The Letter to Huram
1 Now Solomon decided to build a house for Yahweh’s name, and a house for his kingdom. 2 Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them. 3 Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, “As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house in which to dwell, so deal with me. 4 Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, to dedicate it to him, to burn before him incense of sweet spices, for the continual show bread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts of Yahweh our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel. 5 “The house which I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. 6 But who is able to build him a house, since heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain him? Who am I then, that I should build him a house, except just to burn incense before him? 7 “Now therefore send me a man skillful to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue, and who knows how to engrave engravings, to be with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father provided. 8 “Send me also cedar trees, cypress trees, and algum trees out of Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon. Behold, my servants will be with your servants, 9 even to prepare timber in abundance for me; for the house which I am about to build will be great and wonderful. 10 Behold, I will give to your servants, the cutters who cut timber, twenty thousand cors of beaten wheat, twenty thousand baths of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.” 11 Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, “Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them.” 12 Huram continued, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, endowed with discretion and understanding, who would build a house for Yahweh and a house for his kingdom. 13 Now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, Huram-abi, 14 the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan; and his father was a man of Tyre. He is skillful to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, in stone, in timber, in purple, in blue, in fine linen, and in crimson, also to engrave any kind of engraving and to devise any device, that there may be a place appointed to him with your skillful men, and with the skillful men of my lord David your father. 15 “Now therefore, the wheat, the barley, the oil, and the wine which my lord has spoken of, let him send to his servants; 16 and we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as you need. We will bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa; then you shall carry it up to Jerusalem.” 17 Solomon counted all the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, after the census with which David his father had counted them; and they found one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred. 18 He set seventy thousand of them to bear burdens, eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to assign the people their work.
The builder tells a foreign king what the house is for, and admits in the same breath that no house can hold the one it is for.
Solomon decided to build a house for Yahweh's name, and a house for his kingdom 2 Chronicles 2:1. Two buildings, and the order in which they are named is kept throughout.
The correspondence with Tyre takes up most of the chapter. What Solomon puts in his letter reads as a statement of purpose. He does not describe the architecture. He describes the schedule: incense, the continual bread, burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts 2 Chronicles 2:4.
So the house is defined by what will happen in it rather than by what it will look like. And the calendar he lists is old. Every item on it was prescribed in the law generations earlier, and he closes the sentence by saying so: this is an ordinance forever to Israel. The most ambitious building project in the nation's history is presented as a facility for keeping an existing appointment.
Then the qualification, and it is the theological center of the chapter. Who is able to build him a house, since heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain him? Who am I then, that I should build him a house, except just to burn incense before him? 2 Chronicles 2:6.
The builder undercuts his own project in the letter commissioning it. No structure can house what he is housing. The most that can be claimed is that offerings will be made in it.
That sentence prevents a misreading of everything after it. The gold, the dimensions, the six hundred talents on one room — none of it is an attempt to accommodate God. The house is a place appointed for a transaction, not a residence for a guest.
The practical arrangements are then settled as ordinary business between two heads of state. Timber is cut in the north, rafted down the coast, hauled inland, and paid for in wheat, barley, wine and oil at named quantities 2 Chronicles 2:10 2 Chronicles 2:16.
Huram's reply does something a foreign king was under no obligation to do. He blesses Yahweh, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth 2 Chronicles 2:12. And he reads Solomon's accession as evidence of God's regard for the people rather than for the man: because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them 2 Chronicles 2:11.
The craftsman he sends is of mixed descent, an Israelite mother from Dan and a father of Tyre 2 Chronicles 2:13–14. He is skilled in every material the work will use. The master workman on the house is a foreigner's subject and half an outsider, chosen for what he can do.
settled What this mark means