LEB - I Kings - 5

5:1  Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him as king in place of his father, for Hiram had always been a friend for David.

5:2  Then Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,

5:3  “You knew David my father, that he was not able to build a house for the name of Yahweh his God, ⌞in view of the warfare⌟ which surrounded him, until Yahweh placed them under the soles of his feet.

5:4  But now Yahweh my God has given me rest all around me. There is no adversary, and there is no bad occurrence.

5:5  Here I am, intending to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, as Yahweh promised to my father David, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set in your place on your throne, shall build the house for my name.’

5:6  So then, command that they may cut cedars for me from Lebanon, and let my servants be with your servants. The wage of your servants I will give to you according to all that you say, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

5:7  When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and he said, “Blessed be Yahweh this day, who has given to David a wise son over this great people.”

5:8  Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard what you have sent to me; I will do all of your desire concerning the timber of cedars and concerning the timber of cypresses.

5:9  My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts in the sea to float to the place which you indicated to me. Then I shall break them up there, and you may carry them further, and ⌞you shall meet my needs⌟ by giving food for my house.”

5:10  So Hiram was giving to Solomon the cedar timbers and the cypress timbers, ⌞everything he needed⌟.

5:11  Then Solomon gave to Hiram twenty thousand dry measures of wheat as food for his household, and twenty dry measures of ⌞specially prepared olive oil⌟; thus Solomon gave to Hiram year by year.

5:12  Yahweh gave wisdom to Solomon as he promised to him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them ⌞made⌟ a covenant.

5:13  Then King Solomon conscripted a forced labor from all Israel, and the forced labor numbered thirty thousand men.

5:14  He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand ⌞every month⌟; the work groups were a month in Lebanon and two months at home; now Adoniram was over the forced labor.

5:15  Solomon had seventy thousand ⌞common laborers⌟ and eighty thousand stone craftsmen in the hill country.

5:16  Besides the chiefs of the officers Solomon had, there were three thousand three hundred having charge over the people who were doing the work.

5:17  When the king commanded, they quarried great stones and precious stones to lay the foundation of the house with hewn stones.

5:18  So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites hewed stones, and they prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.