2 Chronicles 2
Solomon drafts immigrants
Solomon plans to build Israel’s Temple
1 Kings 5:1-15 1Solomon decided it was time to start building the Jerusalem Temple for the LORD and a palace for himself. 2He needed a lot of workers for a job like that. So, he drafted an army of builders: 70,000 general laborers, 80,000 stonecutters scattered throughout quarries in the hill country, and 3,600 foremen. Solomon requests cedar from Lebanon
3Solomon wrote to King Hiram of Tyre in Lebanon, “Years ago, you made a deal with my father, David, to send him cedar so he could build himself a house. 4I’m about to build a house for God, a temple in Jerusalem devoted to him. This is where my people will come to worship. We’ll burn fragrant incense, serve the LORD fresh bread, [1] and we’ll offer him burnt sacrifices every morning and evening, every Saturday Sabbath, and during each of our annual religious festivals and holidays throughout the year. [2] God told us to do that from now on.
5This is going to be a majestic Temple because our God is the greatest god of all. [3] 6What human could build a Temple that would hold our God? Even the sky isn’t big enough to hold him. I’m not able to build something fit for him. The best I can do is build a place for us to worship him by bringing our offerings.
7Please send me an artisan who has mastered working with metal and fabric. I need someone who knows how to engrave and how to work in gold, silver, and bronze. They need also to be able to work with fabrics dyed in purple, [4] crimson, and blue. This master of these crafts will work alongside my skilled people here in Judah and Jerusalem. These are people my father, David, reserved for me.
8I need timber, too. Send me cedars from Lebanon, with cypress and juniper. [5] I know your lumberjacks know what they’re doing. I’ll send workers to help them. 9I’ll need a lot of timber. This is going to be a huge, wonderful Temple. Solomon offers to pay in food
10I’ll pay your lumberjacks and other workers in food. [6] I’ll send:
• 120,000 bushels [7] of wheat
• 120,000 bushels of barley
• 110,000 gallons of wine
• 110,000 gallons of olive oil.”
Lebanon’s king agrees to the deal
11King Hiram wrote Solomon, “You are the King of Israel because the LORD loves his people. 12The LORD God deserves our thanks and gratitude. He made heaven and earth. He gave David a son who’s not only smart, but wise and discerning. He is the right one to build the Temple for the LORD along with a palace for himself.
13I’m sending you a master craftsman named Huram-abi. He knows his stuff. 14His mother is an Israelite from Dan’s tribe. His father is a local, from here in Tyre. Huram-abi has been well-educated in working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, wood, along with dying fabrics in purple, blue, and crimson. He’s an excellent engraver, too. He’ll do whatever your artisans ask him to do.
15Go ahead and send up the wheat, barley, oil and wine, as you said. 16We’ll cut all the timber you need. We’ll tie the logs into rafts. Then we’ll float them down the seacoast to Joppa. [8] From there, you can transport them to Jerusalem.” Forced labor: Solomon drafts immigrants
17Solomon took a census of non-Israelites living in the land. There were about 153,600 of them. He drafted [9] every one of them. 18He assigned 70,000 to work as common laborers. He sent 80,000 to the quarries to cut stone blocks. He put 3,600 of them in charge of the work, as foremen. 
Footnotes
12:3This was sacred bread, known as “Bread of God’s Presence” or “Shewbread,” in older English. Every Sabbath day, priests put 12 fresh loaves of bread on the table. A week later, priests ate those loaves and replaced them with another dozen loaves of bread (Leviticus 24:5-9).
22:4This may be a reference to Israel’s three most popular annual festivals: Feast of the Yeast-free Bread, Spring Harvest, and Late Harvest (Exodus 23:14, 34:18, 22-23).
32:5This sounds like Solomon believed there were other gods. Perhaps he did at the time. Certainly, Bible writers report that at the end of his life he worshiped the gods of his wives and built shrines for the gods. But the way he phrased this, “greatest god of all,” is like other phrases people used to talk about God. “The LORD God is the God of gods,” (Deuteronomy 10:17). See also Exodus 18:11 and Psalm 86:8.
42:7Purple was an expensive color because purple die came from the murex snail in the Mediterranean Sea. Jews weren’t seafaring people. They were dryland “sea-fearing” herders and farmers. It’s likely they had to import the dye from others who worked in the shallow coastal waters of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Phoenicians in what is now Lebanon.
52:8“Juniper” is a guess. The meaning of the original Hebrew word is uncertain: algum. Maybe a copying mistake which should have read “almug.” Scholars have also translated it as algum lumber, red sandalwood, and walnut.
62:10Paying in food may have been more welcome in the city-kingdom of Tyre than gold or silver. Tyre was a trading town on the seacoast. Other Bible passages talk about Tyre importing food (Ezekiel 27:17 and Acts 12:20).
72:10By ancient Hebrew measurements, Solomon promised 20,000 cors of wheat and of barley (4,400 kiloliters of each) and 20,000 baths of wine and olive oil (420 kiloliters of each). A cor is about six bushels, which is about 58 dry gallons or 220 liters. A bath is about six gallons or 23 liters.
82:16The log rafts traveled roughly 90 miles (140 km) from Tyre southward to the Israelite seacoast town of Joppa, today on the south side of Tel Aviv.
92:17The policy of making foreigners and immigrants build the Temple and palace is a bit reminiscent of slaves building the White House in Washington DC. When Solomon’s story shows up in 1 Kings 5, Solomon appoints a top foreman, “Adoniram…the official who directed the Ministry of Forced Labor” (verse 14).
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Maps/Guides
Timber rafting for Jerusalem Temple
Solomon's GalileeSolomon's kingdom grows
Solomon's Temple
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Solomon requests cedar from Lebanon
3Solomon wrote to King Hiram of Tyre in Lebanon, “Years ago, you made a deal with my father, David, to send him cedar so he could build himself a house. 4I’m about to build a house for God, a temple in Jerusalem devoted to him. This is where my people will come to worship. We’ll burn fragrant incense, serve the LORD fresh bread, [1] and we’ll offer him burnt sacrifices every morning and evening, every Saturday Sabbath, and during each of our annual religious festivals and holidays throughout the year. [2] God told us to do that from now on.5This is going to be a majestic Temple because our God is the greatest god of all. [3] 6What human could build a Temple that would hold our God? Even the sky isn’t big enough to hold him. I’m not able to build something fit for him. The best I can do is build a place for us to worship him by bringing our offerings.
7Please send me an artisan who has mastered working with metal and fabric. I need someone who knows how to engrave and how to work in gold, silver, and bronze. They need also to be able to work with fabrics dyed in purple, [4] crimson, and blue. This master of these crafts will work alongside my skilled people here in Judah and Jerusalem. These are people my father, David, reserved for me.
8I need timber, too. Send me cedars from Lebanon, with cypress and juniper. [5] I know your lumberjacks know what they’re doing. I’ll send workers to help them. 9I’ll need a lot of timber. This is going to be a huge, wonderful Temple.
Solomon offers to pay in food
10I’ll pay your lumberjacks and other workers in food. [6] I’ll send:• 120,000 bushels [7] of wheat
• 120,000 bushels of barley
• 110,000 gallons of wine
• 110,000 gallons of olive oil.”
Lebanon’s king agrees to the deal
11King Hiram wrote Solomon, “You are the King of Israel because the LORD loves his people. 12The LORD God deserves our thanks and gratitude. He made heaven and earth. He gave David a son who’s not only smart, but wise and discerning. He is the right one to build the Temple for the LORD along with a palace for himself.13I’m sending you a master craftsman named Huram-abi. He knows his stuff. 14His mother is an Israelite from Dan’s tribe. His father is a local, from here in Tyre. Huram-abi has been well-educated in working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, wood, along with dying fabrics in purple, blue, and crimson. He’s an excellent engraver, too. He’ll do whatever your artisans ask him to do.
15Go ahead and send up the wheat, barley, oil and wine, as you said. 16We’ll cut all the timber you need. We’ll tie the logs into rafts. Then we’ll float them down the seacoast to Joppa. [8] From there, you can transport them to Jerusalem.”
Forced labor: Solomon drafts immigrants
17Solomon took a census of non-Israelites living in the land. There were about 153,600 of them. He drafted [9] every one of them. 18He assigned 70,000 to work as common laborers. He sent 80,000 to the quarries to cut stone blocks. He put 3,600 of them in charge of the work, as foremen.Footnotes
This was sacred bread, known as “Bread of God’s Presence” or “Shewbread,” in older English. Every Sabbath day, priests put 12 fresh loaves of bread on the table. A week later, priests ate those loaves and replaced them with another dozen loaves of bread (Leviticus 24:5-9).
This may be a reference to Israel’s three most popular annual festivals: Feast of the Yeast-free Bread, Spring Harvest, and Late Harvest (Exodus 23:14, 34:18, 22-23).
This sounds like Solomon believed there were other gods. Perhaps he did at the time. Certainly, Bible writers report that at the end of his life he worshiped the gods of his wives and built shrines for the gods. But the way he phrased this, “greatest god of all,” is like other phrases people used to talk about God. “The LORD God is the God of gods,” (Deuteronomy 10:17). See also Exodus 18:11 and Psalm 86:8.
Purple was an expensive color because purple die came from the murex snail in the Mediterranean Sea. Jews weren’t seafaring people. They were dryland “sea-fearing” herders and farmers. It’s likely they had to import the dye from others who worked in the shallow coastal waters of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Phoenicians in what is now Lebanon.
“Juniper” is a guess. The meaning of the original Hebrew word is uncertain: algum. Maybe a copying mistake which should have read “almug.” Scholars have also translated it as algum lumber, red sandalwood, and walnut.
Paying in food may have been more welcome in the city-kingdom of Tyre than gold or silver. Tyre was a trading town on the seacoast. Other Bible passages talk about Tyre importing food (Ezekiel 27:17 and Acts 12:20).
By ancient Hebrew measurements, Solomon promised 20,000 cors of wheat and of barley (4,400 kiloliters of each) and 20,000 baths of wine and olive oil (420 kiloliters of each). A cor is about six bushels, which is about 58 dry gallons or 220 liters. A bath is about six gallons or 23 liters.
The log rafts traveled roughly 90 miles (140 km) from Tyre southward to the Israelite seacoast town of Joppa, today on the south side of Tel Aviv.
The policy of making foreigners and immigrants build the Temple and palace is a bit reminiscent of slaves building the White House in Washington DC. When Solomon’s story shows up in 1 Kings 5, Solomon appoints a top foreman, “Adoniram…the official who directed the Ministry of Forced Labor” (verse 14).
Discussion Questions
- Sorry, there are currently no questions for this chapter.
Maps/Guides
Balage Balogh / ArchaeologyIllustrated.com
Licensed to Casual English Bible
