¹⁶ Solomon also employed 3,300 officials to supervise the work and to manage the people employed in the construction. ¹⁷ The king specified that large, expensive stones be quarried so the foundation of the Temple could be laid with cut stones. ¹⁸ As a result, Solomon’s builders worked with Hiram’s builders, accompanied by the Gebalites, to quarry the stone and to prepare the timber and other^[a] stone for the Temple’s construction.