2 Chronicles
Chapter Two
1 ¶ Then Solomon
determined to build a temple for the name of the LORD, and a royal house for
himself.
2 Solomon selected seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand to
quarry stone in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.
3 Then Solomon sent to Hiram king of Tyre, saying: As you have dealt with David
my father, and sent him cedars to build himself a house to dwell in, so deal
with me.
4 Behold, I am building a temple for the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate
it to Him, to burn before Him sweet incense, for the continual showbread, for
the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, on the New Moons,
and on the set feasts of the LORD our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.
5 And the temple which I build will be great, for our God is greater than all
gods.
6 But who is able to build Him a temple, since heaven and the heaven of heavens
cannot contain Him? Who am I then, that I should build Him a temple, except
to burn sacrifice before Him?
7 Therefore send me at once a man skillful to work in gold and silver, in bronze
and iron, in purple and crimson and blue, who has skill to engrave with the
skillful men who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.
8 Also send me cedar and cypress and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that
your servants have skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and indeed my servants will
be with your servants,
9 to prepare timber for me in abundance, for the temple which I am about to
build shall be great and wonderful.
10 And indeed I will give to your servants, the woodsmen who cut timber, twenty
thousand kors of ground wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand
baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.
11 ¶ Then Hiram king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon:
Because the LORD loves His people, He has made you king over them.
12 Hiram also said: Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who made heaven and earth,
for He has given King David a wise son, endowed with prudence and understanding,
who will build a temple for the LORD and a royal house for himself!
13 And now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, Huram my
master craftsman
14 (the son of a woman of 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 and blue, fine linen and crimson, and to make any engraving and to accomplish
any plan which may be given to him, with your skillful men and with the skillful
men of my lord David your father.
15 Now therefore, the wheat, the barley, the oil, and the wine which my lord
has spoken of, let him send to his servants.
16 And we will cut wood from Lebanon, as much as you need; we will bring it
to you in rafts by sea to Joppa, and you will carry it up to Jerusalem.
17 Then Solomon numbered all the aliens who were in the land of Israel, after
the census in which David his father had numbered them; and there were found
to be one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred.
18 And he made seventy thousand of them bearers of burdens, eighty thousand
stonecutters in the mountain, and three thousand six hundred overseers to make
the people work.
Go to Chapter Three
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