temporal ruler of the nation.  No monarch in those days could regard his position as unassailable until he had a sanctuary and a priesthood attached to his religion, either in his own palace or not far away from it.  David had scarcely entered Jerusalem before he fixed upon the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite as a site for the temple, and built an altar there to the Lord during a plague which threatened to decimate his people; but as he did not carry the project any farther,** Solomon set himself to complete the task which his father had merely sketched out.

     * 1 Kings vii. 8, ix. 24; 2 Ghron. viii. 11.

     ** 2 Sam xxiv. 18-25, The threshing-floor of Araunah the
     Jebusite is mentioned elsewhere as the site on which Solomon
     built his temple (2 Ghron. iii. 1).

The site was irregular in shape, and the surface did not naturally lend itself to the purpose for which it was destined.  His engineers, however, put this right by constructing enormous piers for the foundations, which they built up from the slopes of the mountain or from the bottom of the valley as circumstances required:  the space between this artificial casing and the solid rock was filled up, and the whole mass formed a nearly square platform, from which the temple buildings were to rise.  Hiram undertook to supply materials for the work.  Solomon had written to him that he should command “that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants; and I will give thee hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt say:  for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Zidonians.”  Hiram was delighted to carry out the wishes of his royal friend with regard to the cedar and cypress woods.

[Illustration:  374.jpg SOME OF THE STONE COURSE OF SOLOMON’S TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.

“My servants,” he answered, “shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea:  and I will make them into rafts to go by sea unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and thou shalt receive them; and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.”  The payment agreed on, which was in kind, consisted of twenty thousand kor of wheat, and twenty kor of pure oil per annum, for which Hiram was to send to Jerusalem not only the timber, but architects, masons, and Gebalite carpenters (i.e. from Byblos), smelters, sculptors, and overseers.* Solomon undertook to supply the necessary labour, and for this purpose made a levy of men from all the tribes.  The number of these labourers was reckoned at thirty thousand, and they were relieved regularly every three months; seventy thousand were occupied in the transport of the materials, while eighty thousand cut the stones from the quarry.**

     * 1 Kings v. 7—­11 * cf. 2 Chron. ii. 3—­16, where the
     writer adds 20,000 kor of barley, 20,000 “baths” of wine,
     and the same quantity of oil.