8 So Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message which you have sent me; I will do 1what you desire concerning the cedar and cypress timber.

9 “My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea; and I will make them into rafts to go by sea ato the place where you 1direct me, and I will have them broken up there, and you shall carry them away. Then byou shall accomplish my desire by giving food to my household.”

10 So 1Hiram 2gave Solomon 3as much as he desired of the cedar and cypress timber.

11 aSolomon then gave Hiram 20,000 1kors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty 1kors of beaten oil; thus Solomon would give Hiram year by year.

12 aThe Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, just as He 1promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a covenant.

Conscription of Laborers

13 Now aKing Solomon 1levied forced laborers from all Israel; and the forced laborers 2numbered 30,000 men.

14 He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in relays; they were in Lebanon a month and two months at home. And aAdoniram was over the forced laborers.

15 Now aSolomon had 70,000 1transporters, and 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains,

16 abesides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were over the 1project and who ruled over the people who were doing the work.

17 Then athe king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones.

18 So Solomon’s builders and 1Hiram’s builders and athe Gebalites 2cut them, and prepared the timbers and the stones to build the house.