1 Kings 5
1 And Hiram King of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon, for he had heard that, him, had they anointed king, in the room of his father, —for, Hiram, was, a lover, of, David continually.
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 So Solomon sent unto Hiram, saying: —
Solomon [gave those messengers] this message to take back to Hiram:
3 Thou, knewest David my father, how that he could not build a house unto the Name of Yahweh his God, because of the wars that were about him on every side, —until Yahweh should 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, Yahweh my God hath given me rest on every side, —there is neither adversary nor incident of evil.
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 Behold me! then, purposing to build a house for the Name of Yahweh my God—even as Yahweh spake unto David my father, saying—Thy son, whom I will set in thy stead, upon thy throne, he, shall build the house for 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 Now, therefore, command thou that they fell me cedars, out of Lebanon, and, my servants, shall be, with thy servants, and, the hire of thy servants, will I give thee, according to all that thou shalt say, —for, thou, knowest, that, none amongst us, hath skill to fell timber, like 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 said: Blessed, be Yahweh, to-day, who hath given unto David a wise son, over this great 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 unto Solomon, saying, I have heard that which thou hast sent unto me, —I, will do all thy desire, as to timber of cedar, and 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 out of Lebanon unto the sea, and, I, will put them in rafts on the sea, unto the place of which thou shalt send me word, and will cause them to be discharged there, and, thou, shalt receive them, and, thou, shalt do my desire, by giving 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 then Hiram began giving unto Solomon timber of cedar, and timber of fir, even all his desire,
So Hiram [arranged for his workers to] supply all the cedar and cypress logs that Solomon wanted.
11 and, Solomon, gave unto Hiram, twenty thousand measures of wheat, as food for his household, and twenty measures of beaten oil, —thus, used Solomon on to give unto 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, Yahweh, gave wisdom unto Solomon, as he promised him, —and it came to pass that there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and, they two, solemnised a covenant.
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 labour-band, out of all Israel, —and it came to pass that, the labour-band, was thirty thousand men.
King Solomon forced 30,000 men from all over Israel to become his workers.
14 And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, by courses, a month, were they in 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 it came to pass that, Solomon, had seventy thousand bearers of burdens, —and eighty thousand hewers in the mountain;
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 of Solomon’s officers, who were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, —who ruled over the people that wrought in the work.
And he also assigned 3,600 men to supervise their work.
17 And the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to found the house with 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 Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders with the Gebalites wrought them, —thus made they ready the timber and the stones, for building 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.
