1 Kings 5:13-18 - Solomon's Work Force

¹³ King Solomon conscripted laborers from throughout Israel. The work force numbered 30,000 men. ¹⁴ He sent 10,000 men to Lebanon in shifts lasting one month. They worked one month in Lebanon for every two months they worked at home. Adoniram was placed in charge of the conscripted labor. ¹⁵ Solomon also employed 70,000 heavy-lift workers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country. ¹⁶ Solomon also employed 3,300 officials to supervise the work and to manage the people employed in the construction. ¹⁷ The king specified that large, expensive stones be quarried so the foundation of the Temple could be laid with cut stones. ¹⁸ As a result, Solomon's builders worked with Hiram's builders, accompanied by the Gebalites, to quarry the stone and to prepare the timber and other stone for the Temple's construction.

¹⁷ Solomon took a census of all the non-Israeli men who lived in the land of Israel, after the census that his father David had taken, and 153,600 were counted. ¹⁸ He conscripted 70,000 of them to do heavy work, 80,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3,600 men to supervise the people.