2 Chronicles 2
1 And Solomon ordered to build a house for the name of the Lord, and a house for his royal residence.
Solomon ordered that a temple should be built where Yahweh would be worshiped and also that a palace should be built for himself.
2 And Solomon numbered seventy thousand men to bear burdens, and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountain, and as superintendents over them three thousand and six hundred.
He selected 70,000 men to carry the building supplies and 80,000 men to cut stones [(from quarries/walls of rock) in] the hills. He also chose 3,600 men to supervise them.
3 And Solomon sent to Churam the king of Tyre, saying, As thou hast dealt with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him a house to dwell therein, [even so deal with me].
Solomon sent this message to King Hiram of Tyre [city]: “[Many years ago] when my father David was building his palace, you sent to him cedar logs. Will you send me cedar logs, too?
4 Behold, I am building a house to the name of the Lord my God, to sanctify it to him, to burn before him incense of spices, and for the continual rows of show-bread, and for the burnt-offerings at morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new-moons, and on the stated festivals of the Lord our God: this being for ever obligatory on Israel.
“We are about to build a temple where we will worship Yahweh our God. We want to dedicate it to be a place where we will burn fragrant incense to [honor] him, and a place to put loaves of sacred bread, and for making sacrifices every morning and every evening and every Sabbath day, and to celebrate on the day of every new moon and at other special religious festivals to [honor] Yahweh our God. We want to do those things forever, like Yahweh has commanded.
5 And the house which I am building is great; for greater is our God than all the gods.
[We want] this temple [to] be a great temple, because our God is greater than all other gods.
6 But who possesseth the power to build him a house? for the heavens and the heavens of heavens cannot contain him: and who am I then, that I should build him a house, save only to burn incense before him?
But no one can really build a temple that would be big enough for God [to live in], because even the highest heavens are not big enough for him. And I am worthy only to build a place where we can burn sacrifices to him.
7 And now send me a skilful man to work in gold, and in silver and in copper, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that understandeth how to engrave with the skilful men that are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem whom David my father hath provided.
Therefore, please send me a man who knows well how to make things from gold and silver and bronze and iron, and to make things from purple and red and blue cloth. He should also know well how to engrave designs. I want him to work in Jerusalem and in other places in Judah with my skilled craftsmen, the ones whom my father David appointed.
8 Send me also cedar-trees, fir-trees, and sandal-wood, from the Lebanon; for I know well that thy servants have the skill to cut the trees of Lebanon: and, behold, my servants shall be with thy servants,
I know that your workers are skilled in cutting timber, so also please send me cedar logs, pine logs, and juniper logs from the Lebanon mountains. My workers will work with your workers.
9 Even to prepare for me timber in abundance; for the house which I am building is to be wonderfully great.
In that way, those workers will provide me with plenty of lumber. [We will need plenty, ] because I want the temple that we will build to be large and beautiful.
10 And, behold, for the hewers that cut the timber will I give unto thy servants twenty thousand cors of threshed wheat, and twenty thousand cors of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.
I will pay your workers, the men who cut the logs, 100,000 bushels of ground wheat, 100,000 bushels of barley, 110,000 gallons of wine, and 110,000 gallons of olive oil.”
11 Then answered Churam the king of Tyre in writing, and he sent it to Solomon, Out of the love of the Lord for his people hath he set thee as king over them.
[When] Hiram [received that message, he] replied by sending this message to Solomon: “Because Yahweh loves his people, he has appointed you to be their king.”
12 And Churam said, Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, that hath made the heavens and the earth, who hath given to king David a wise son, endowed with intelligence and understanding, who is to build a house unto the Lord, and a house for royal residence.
[And Hiram added, ] “Praise Yahweh, the God to whom the Israeli people belong, the one who created the sky and the earth! He has given King David a wise son, one who is very smart/intelligent and who has good skill and understanding. He wants to build a temple for Yahweh and a palace for himself.
13 And now have I sent a skilful man, endowed with understanding, namely, Churam-Abi,
“I will be sending to you Huram-Abi, a man who is very skilled.
14 The son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, while his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in copper, in iron, in stone, and in wood, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to execute any manner of engraving, and to devise every kind of work of art which may be given to him, together with thy skilful men, and skilful men of my lord David thy father.
His mother was from the tribe of Dan, and his father was from [here in] Tyre. He is very able to make things from gold and silver and bronze and iron and stone and wood, but he also makes nice things from purple and blue and red cloth, and he does all kinds of engraving. He can make things using any design/pattern that you give to him. He will work with your craftsmen, and the craftsmen who did work for your father, King David.
15 And now the wheat, and the barley, the oil, and the wine, of which my lord hath spoken, let him send unto his servants:
“Now please send us the wheat and barley and olive oil and wine that you promised to send to us.
16 And we will truly cut down trees out of the Lebanon, as much as thou mayest need; and we will bring them to thee in boats by sea to Joppa; and thou shalt carry them up to Jerusalem.
When you do that, my workers will cut from trees in the Lebanon mountains all the logs that you need [and bring them down to the sea]. Then we will [tie the logs together to] form rafts with them, and float them in the sea to Joppa [city]. From there, you [can arrange for] them [to be] taken up to Jerusalem.
17 And Solomon numbered all the strange men that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found to be one hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred.
Solomon told his workers to count all the people from other countries who were living in Israel, similar to what his father David had done. There were 153,600 of them.
18 And he made of them seventy thousand bearers of burdens, and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred superintendents to set the people to work.
Solomon assigned 70,000 of them to carry materials, and 80,000 to cut stone [from quarries in] the hills, and 3,600 of them to supervise the others and be sure that they worked steadily.
