1 Kings 4:7

And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his household: each man his month in a year made provision.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Provided victuals for the king and his household.—This denotes the collection of revenue—mostly, no doubt, in kind—for the maintenance of the Court and household and guards of the king; and perhaps may have included also the management of the royal domain lands, such as is described under David’s reign in 1Chronicles 26:25-31. It is curious that in five cases only the patronymic of the officer is given, probably from some defect in the archives from which this chapter is evidently drawn. The office must have been of high importance and dignity, for in two cases (1Kings 4:11; 1Kings 4:15) the holders of it were married into the royal house. The provinces over which they had authority—nine on the west and three on the east of Jordan—coincide only in a few cases with the lands assigned to the several tribes. It is not unlikely that by this time much of the tribal division of territory had become obsolete although we see from 1Chronicles 27:16-22, that for chieftainship over men, and for levy in war, it still remained in force.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:1-19 In the choice of the great officers of Solomon's court, no doubt, his wisdom appeared. Several are the same that were in his father's time. A plan was settled by which no part of the country was exhausted to supply his court, though each sent its portion.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The requirement of a portion of their produce from subjects, in addition to money payments, is a common practice of Oriental monarchs. It obtained in ancient, and it still obtains in modern, Persia.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

1Ki 4:7-21. His Twelve Officers.

7. Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel—The royal revenues were raised according to the ancient, and still, in many parts, existing usage of the East, not in money payments, but in the produce of the soil. There would be always a considerable difficulty in the collection and transmission of these tithes (1Sa 8:15). Therefore, to facilitate the work, Solomon appointed twelve officers, who had each the charge of a tribe or particular district of country, from which, in monthly rotation, the supplies for the maintenance of the king's household were drawn, having first been deposited in "the store cities" which were erected for their reception (1Ki 9:19; 2Ch 8:4, 6).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel,.... Not with respect to the twelve tribes of Israel, for it does not appear that they had each of them a tribe under them, but some particular places in a tribe; but with respect to the twelve months of the year, in which each took his turn:

which provided victuals for the king and his household: each man his month in a year made provision; furnished food of all sorts out of the country in which they presided for the space of one month in a year; by which means there was always a plenty of provisions at court for the king's family, and for all strangers that came and went, and no one part of the land was burdened or drained, nor the price of provisions raised; these seem to be the twelve "phylarchi", or governors of tribes, Eupolemus (r), an Heathen writer, speaks of, before whom, and the high priest, David delivered the kingdom to Solomon; though in that he was mistaken, that they were in being then, since these were officers of Solomon's creating.

(r) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 30.

Geneva Study Bible

And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his household: each man his month in a year made provision.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. twelve officers] The stations of these men were in different parts of the country, and each for his month had to gather from the district assigned to him contributions in kind for the royal household.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - And Solomon had twelve officers [lit., persons "placed" or "set over" others, i.e., superintendents. The term is used of Doeg (1 Samuel 22:9). They were twelve, not because of the twelve tribes, but the twelve months] over all Israel, which provided victuals for [Heb. nourished] the king and his household: each man his month in a year made provision [lit., a month in the year it was (i.e., devolved) upon each to nourish. It has been thought by some that these superintendents were also governors of provinces (ἡΓενισισόνες καὶ σταηγοί, Jos. Ant. 8:2, 3), as well as purveyors. But of this nothing is said in the text. Their principal function was to collect the royal dues or taxes which were evidently paid, as they still are in the East, in kind]. 1 Kings 4:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Solomon's Official Persons and Their Districts. - 1 Kings 4:7. Solomon had (appointed) twelve נצּבים over all Israel, who provided (כּלכּלוּ) for the king and his house, i.e., supplied provisions for the necessities of the court. These prefects are not to be regarded as "chamberlains," or administrators of the royal domains (Michaelis and Ewald), for these are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 27:25. under a different title. They are "general receivers of taxes," or "chief tax-collectors," as Rosenmller expresses it, who levied the king's duties or taxes, which consisted in the East, as they still do to the present time, for the most part of natural productions, or the produce of the land, and not of money payments as in the West, and delivered them at the royal kitchen (Rosenmller, A. und N. Morgenland, iii. p. 166). It cannot be inferred from the explanation given by Josephus, ἡγεμόνες καὶ στρατηγοί, that they exercised a kind of government, as Thenius supposes, since this explanation is nothing but a subjective conjecture. "One month in the year was it every one's duty (אחד על יהיה) to provide." The districts assigned to the twelve prefects coincide only partially with the territories of the tribes, because the land was probably divided among them according to its greater or smaller productiveness. Moreover, the order in which the districts are enumerated is not a geographical one, but probably follows the order in which the different prefects had to send the natural productions month by month for the maintenance of the king's court. The description begins with Ephraim in 1 Chronicles 27:8, then passes over in 1 Chronicles 27:9 to the territory of Dan to the west of it, in 1 Chronicles 27:10 to the territory of Judah and Simeon on the south, in 1 Chronicles 27:11 and 1 Chronicles 27:12 to the territory of Manasseh on this side from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, then in vv. 13 and 14 to the territory of Manasseh on the other side of the Jordan, thence back again in vv. 15 and 16 to the northern parts of the land on this side, viz., the territories of Naphtali and Asher, and thence farther south to Issachar in v. 17, and Benjamin in v. 18, closing at last in v. 19 with Gilead.