New King James Version

1 Kings 5:8-18 New King James Version (NKJV)

8. Then Hiram sent to Solomon, saying:I have considered the message which you sent me, and I will do all you desire concerning the cedar and cypress logs.

9. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea; I will float them in rafts by sea to the place you indicate to me, and will have them broken apart there; then you can take them away. And you shall fulfill my desire by giving food for my household.

10. Then Hiram gave Solomon cedar and cypress logs according to all his desire.

11. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty kors of pressed oil. Thus Solomon gave to Hiram year by year.

12. So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together.

13. Then King Solomon raised up a labor force out of all Israel; and the labor force was thirty thousand men.

14. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts: they were one month in Lebanon and two months at home; Adoniram was in charge of the labor force.

15. Solomon had seventy thousand who carried burdens, and eighty thousand who quarried stone in the mountains,

16. besides three thousand three hundred from the chiefs of Solomon’s deputies, who supervised the people who labored in the work.

17. And the king commanded them to quarry large stones, costly stones, and hewn stones, to lay the foundation of the temple.

18. So Solomon’s builders, Hiram’s builders, and the Gebalites quarried them; and they prepared timber and stones to build the temple.