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Solomon's Officials

¹ So King Solomon was king over all Israel.² These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was ^(C1)the priest;³ Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were scribes; ^(C1)Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;⁴ and ^(C1)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and ^(C2)Abiathar were priests;⁵ and Azariah the son of Nathan was over ^(C1)the deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king's friend;⁶ and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.⁷ Now Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who sustained the king and his household; each man had to sustain them for a month in the year.⁸ These are their names: Ben-hur, in the ^(C1)hill country of Ephraim;⁹ Ben-deker in Makaz and ^(C1)Shaalbim and ^(C2)Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan;¹⁰ Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (^(C1)Socoh was his and all the land of ^(C2)Hepher);¹¹ Ben-abinadab, in all ^(F1)the ^(C1)height of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife);¹² Baana the son of Ahilud, in ^(C1)Taanach and Megiddo, and all ^(C2)Beth-shean which is beside ^(C3)Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to ^(C4)Abel-meholah as far as the other side of ^(C5)Jokmeam;¹³ Ben-geber, in ^(C1)Ramoth-gilead (now ^(F1)(C2)Havvoth-Jair—Jair being the son of Manasseh—which is in Gilead was his: ^(C3)the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars were his);¹⁴ Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in ^(C1)Mahanaim;^15 (C1)Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon);¹⁶ Baana the son of ^(C1)Hushai, in Asher and ^(F1)Bealoth;¹⁷ Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;^18 (C1)Shimei the son of Ela, in 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 deputy who was in the land.

Judah's and Israel's Abundance and Security

^20 (C1)Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the ^(F1)seashore in abundance; they were eating and drinking and being glad.

^21 (F1)(C1)Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms ^(C2)from the ^(F2)River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; ^(C3)they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²² And Solomon's ^(F1)provision for one day was ^(F2)thirty kors of fine flour and ^(F3)sixty kors of meal,²³ ten fat oxen, twenty ^(F1)pasture-fed oxen, one hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.²⁴ For he had dominion over everything ^(F1)west of the ^(F2)River, from Tiphsah even to ^(C1)Gaza, ^(C2)over all the kings ^(F1)west of the ^(F2)River; and ^(C3)he had peace on all sides around about him.^25 (C1)So Judah and Israel lived in security, every man under his vine and his fig tree, ^(C2)from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.^26 (C1)Solomon had ^(F1)40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.²⁷ And these deputies sustained King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon's table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking.²⁸ They also brought barley and straw for the horses and ^(C1)swift steeds to the place where it should be, each according to the legal judgment for him.

²⁹ And ^(C1)God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of understanding in his heart, ^(C2)like the sand that is on the seashore.³⁰ And Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ^(C1)the sons of the east and ^(C2)all the wisdom of Egypt.³¹ And ^(C1)he was wiser than all men, than ^(C2)Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, ^(C3)Calcol, and ^(F1)Darda, the sons of Mahol; and the renown of his name was in all the surrounding nations.^32 (C1)He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.³³ And he 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.^34 (F1)And men ^(C1)came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.