Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 198
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
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| 5:6–6:5
“Therefore, please command that cedars from Lebanon be cut
for me. Let my men work alongside yours, and I will pay your men
whatever wages you ask. As you know, there is no one among us who
can cut timber like you Sidonians!”
When Hiram received Solomon’s message, he was very pleased and said,
“Praise the Lord today for giving David a wise son to be king of the great
nation of Israel.” Then he sent this reply to Solomon:
“I have received your message, and I will supply all the cedar and
cypress timber you need. My servants will bring the logs from the
Lebanon mountains to the Mediterranean Sea and make them into
rafts and float them along the coast to whatever place you choose.
Then we will break the rafts apart so you can carry the logs away. You
can pay me by supplying me with food for my household.”
So Hiram supplied as much cedar and cypress timber as Solomon desired. In return, Solomon sent him an annual payment of 100,000 bushels
of wheat for his household and 110,000 gallons of pure olive oil. So the
Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, just as he had promised. And Hiram and
Solomon made a formal alliance of peace.
Then King Solomon conscripted a labor force of 30,000 men from all
Israel. He sent them to Lebanon in shifts, 10,000 every month, so that
each man would be one month in Lebanon and two months at home.
Adoniram was in charge of this labor force. Solomon also had 70,000 common laborers, 80,000 quarry workers in the hill country, and 3,600 foremen to supervise the work. At the king’s command, they quarried large
blocks of high-quality stone and shaped them to make the foundation of
the Temple. Men from the city of Gebal helped Solomon’s and Hiram’s
builders prepare the timber and stone for the Temple.
It was in midspring, in the month of Ziv, during the fourth year of Sol
omon’s reign, that he began to construct the Temple of the Lord. This
was 480 years after the people of Israel were rescued from their slavery in
the land of Egypt.
The Temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was 90 feet long,
30 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The entry room at the front of the Temple
was 30 feet wide, running across the entire width of the Temple. It projected outward 15 feet from the front of the Temple. Solomon also made
narrow recessed windows throughout the Temple.
He built a complex of rooms against the outer walls of the Temple, all