1 When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father's place, he sent his servants to him, for Hiram had been a lover of David all his days.
2 Solomon sent this message to Hiram:
3 "You know that my father David was unable to build a house for the name of the LORD his God, because of the wars that surrounded him, until the LORD placed his enemies beneath the soles of his feet.
4 Now the LORD my God has given me rest all around; there is no adversary and no evil occurrence.
5 So I am planning to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, just as the LORD told my father David: 'Your son, whom I will put on your throne in your place, is the one who will build the house for my name.'
6 Give orders, then, for cedars of Lebanon to be cut for me. My servants will work alongside yours, and I will pay you whatever wages you name for your servants. You know there is no one among us skilled in cutting timber like the Sidonians."
7 Hiram was overjoyed when he heard Solomon's words, and he said, "Blessed is the LORD today, who has given David a wise son over this numerous people!"
8 Hiram sent word to Solomon: "I have heard what you sent to me about. I will meet your every wish concerning the cedar wood and the cypress wood.
9 My servants will haul it down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make it into rafts on the sea to go to the place you tell me. There I will have them taken apart, and you will carry it off. You, in turn, will meet my wish by supplying food for my household."
10 So Hiram kept supplying Solomon with cedar wood and cypress wood, as much as he wanted,
11 while Solomon supplied Hiram with twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household and twenty cors of pressed oil. This is what Solomon gave Hiram every year.
12 The LORD gave Solomon wisdom, just as he had told him. Hiram and Solomon were at peace, and the two of them made a covenant together.
13 King Solomon conscripted forced laborers from all Israel; the levy came to thirty thousand men.
14 He sent them to Lebanon in relays of ten thousand a month: one month they were in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was over the levy.
15 Solomon also had seventy thousand who carried loads and eighty thousand who hewed stone in the hills,
16 not counting the three thousand three hundred chief officers of Solomon who were over the work and directed the people doing it.
17 By order of the king they quarried large stones, valuable stones, so as to lay the house's foundation with hewn stone.
18 Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders, together with the Gebalites, did the cutting, and they made ready the timber and the stones for building the house.