Read the Bible

¹ And king Solomon was king over all Israel.

² And these are the princes whom he had: Azariah the son of Zadok was priest;

³ Elihoreph and Ahiah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, chronicler;

⁴ and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the host; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

⁵ and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the superintendents; and Zabud the son of Nathan was principal officer, the king's friend;

⁶ and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the levy-service.

⁷ And Solomon had twelve superintendents over all Israel; and they provided food for the king and his household: each man his month in the year had to make provision.

⁸ And these are their names: Ben-Hur, in mount Ephraim.

⁹ Ben-Deker in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and Beth-shemesh, and Elon-Beth-hanan.

¹⁰ Ben-Hesed, in Arubboth; he had Sochoh, and all the land of Hepher.

¹¹ Ben-Abinadab had all the upland of Dor; Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife.

¹² Baana the son of Ahilud had Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is by Zaretan beneath Jizreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-Meholah, as far as beyond Jokneam.

¹³ Ben-Geber, in Ramoth-Gilead; he had the villages of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bars of bronze.

¹⁴ Ahinadab the son of Iddo, at Mahanaim.

¹⁵ Ahimaaz, in Nephtali; he also took Basmath the daughter of Solomon as wife.

¹⁶ Baanah the son of Hushai, in Asher and in Aloth.

¹⁷ Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar.

¹⁸ Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin.

¹⁹ Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, and of Og the king of Bashan; and [he was] the only superintendent that was in the land.

²⁰ Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.

²¹ And Solomon ruled over all kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²² And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and sixty measures of meal,

²³ ten fatted oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and a hundred sheep, besides harts, and gazelles, and fallow-deer, and fatted fowl.

²⁴ For he had dominion over all on this side the river, from Tiphsah as far as Gazah, over all the kings on this side the river; and he had peace on all sides round about.

²⁵ And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.

²⁶ And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

²⁷ And those officers provided food for king Solomon, and for all who came to king Solomon's table, every man in his month: they let nothing be wanting.

²⁸ And the barley, and the straw for the horses and coursers, they brought to the place where [the superintendents] were, every man according to his charge.

²⁹ And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great understanding and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore.

³⁰ And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the sons of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

³¹ For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations round about.

³² And he spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousand and five.

³³ And he spoke of the trees, from the cedar-tree that is on Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of cattle, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes.

³⁴ And there came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.