Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that Solomon had been anointed king in place of his father. Hiram had always been a friend of David, and that friendship now extended to the son. The opening of 1 Kings 5 shows a foreign king taking the first step toward what will become the central building project of Solomon's reign.
Solomon responded to Hiram with a message that laid out the reason for the temple and the timing of its construction. David could not build a house for the name of the Lord, Solomon explained, because the wars around him on every side had not ceased until the Lord put his enemies under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord had given Solomon rest on every side. There was neither adversary nor evil occurrence. The peace was not incidental; it was the condition that made the temple possible.
Solomon stated his purpose plainly: he intended to build a house for the name of the Lord his God, as the Lord had spoken to David, saying that his son would build the house for the Lord's name. The temple was not Solomon's innovation but the fulfillment of a divine word spoken to his father. Solomon then made his request: he asked Hiram to command that cedar trees be cut from Lebanon, and he offered to pay wages for the workmen, acknowledging that the Sidonians had skill in cutting timber that Israel lacked.
When Hiram heard Solomon's words, he rejoiced greatly and blessed the Lord for giving David a wise son over this great people. Hiram's response was not merely diplomatic; he recognized the wisdom in Solomon's proposal and agreed to supply all the timber Solomon desired—cedar and fir alike. Hiram described the logistics: his servants would bring the timber down from Lebanon to the sea, make them into rafts, float them to the place Solomon appointed, and break them up there for Solomon to receive. In exchange, Hiram asked for food for his household.
So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of fir according to all his desire. Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food for his household and twenty measures of pure oil, year by year. The arrangement was not a one-time transaction but an ongoing supply agreement that sustained the alliance between the two kings.
The chapter then notes that the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they two made a league together. The wisdom was not abstract; it showed itself in the practical negotiation and management of a large international project. The peace was not merely the absence of war but the active cooperation between two kingdoms.
Solomon then raised a levy out of all Israel: thirty thousand men. He sent them to Lebanon in shifts—ten thousand a month, two months at home—so that the work did not exhaust the workforce. Adoniram was placed over the men subject to taskwork. Beyond that, Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens and eighty thousand who were hewers in the mountains, plus three thousand three hundred chief officers who supervised the work.
The king commanded that they hew out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with wrought stone. Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gebal—the Gebalites—fashioned the stones and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house. The work was not done by Israel alone; it drew on the labor and skill of allied peoples, each contributing to the house that would bear the name of the Lord.
The chapter ends with the materials ready and the workforce organized. Nothing has been built yet, but the foundation is prepared in every sense: the timber is cut, the stone is quarried, the alliances are sealed, and the labor is arranged. The temple is still a future reality, but the ground has been cleared for it by the wisdom and peace that the Lord gave to Solomon.