2 Chronicles 2

1Solomon counted seventy thousand men as burden-bearers, and eighty thousand men as stonecutters in the hill country, and over them three thousand six hundred overseers.

2Then Solomon sent to Huram king of Tyre, saying, “As you dealt with David my father and sent him cedars to build himself a house to dwell in, so do with me.”

3Behold, I am building a house for the name of Yahweh my God, to consecrate it to him, to burn fragrant incense before him, and to set out the regular arrangement of bread, and burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, at the new moons, and at the appointed feasts of Yahweh our God. This is forever for Israel.

4And the house that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.

5But who has the strength to build a house for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? And who am I, that I should build a house for him, except to burn incense before him?

6Send me a skilled man to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, purple, crimson, and blue, and who knows how to engrave engravings, to be with the skilled men who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom my father David prepared.

7Send me cedar, cypress, and algum timber from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon. And behold, my servants will be with your servants.

8and to prepare for me timber in abundance, for the house that I am building will be great and wonderful.

9And behold, for the woodcutters, the cutters of the trees, I have given to your servants twenty thousand kors of crushed wheat, and twenty thousand kors of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.

10Then Huram king of Tyre answered in a letter that he sent to Solomon: “Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them.”

11Then Huram said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth, who has given King David a wise son, who knows discretion and understanding, who will build a house for Yahweh and a house for his kingdom.”

12And now I have sent a wise man, skilled in understanding, Huram-abi.

13the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, purple, blue, fine linen, and crimson, and to engrave every kind of engraving and to devise every kind of design that may be assigned to him, with your skilled men and the skilled men of my lord David your father.

14And now, let my lord send to his servants the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, of which he has spoken.

15And we will cut timber from Lebanon, as much as you need, and bring it to you as rafts by sea to Joppa; and you will take it up to Jerusalem.

16Then Solomon counted all the resident foreigners who were in the land of Israel, after the census that David his father had taken of them, and they were found to be one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.

17From them he made seventy thousand burden-bearers, and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred overseers to make the people work.