²⁷ Prepare your work outside, And get your fields ready. Afterwards, build your house.

¹⁷ The king commanded, and they hewed out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone.

¹⁸ Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites did fashion them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.

⁷ The house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn't first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?

²⁹ Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him,

³⁰ saying, 'This man began to build, and wasn't able to finish.'