god Yahweh his god because of the constant state of warfare until Yahweh would allow us to defeat all our enemies. 4 But now, my god Yahweh has enabled us to have peace from all around. We have no enemy, and there’s no threat of danger. 5 So listen, I’m planning to build a residence for my god Yahweh, just as Yahweh spoke to my father David, ‘Your son who I’ll put in your place on your throne, he’ll be the one to build the house to honour me.’[ref] 6 So now, please give the command to fell cedars for me from the Lebanon forest. Let my servants accompany your servants and I’ll pay your servants’ wages whatever amount you set, because you yourself know that there are no other workers who know how to fell trees like the Tsidonians.”

7 When Hiram got Shelomoh’s message, he was very happy and said, “Blessed be Yahweh today, who has given David a wise son to rule over that great nation.” 8 He sent this message back to Shelomoh, “I’ve received the message that you sent me and I myself will supervise everything you want including cedar and cypress logs. 9 My servants will transport them down from the forest to the ocean, and I’ll get them tied into rafts and float them to the place you specify and disassemble the rafts. Then it’ll be up to you to get them where you need them. All I ask for, is food for my family and workers.”

10 So Hiram supplied all the cedar and cypress logs that Shelomoh ordered 11 and each year Shelomoh supplied Hiram with three thousand tonnes of wheat and four hundred thousand litres of pure olive oil. 12 Yahweh gave Shelomoh wisdom just like he’d said he would, and there was peace between Hiram and Shelomoh and the two of them made a treaty with each other.

13 King Shelomoh forced thirty thousand men from all over Yisrael to become his workers, 14 and each month he sent a group of ten thousand of them to work in Lebanon. Each group would spend a month in Lebanon and then two months at home again. Adoniram was put in charge of all that.[ref] 15 Shelomoh also forced eighty thousand men to cut stones in the hill country and seventy thousand men to haul loads. 16 Then besides Shelomoh’s chief officers who were in charge of the work, there were another three thousand three hundred supervisors of the workers. 17 The king commanded them to quarry large, valuable blocks of dressed stone for the temple foundations. 18 Shelomoh’s and Hiram’s workers and the Gebalites shaped the stones and prepared the timber for building the temple.

2 Then Shelomoh decided to build a temple to honour Yahweh, as well as a palace for himself, 2 so he conscripted seventy thousand men as porters, eighty thousand as stone-cutters in the hillside quarries, and 3,600 supervisors.

3 Shelomoh ontacted King Hiram in Tsor (Tyre), “In the time of my father David, you sent cedar timber to him so he could build himself a palace to live in. 4 Listen, I am building a temple to honour my god Yahweh, to consecrate to him. There we’ll sacrifice spiced incense to him, plus the regular bread display, and burnt offerings in the morning and in the evening, on rest days and on the new moons, and other appointed times of Yahweh our God. Yisrael is required to do this forever. 5 We want to build an impressive building, because our god is more powerful than all the other gods. 6 But who could stay strong enough to build a house for him, since the sky and the heavens of the heavens can’t contain him? And who am I that I could build for him a house for him—maybe I’m good enough to burn incense to him?[ref] 7 So then, send me a skilled man who can work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze, and in iron, and in purple and crimson and violet, and who knows how to engrave. He will work with the skilled craftsmen who my father David appointed and who are with me here in Yerushalem and across Yehudah. 8 Also, send to me cedar, cypress, and algum timber from there in Lebanon, because I myself know that your servants know how to cut the trees from Lebanon’s forests. And listen, my servants will help your servants 9 so they can supply me with plenty of timber, because the temple that I’m building will be large and beautiful. 10 I’ll pay your wood-cutters three thousand tonnes of ground wheat and the same of barley, four hundred thousand litres of wine and the same of olive oil.

11 King Hiram of Tsor (Tyre) wrote back to King Shelomoh, “Yahweh has appointed you as king over his people because he loves them. 12 Blessed be Yisrael’s god Yahweh who made the heavens and the earth, who’s given King David the king a wise son with insight and understanding, who’ll build a temple for Yahweh and a palace for his kingdom.

13 “I’ll send Huram-Avi to you—he’s a skilled craftsman 14 His mother’s from the tribe of Dan, and his father a man of Tsor, knowing to work in gold and silver, in bronze and iron, in stone and in timber, in purple and in violet, in fine linen and in crimson, and do any kind of engraving. He can follow any pattern that’s given to him by your designers, and the designers of my master, David, your father. 15 So then go ahead and send the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine that you promised to send to us, 16 then we’ll cut the trees you need from Lebanon and raft them to Yafo by sea. The responsibility of getting them up the hills to Yerushalem will be yours.

17 Shelomoh had all the foreign men living in Yisrael counted (similar to what his father David had done), and it came to 153,600. 18 He conscripted seventy thousand as porters, eighty thousand as stone-cutters, and 3,600 as supervisors to keep the others working.