2 Chronicles 2:1-6

1Solomon decided to build a house to give honour to the Lord's name. He also decided to build a royal palace for himself.

2He chose 70,000 men to carry the heavy things for the buildings, and 80,000 men to cut rocks in the hills. He also chose 3,600 men to lead these workers.

3Solomon wrote this letter to King Huram of Tyre: ‘You helped my father King David when you sent him wood from cedar trees to build his palace. Please help me now.

4I am ready to build a temple to give honour to the Lord my God. It will be a holy place that belongs to him. We Israelites will burn sweet incense for him there. We will put special bread there every day. We will burn sacrifices to the Lord our God every morning and every evening. We will also do that on Sabbath days, on New Moon festival days and on other special days that God has chosen. He has told us to do this for all time.

5The house that I will build for our God will be a great temple, because he is greater than all gods.

6I know that nobody can really build a house for our God. The whole sky, or even heaven itself, is not big enough to contain him. So I certainly cannot build a place for him to live in, but it will be a place where we can offer sacrifices to him.