1Now Solomon decided to build a house for Yahweh’s name, and a house for his kingdom. 2Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.
3Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, “As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house in which to dwell, so deal with me. 4Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, to dedicate it to him, to burn before him incense of sweet spices, for the continual show bread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts of Yahweh our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.
5“The house which I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. 6But who is able to build him a house, since heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain him? Who am I then, that I should build him a house, except just to burn incense before him?
7“Now therefore send me a man skillful to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue, and who knows how to engrave engravings, to be with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.
8“Send me also cedar trees, cypress trees, and algum trees out of Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon. Behold, my servants will be with your servants, 9even to prepare me timber in abundance; for the house which I am about to build will be great and wonderful. 10Behold, I will give to your servants, the cutters who cut timber, twenty thousand cors of beaten wheat, twenty thousand baths of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.”
11Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, “Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them.” 12Huram continued, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, endowed with discretion and understanding, who would build a house for Yahweh and a house for his kingdom.
13Now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, Huram-abi, 14the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan; and his father was a man of Tyre. He is skillful to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, in stone, in timber, in purple, in blue, in fine linen, and in crimson, also to engrave any kind of engraving and to devise any device, that there may be a place appointed to him with your skillful men, and with the skillful men of my lord David your father.
15“Now therefore, the wheat, the barley, the oil, and the wine which my lord has spoken of, let him send to his servants; 16and we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as you need. We will bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa; then you shall carry it up to Jerusalem.”
17Solomon counted all the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, after the census with which David his father had counted them; and they found one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred. 18He set seventy thousand of them to bear burdens, eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to assign the people their work.
Joppa is a small port city on the Mediterranean coast of Israel that was allotted to Dan (Josh 19:46) It was known as “the gate of Jaffa” in the Egyptian El-Amarna letters correspondence of the fourteenth century BC in the El-Amarna letters and was Israel's main port until the construction of Herod's artificial port at Caesarea.
Here Solomon imported lumber from Tyre to build the temple (and his palace; see also Ezra 3:7). From Joppa, Jonah set sail for Tarshish, going west instead of east, fleeing the call of God for the Gentiles. Here is where Peter received that same message while on Simon the Tanner’s roof in Joppa: that God cares about the Gentiles and has declared Gentiles as “pure” (Acts 10). Peter had to be reminded that while “menu” had ritually pure and impure distinctions, “man” was created in the image of God and was not to be considered “unclean” (Acts 10:28,34-45; footnote: Chris Miller, "Did Peter's Vision in Acts 10 Pertain to Men or the Menu?" Bibliotheca Sacra 159 [2002]). Apparently, the traditional house of Simon the Tanner was occupied in the late 1990s by a Muslim[1] family and is not open to the public.
Earlier, Judah the Maccabean had taken the city after 200 Jews were drowned (2 Macc 12:3ff) and Peter here raised Dorcas to life (Acts 9:36). Excavations have revealed an ancient Egyptian gate (14th century), as well as domestic architecture from the Hellenistic and Roman period, housed in the underground Jaffa Museum.
[1]There may be a discrepancy since another source indicated that it has been occupied by an Armenian family named Zakaria for generations.