Everything Solomon had planned to do was now finished—from the laying of the temple's foundation to its completion.
Solomon's and Hiram's men worked with men from the city of Gebal, and together they got the stones and logs ready for the temple.
Work began on the temple during Ziv, the second month of the year, four years after Solomon became king of Israel.
Seven years later the workers finished building it during Bul, the eighth month of the year. It was built exactly as it had been planned.
Solomon did not want the noise of hammers and axes to be heard at the place where the temple was being built. So he made the workers shape the blocks of stone at the quarry.
and the storage rooms. The priests and Levites followed these instructions exactly.
Solomon went to Ezion-Geber and Eloth, two Edomite towns on the Red Sea.