English: Tyre, Lebanon – a view of the Christian quarter from the fishing harbour pier) Slovenščina: Tir, Libanon – pogled na krščansko četrt s pomola v ribiškem pristanišču (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Solomon prepares for building not only the temple, but also his own palace. The chronicler mentions that fact here, but nothing else is mentioned of its construction, which we find documented in 1 Kings 7:1-12. The king of Tyre was said to have had great love for David (1 Kings 5:1), and had sent cedars, carpenters, and masons to help build his house (2 Samuel 5:11). So Solomon sent the king a letter, asking for similar help, promising great amounts of wheat, barley, wine, and oil in return.

Hiram responded with his own letter, praising Solomon for what he was about to do, and sent a man skilled “to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design.” He would also provide the timber cutters for the cedars he would send by sea to Joppa.

Solomon then took a census of all of the resident aliens of Israel, and there were 153,600. Most of these would be descendants of the Canaanites that were never driven out of the land. He conscripted them to work on the project. Verse 18 details the division of their labor – “Seventy thousand of them he assigned to bear burdens, 80,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3,600 as overseers to make the people work.“

(This year’s reading plan for Luke, Acts, and 1 and 2 Chronicles averages just 15 verses per day – 5 days per week!)
Schedule for this week
Read or listen to audio of today’s selection from Luke here
Read or listen to audio of today’s selection from 2 Chronicles here

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.