Wherefore I beseech thee to send some of thy servants with my servants to Mount Lebanon, to cut wood there, for none among us can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.

And I will pay the wood-cutters their hire at whatsoever rate thou shalt determine." "King Hiram to King Solomon [sends greeting]:--Needs must I praise God, that hath given thee to sit upon thy father's throne, seeing that thou art a wise man, and possessed of every virtue.

And I, rejoicing at these things, will do all that thou hast desired of me.

I will by my servants cut thee in abundance timber of cedar and timber of cypress, and will bring them down to the sea, and command my servants to construct of them a float, or raft, and navigate it to whatever point of thy coast thou mayest wish, and there discharge them; after which thy servants can carry them to Jerusalem.

But be it thy care to provide me in return with a supply of food, whereof we are in want as inhabiting an island."[1460] The result was an arrangement by which the Tyrian monarch furnished his brother king with timber of various kinds, chiefly cedar, cut in Lebanon, and also with a certain number of trained artificers, workers in metal, carpenters, and masons, while the Israelite monarch on his part made a return in corn, wine, and oil, supplying Tyre, while the contract lasted, with 20,000 cors of wheat, the same quantity of barley, 20,000 baths of wine, and the same number of oil, annually.[1461] Phoenicia always needed to import supplies of food for its abundant population,[1462] and having an inexhaustible store of timber in Lebanon, was glad to find a market for it so near.