2 Chronicles 2 explained: Gathering Workers and Wood for the Temple

Solomon's plan and workforce (vv. 1-2)

Solomon sets out to build a temple "for the Name" of the LORD, meaning a place where God is honored and called on, along with a royal palace. The huge workforce of carriers, stonecutters and foremen was drafted labor, not hired volunteers.

What the temple is for (vv. 3-4)

Solomon writes to Hiram, king of Tyre, a wealthy port city to the north that had supplied cedar to his father David. He explains that the temple will host Israel's regular worship: burning incense, setting out sacred bread before God, and animal offerings every morning, every evening and on holy days.

No house can hold God (vv. 5-6)

Solomon says the temple must be grand because Israel's God is greater than all others. Yet he admits that even the highest heavens cannot contain God, so the building is really a place for people to worship, not a home that houses God.

Request for skill and timber (vv. 7-10)

Tyre was famous for fine metalwork and costly purple and red dyed cloth, and Lebanon's cedar was prized because it lasted. In return, Solomon promises large amounts of wheat, barley, wine and olive oil to feed Hiram's woodcutters.

Hiram's warm reply (vv. 11-16)

Hiram praises Israel's God, though it is unclear whether this was real faith or polite diplomacy, and sends a master craftsman whose mother was an Israelite and whose father was from Tyre. He agrees to float the logs down the coast to the port of Joppa, where they could be hauled inland to Jerusalem.

Foreigners put to work (vv. 17-18)

Solomon counts the non-Israelites living in the land and assigns them to heavy labor, which amounted to forced work. The parallel account in 1 Kings says Israelites were drafted too, and resentment over this kind of labor later helped split the kingdom.

Key verse: 2 Chronicles 2:6

Something to think about

When something beautiful or sacred is built through the hard labor of people who had little choice, how should that shape the way we see it?