2 2 The number of Solomon’s workmen to build the Temple. 3 Solomon sendeth to Huram the King of Tyre for wood and workmen.
1 Then Solomon determined to build an house for the Name of the Lord, and an [a]house for his kingdom.
2 And Solomon told out seventy thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand men to hew stones in the mountain, and three thousand and [b]six hundred to oversee them.
3 And Solomon sent to [c]Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As thou hast done to David my father, and didst (A)send him cedar trees to build him an house to dwell in so do to me.
4 Behold, I build an house unto the Name of the Lord my God, to sanctify it unto him, and to burn sweet incense before him, and for the continual showbread, and for the burnt offerings of the morning and evening, on the Sabbath days, and in the new months, and in the solemn feasts of the Lord our God: this is a perpetual thing for Israel.
5 And the house which I build, is great: for great is our God above all gods.
6 Who is he then that can be able to build him an house, when the heaven and the heaven of heavens can not contain him? who am I then that I should build him an house? but I do it to burn [d]incense before him.
7 Send me now therefore a cunning man that can work in gold, in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and in [e]crimson and blue silk, and that can grave in graven work with the cunning men that are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father hath prepared.
8 Send me also cedar trees, fir trees and [f][g]Algummim trees from Lebanon: for I know that thy servants can skill to hew timber in Lebanon: and behold, my servants shall be with thine,
9 That they may prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I do build, is great and wonderful.
10 And behold, I will give to thy servants the cutters and the hewers of timber twenty thousand [h]measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty [i]thousand baths of oil.
11 Then Huram king of Tyre answered in writing which he sent to Solomon, Because the Lord hath loved his people, he hath made thee King over them.
12 Huram said moreover, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which made the heaven and the earth, and that hath given unto David the King a [j]wise son, that hath discretion, prudence and understanding to build an house for the Lord, and a palace for his kingdom.
13 Now therefore I have sent a wise man, and of understanding of my father Huram’s,
14 The son of a woman, of the [k]daughters of Dan: and his father was a man of Tyre, and he can skill to work in gold, in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue silk, and in fine linen, and in crimson, and can grave in all graven works, and broider in all broidered work that shall be given him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father.
15 Now therefore the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, which my lord hath spoken of, let him send unto his servants.
16 And we will cut wood in Lebanon as much as thou shalt need, and will bring it to thee in [l]rafts by the sea to [m]Japho, so thou mayest carry them to Jerusalem.
17 ¶ And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering that his father David had numbered them: and they were found an hundred and three and fifty thousand, and six hundred.
18 And he set seventy thousand of them to the burden, and fourscore thousand to hew stones in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to cause the people to work.
Footnotes
- 2 Chronicles 2:1 Or, Palace.
- 2 Chronicles 2:2 Which is to be understood of all sorts of officers and overseers: for else the chief officers were but 3300, as in 1 Kings 5:16.
- 2 Chronicles 2:3 Or, Hiram.
- 2 Chronicles 2:6 That is, to do the service which he hath commanded, signifying that none is able to honor and serve God in that perfection as his majesty deserveth.
- 2 Chronicles 2:7 Or, scarlet.
- 2 Chronicles 2:8 Some take it for Brasil, or the wood called Ebenum, others for coral.
- 2 Chronicles 2:8 Or, Almuggim.
- 2 Chronicles 2:10 Hebrew, Corins.
- 2 Chronicles 2:10 Of Bath read 1 Kings 7:26, it is called also Ephah, but Ephah is to measure dry things, as Bath is a measure for liquors.
- 2 Chronicles 2:12 The very heavens confessed that it was a singular gift of God, when he gave to any nation a King that was wise and of understanding, albeit it appeareth that this Hiram had the true knowledge of God.
- 2 Chronicles 2:14 It is also written that she was of the tribe of Naphtali, 1 Kings 7:14, which may be understood that by reason of the confusion of tribes, which then began to be, they married in divers tribes, so that by her father she might be of Dan, and by her mother of Naphtali.
- 2 Chronicles 2:16 Or, ships.
- 2 Chronicles 2:16 Or, Joppa.