1 Kings 5:6
Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.
The request carries out David's long-cherished plan to build a house for the name of the Lord, which David could not build because of wars until his enemies were put under his feet, but which God promised would be built by David's son set upon his throne, now undertaken by Solomon when God had given him rest on every side with neither adversary nor evil occurrent. Solomon asks Hiram king of Tyre to have cedar trees cut out of Lebanon for the house he purposes to build to the name of the Lord his God. The request also covers fir trees and algum trees to be cut in Lebanon. He makes the request because Israel does not know how to cut timber in Lebanon as Hiram's servants and the Sidonians do, since there is no one among Israel skilled at hewing timber like the Sidonians.
Although Solomon had received wisdom from God, he found no workmen of his own nation and religion with the qualifications and fine skill he deemed essential for a temple to the God of heaven, so he was obliged to send elsewhere for outside workmen who would do justice to the responsible work entrusted to them. Solomon arranges that his own servants will work together with Hiram's servants to prepare timber in abundance. He promises to pay hire for Hiram's servants according to whatever Hiram appoints. The hire appointed for the hewers is twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat and twenty thousand measures of barley and twenty thousand baths of wine and twenty thousand baths of oil.
The house to be built is to be surpassingly great because God is greater than all gods, though even the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, and it is to be set apart for burning sweet incense before Him and for the continual showbread and for morning and evening burnt offerings on Sabbaths, new moons, and solemn feasts of the Lord as a perpetual ordinance for Israel, for offering sacrifice before Him. The request results in cedar timber being prepared and hauled for the construction of the temple, with workers cutting and moving the logs. In the work God is the designer and men are the executors, organized under a head leader whose directions they follow without discord or strife, with each man working until the stones are hewed and chiseled so perfectly in the mountains that when brought to the building they fit together without the sound of ax or hammer.