1 And Solomon determined to build a house for the name of the Lord and a house for his kingdom.
2 And Solomon counted seventy thousand men to bear burdens and eighty thousand to hew in the mountain, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.
3 And Solomon sent to Hiram, the king of Tyre, saying, As thou didst deal with David, my father, sending him cedars to build himself a house to dwell in, even so deal with me.
4 Behold, I must build a house unto the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to him and to burn aromatic incense before him and for the continual showbread and for the burnt offerings morning and evening on the sabbaths and on the new moons and on the solemn feasts of the Lord our God, which is to be perpetual in Israel.
5 And the house which I must build is great, for great is our God above all gods.
6 But who is so powerful as to build him a house, seeing the heavens and heavens of the heavens cannot contain him? Who am I then that I should build him a house, except to burn incense before him?