9. He built all these with the best stones cut to size, sawed with saws, back and front, from the foundation to the highest points and from the outer boundary to the great courtyard.
10. The foundation was laid with large stones of high quality, some of fifteen feet and some of twelve feet.
11. Above them were high-quality stones cut to measure, as well as cedar.
12. The surrounding great courtyard had three rows of cut stones and a row of trimmed cedar just like the inner courtyard of the Lord’s temple and its porch.
13. Then King Solomon sent a message and brought Hiram from Tyre.
14. Hiram’s mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali. His father was a Tyrian skilled in bronze work. He was amazingly skillful in the techniques and knowledge for doing all kinds of work in bronze. He came to King Solomon and did all his work.
15. He cast two bronze pillars. Each one was twenty-seven feet high and required a cord of eighteen feet to reach around it.