Solomon’s Workforce

¹³ Then King Solomon drafted forced laborers from all Israel;^(A) the labor force numbered thirty thousand men. ¹⁴ He sent ten thousand to Lebanon each month in shifts; one month they were in Lebanon, two months they were at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. ¹⁵ Solomon had seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountains,^{(B) 16} not including his thirty-three hundred^[a] deputies^(C) in charge of the work. They supervised the people doing the work.

⁴ “Your father made our yoke harsh.^(A) You, therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us,^(B) and we will serve you.”