2 Chronicles
Chapter 2
1 Solomon decided to build a temple for God and a palace for his reign.
2 Solomon assigned seventy thousand men to carry loads, eighty thousand to cut stone in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to supervise them.
3 Solomon sent a message to Huram, the king of Tyre, saying, “Just as you helped my father David by sending him cedar wood to build a house to live in, please do the same for me.”
4 Look, I am building a house for the name of God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn sweet incense before him, and for the regular bread offering, and for the burnt offerings every morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, new moons, and holy festivals of God. This is a lasting rule for Israel.
5 The house I am building is big because our God is greater than all other gods.
6 But who can build a house for God, when even the highest heavens cannot hold Him? So who am I to build a house for Him, except as a place to offer sacrifices to Him?
7 Send me a skilled man now who can work with gold, silver, bronze, iron, purple, crimson, and blue materials, and who knows how to engrave like the skilled men I have in Judah and Jerusalem, whom my father David arranged for.
8 Send me cedar, fir, and algum trees from Lebanon, because I know your workers can cut wood there; and look, my workers will work with your workers.
9 To provide me with plenty of wood, because the house I will build is going to be very great.
10 Look, I will give your workers, the woodcutters, twenty thousand bushels of ground wheat, twenty thousand bushels of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.
11 Huram, the king of Tyre, replied in writing and sent it to Solomon: Because God loves His people, He has made you their king.
12 Huram also said, “Praise God of Israel, who created heaven and earth, and gave King David a wise son with good judgement and understanding to build a temple for God, and a palace for his kingdom.”
13 I have sent a skilled man with knowledge, from Huram my father.
14 The son’s mother was from the tribe of Dan, and his father was from Tyre, skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, as well as in purple, blue, and fine linen, and red fabrics. He could carve any design and come up with any idea, working with your skilled workers and those of your father David.
15 Now then, please send the wheat, barley, oil, and wine you mentioned to your servants.
16 We will chop wood in Lebanon as much as you need and float it by sea to Joppa for you to take to Jerusalem.
17 Solomon counted all the foreigners in Israel, using the same method his father David had used; there were 153,600 in total.
18 He assigned seventy thousand workers to carry loads, eighty thousand to cut stone in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred supervisors to make sure the people worked.