2 Chronicles 2

1 Then Solomon gave word to build a house for the Name of Yahweh, and a house for his kingdom.

2 And Solomon numbered seventy thousand men to bear burdens, and eighty thousand men to hew in the mountain, —and, to oversee them, three thousand six hundred.

3 And Solomon sent unto Huram king of Tyre, saying, —As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him a house to dwell in,

4 lo! I, am about to build a house for the Name of Yahweh my God, to hallow unto him—to burn before him sweet incense, and for a continual setting in array, and to offer ascending-sacrifices morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the appointed feasts of Yahweh our God, -age-abiding, is this [law] for Israel.

5 And, the house which I am about to build, [must be] great, —for great is our God, above all gods.

6 But who is able to build unto him a house? for, the heavens, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain him, —who then am, I, that I should build unto him a house, though only to burn incense before him?

7 Now, therefore, send me a wise man, to work in gold and in silver and in bronze and in iron, and in purple and crimson and blue, and skilful to execute gravings, —with the wise men who are with me, in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom my father David did provide.

8 And send me—timbers of cedar, cypress and sandal-wood, out of the Lebanon, for, I, know that, thy servants, are skilful, to cut the timbers of Lebanon, —and lo! my servants shall be with thy servants:

9 yea to prepare me timbers in abundance, —for, the house which I am about to build, [must be] great and most wonderful.

10 And lo! for the hewers that cut the timbers, have I given wheat as food for thy servants, twenty thousand measures, and barley, twenty thousand measures, and wine, twenty thousand baths, and oil, twenty thousand baths.

11 Then answered Huram king of Tyre, in writing, which he sent unto Solomon, —Because Yahweh hath loved his people, hath he set thee over them as king.

12 And Huram said, Blessed be Yahweh, God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth, —who hath given, unto David the king, a wise son, skilled in prudence and understanding, who will build a house for Yahweh, and a house for his kingdom.

13 Now, therefore, have I sent a wise man, skilled in understanding, pertaining to Huram my father:

14 son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father was a man of Tyre, skilled to work in gold and in silver, in bronze, in iron, in stones and in timber, in purple, in blue and in fine white linen, and in crimson, and to grave any manner of graving, and to devise any manner of device that may be given to him, with thy wise men, and the wise men of my lord David thy father.

15 Now, therefore, the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, whereof my lord hath spoken, let him send unto his servants;

16 and, we, will cut down timbers out of the Lebanon, according to all thy need, and will bring them unto thee in floats, upon the sea to Joppa, —and, thou, shalt fetch them up to Jerusalem.

17 So Solomon numbered all the men that were sojourners, who were in the land of Israel, after the numbering, wherewith David his father had numbered them, —and they were found to be—a hundred and fifty-three thousand and six hundred.

18 And he made up from among them—seventy thousand, to bear burdens, and eighty thousand to hew in the mountain, —and three thousand and six hundred, as overseers, to keep the people at work.