1 Kings 5 - Easy To Read Version

¹ Hiram was the king of Tyre. Hiram had always been David’s friend. So when Hiram heard that Solomon had become the new king after David, he sent his servants to Solomon.

² This is what Solomon said to king Hiram:

³ “You remember that my father, King David, had to fight many wars all around him. So he was never able to build a temple to honor the Lord his God. King David was waiting until the Lord allowed him to defeat all his enemies.

⁴ But now the Lord my God has given me peace on all sides of my country. Now I have no enemies. My people are in no danger.

⁵ “The Lord made a promise to my father David. The Lord said, ‘I will make your son king after you. And your son will build a temple to honor me.’ Now, I plan to build that temple to honor the Lord my God.

⁶ And so I ask you to help me. Send your men to Lebanon. There, they should cut down cedar trees for me. My servants will work with yours. I will pay you any price that you decide as your servants’ wages. But I need your help. Our carpenters [26] are not as good as the carpenters of Sidon.”

⁷ When Hiram heard what Solomon asked, he was very happy. King Hiram said, “I thank the Lord today for giving David a wise son to rule this great nation!”

⁸ Then Hiram sent a message to Solomon. The message said, “I heard the thing that you asked. I will give you all the cedar trees and the fir trees you want.

^9-11 My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. Then I will tie them together and float them down the shore to the place you choose. There I will separate the logs, and you can take the trees. As payment, I would be satisfied if every year you gave me enough food for everyone in my house”

¹² The Lord gave wisdom to Solomon as he had promised. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon. These two kings made a treaty between themselves.

¹³ King Solomon forced 30,000 men of Israel to help in this work.

¹⁴ King Solomon chose a man named Adoniram to be the boss. Solomon divided the men into three groups. There were 10,000 men in each group. Each group worked one month in Lebanon and then went home for two months.

¹⁵ Solomon also forced 80,000 men to work in the hill country. These men had the job of cutting rocks. And there were 70,000 men to carry the rocks.

¹⁶ There were also 3,300 men who were the bosses over the people who did the work.

¹⁷ King Solomon commanded them to cut out big, expensive stones to be the foundation for the temple. These stones were carefully cut.

¹⁸ Then Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders and the men from Byblos [29] carved the stones. They prepared the stones and the logs for building the temple.