Study Desk

Then Huram, king of Tyre, ^(F1)answered in a letter sent to Solomon: "^(C1)Because the LORD loves His people, He has made you king over them."

Then Huram ^(F1)continued, "Blessed be ^(C1)the LORD, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, ^(F2)endowed with discretion and understanding, ^(C2)who will build a house for the LORD and a ^(F3)royal palace for himself.

"Now then, I am sending Huram-abi, a skilled man, ^(F1)endowed with understanding,

^(C1)the son of a ^(F1)Danite woman and ^(F2)a Tyrian father, who knows how to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, violet, linen, and crimson fabrics, and who knows how to make all kinds of engravings and to ^(F3)execute any design which is assigned to him, to work with your skilled workers and with ^(F4)those of my lord, your father David.

"Now then, let my lord send his servants wheat and barley, oil and wine, of ^(C1)which he has spoken.

"^(C1)We will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you as rafts by sea to Joppa, so that you may carry it up to Jerusalem."

Solomon counted all the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, ^(C1)following the ^(F1)census which his father David had ^(F2)taken; and 153,600 were found.

^(C1)He appointed seventy thousand of them to carry loads and eighty thousand to quarry stones in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors to make the people work.