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Solomon's Officials

¹ King Solomon was king over all the people of Israel.² These were his chief officials: Azariah the ^(F1)son of Zadok was ^(C1)the high priest;³ Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha, were scribes; ^(C1)Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder of important events;^4 (C1)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was in command of the army; Zadok and ^(C2)Abiathar were priests;⁵ Azariah the son of Nathan was in charge of ^(C1)the deputies; Zabud the son of Nathan was priest and was the king's friend and trusted advisor;⁶ Ahishar was in charge of the household (palace); and Adoniram the son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.

⁷ Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who ^(F1)secured provisions for the king and his household; each man had to provide for a month in the year.⁸ These were their names: Ben-hur, in the ^(C1)hill country of the tribe of Ephraim;⁹ Ben-deker in Makaz and ^(C1)Shaalbim and ^(C2)Beth-shemesh and Elon-beth-hanan;¹⁰ Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged ^(C1)Socoh and all the land of ^(C2)Hepher);¹¹ Ben-abinadab, in all the hills of ^(C1)Dor (Taphath, Solomon's daughter, was his wife);¹² Baana the son of Ahilud, in ^(C1)Taanach, Megiddo, and all ^(C2)Beth-shean which is beside ^(C3)Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to ^(C4)Abel-meholah as far as beyond ^(C5)Jokmeam;¹³ Ben-geber, in ^(C1)Ramoth-gilead (^(C2)the villages of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead belonged to him, also ^(C3)the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);¹⁴ Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in ^(C1)Mahanaim;^15 (C1)Ahimaaz, in the tribe of Naphtali (he also married Basemath, Solomon's daughter);¹⁶ Baana the son of ^(C1)Hushai, in the tribe of Asher and Bealoth;¹⁷ Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in the tribe of Issachar;^18 (C1)Shimei the son of Ela, in the tribe of Benjamin;¹⁹ Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, ^(C1)the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer who was in the land.

Solomon's Power, Wealth and Wisdom

^20 (C1)The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is in abundance by the sea; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.

^21 (F1)(C1)Now Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms ^(C2)from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; ^(C3)they brought tribute (money) and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²² Solomon's food for the royal household for one day was thirty ^(F1)kors of finely milled flour, sixty kors of wheat flour,²³ ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep not counting fallow deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.²⁴ For he was ruling over everything west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to ^(C1)Gaza, ^(C2)over all the kings west of the Euphrates River; and ^(C3)he had peace on all sides around him.^25 (C1)Judah and Israel lived in security, every man under his vine and fig tree in peace and prosperity, ^(C2)from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, during all the days of Solomon. ^{(VR1)26 (C1)}Solomon also had ^(F1)40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.²⁷ Those deputies provided food for King Solomon and for all the staff who came to King Solomon's table, each in his month; they let nothing be lacking.²⁸ They also brought the barley and straw for the horses and ^(C1)swift steeds (warhorses, chargers) to the place where it was needed, each man according to his assignment.

²⁹ Now ^(C1)God gave Solomon exceptional wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, ^(C2)like the sand of the seashore.³⁰ Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ^(C1)the sons of the east and ^(C2)all the wisdom of Egypt.³¹ For ^(C1)he was wiser ^other men," until Christ came. Jesus said, "Someone more <i>and</i> greater than Solomon is here" (Matt 12:42).">(F1)than all other men, wiser than ^(F2)(C2)Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, ^(C3)Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. His fame was known in all the surrounding nations.^32 (C1)He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.³³ He spoke of trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon to the hyssop vine that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and fish.³⁴ People ^(C1)came from all the peoples (nations) to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.