Solomon’s Officials

      1Now King Solomon was king over all Israel. 2These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest; 3Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder; 4and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; 5and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king’s friend; 6and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

      7Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who provided for the king and his household; each man had to provide for a month in the year. 8These are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; 9Ben-deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan; 10Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (Socoh was his and all the land of Hepher); 11Ben-abinadab, in all the height of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife); 12Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah as far as the other side of Jokmeam; 13Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead were his: the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars were his); 14Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; 15Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon); 16Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; 17Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar; 18Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin; 19Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only deputy who was in the land.

Solomon’s Power, Wealth and Wisdom

      20Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.

      21Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

      22Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty kors of fine flour and sixty kors of meal, 23ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. 24For he had dominion over everything west of the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River; and he had peace on all sides around about him. 25So Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. 26Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. 27Those deputies provided for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking. 28They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where it should be, each according to his charge.

      29Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. 30Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations. 32He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. 33He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. 34Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.