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Behold, I build a house to the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to Him and to burn before Him sweet incense, 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. This is an ordinance for ever to Israel.
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And the house which I build is great, for great is our God above all gods.
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But who is able to build Him a house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I then, that I should build Him a house, save only to burn sacrifice before Him?
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Send me now therefore a man skillful to work in gold and in silver, and in brass and in iron, and in purple and crimson and blue, and who can expertly engrave with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.
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Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees out of Lebanon; for I know that thy servants have skill to cut timber in Lebanon. And behold, my servants shall be with thy servants,
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even to prepare me timber in abundance; for the house which I am about to build shall be great and wonderful.
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And behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers who cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil."
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Then Hiram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon: "Because the LORD hath loved His people, He hath made thee king over them."
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Hiram said moreover: "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who hath given to David the king a wise son, endued with prudence and understanding, who might build a house for the LORD and a house for his kingdom.
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"And now I have sent a skillful man, endued with understanding, Hiramabi
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(the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre), skillful to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to engrave any manner of engraving and to figure out every design which shall be put to him, with thy skillful men and with the skillful men of my lord David thy father.