Today's reading describes the source of some key building materials for the Temple. In particular, the fabled cedars of Lebanon, along with the less well-known cypresses of Lebanon, were imported -- perhaps as part of a peaceful alliance between Solomon and the Hiram, the king of Syria. It also tells how the trees were forested, and the large Temple stones were cut, and all of it was transported, by slave labor. Indeed, ironically, the people who had once been slaves used the labor of more than 100,000 slaves to build the Temple.
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