1 Kings 5
1 And Hiram the king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father; for Hiram had all the time been a lover of David.
Hiram, the king of Tyre [city], had always been a close friend of King David. When he heard that Solomon had been appointed to become the king after his father was no longer king, he sent some messengers to Solomon [to congratulate him].
2 And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,
Solomon [gave those messengers] this message to take back to Hiram:
3 Thou well knowest of David my father, that he was not able to build a house unto the name of the Lord his God, on account of the war wherewith his enemies encompassed him, until the Lord had put them under the soles of his feet.
“You know that my father David [led his soldiers to] fight many wars against his enemies in the nearby countries. So he could not [arrange to] build a temple in which we [MTY] could worship Yahweh our God, until after Yahweh enabled [the Israeli army] to defeat [IDM] all his enemies.
4 But now hath the Lord my God given me rest on every side, there is neither adversary nor evil hinderance.
But now Yahweh our God has enabled us to have peace with all the surrounding countries. [(There is no danger that/We do not need to worry that)] we will be attacked.
5 And, behold, I purpose to build a house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord hath spoken unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will place in thy room upon thy throne, he it is that shall build the house unto my name.
Yahweh promised my father David, ‘Your son, whom I will enable to be king after you are no longer king, will build a temple for me [MTY].’ Because of that, I have decided to build a temple in which we can worship [MTY] Yahweh our God.
6 And now command thou that they hew me cedar-trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants; and the wages of thy servants will I give unto thee in accordance with all that thou wilt say; for thou well knowest that there is not among us a man that hath the skill to hew timber like unto the Zidonians.
“So [I am requesting that] you command your workers to cut cedar trees for me. My men will work with them, and I will pay your workers whatever you decide. [But] my men [cannot do the work alone, ] because they do not know how to cut down trees like your workers from Sidon [city] do.”
7 And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly; and he said, Blessed be the Lord this day, who hath given unto David a wise son over this numerous people.
When Hiram heard the message from Solomon, he was very happy and said, “I praise Yahweh today for giving David a very wise son to rule that great nation!”
8 And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have heard what thou hast sent to me for: I will gladly execute all thy desire in respect of timber of cedar, and in respect of timber of fir.
He sent this message back to Solomon: “I have heard the message that you sent to me, and I am ready to do what you ask. I will provide cedar and cypress logs.
9 My servants shall bring them down from the Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place of which thou wilt send me word, and I will cause them to be taken apart there, and thou shalt take them away; and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving the food for my household.
My workers will bring the logs down from [the] Lebanon [mountains] to the [Mediterranean] sea. Then they will [tie them together to] make rafts to float them [in the water] along the coast to the place that you indicate. Then my workers will untie the logs, and your workers will take them from there. What I want you to do is to supply food for the people who work in my palace.”
10 So Hiram gave Solomon cedar-trees and fir-trees, all his desire.
So Hiram [arranged for his workers to] supply all the cedar and cypress logs that Solomon wanted.
11 And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors of wheat as provision for his household, and twenty kors of beaten oil: thus did Solomon give to Hiram year by year.
Each year Solomon gave Hiram 100,000 bushels of wheat and 110,000 gallons of pure [olive] oil to feed the people who worked in his palace.
12 And the Lord gave wisdom unto Solomon, as he had spoken to him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they made a covenant with each other.
Yahweh enabled Solomon to be wise, just like he had promised. Solomon and Hiram made a treaty/agreement that there would be peace between their [two governments/countries].
13 And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.
King Solomon forced 30,000 men from all over Israel to become his workers.
14 And he sent them into the Lebanon, ten thousand in each month by turns; one month they used to be in the Lebanon, two months at home: and Adoniram was over the levy.
Adoniram was their boss. Solomon divided the men into three groups. Each month 10,000 of them went to Lebanon and worked for a month there, and then they came back home for two months.
15 And there belonged to Solomon seventy thousand bearers of burdens, and eighty thousand stone-cutters in the mountains;
Solomon also forced 80,000 men to cut stones in the hilly area and 70,000 men to haul the stones [to Jerusalem].
16 Besides the chiefs who were appointed by Solomon over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who ruled over the people that wrought on the work.
And he also assigned 3,600 men to supervise their work.
17 And when the king commanded, they quarried out great stones, heavy stones, to lay the foundation of the house, and hewn stones.
The king also commanded his workers to cut huge blocks of stones from the quarries and to smooth the sides of the stones. Those huge stones were for the foundation of the temple.
18 And the builders of Solomon, and the builders of Hiram, and the Giblites hewed them; and so they prepared the wood and the stones to build the house.
Solomon’s workers and Hiram’s workers and men from Gebal/Byblos [city] shaped the stones and prepared the timber to build the temple.
