Solomon’s Officials

1So 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 scribes;

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.

7Now 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. 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 (now [†]Havvoth-Jair—Jair being the son of Manasseh—which is in Gilead was 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.

Judah’s and Israel’s Abundance and Security

20Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the [†]seashore in abundance; they were eating and drinking and being glad.

21[†]Now 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.

22And Solomon’s [†]provision for one day was [†]thirty kors of fine flour and [†]sixty kors of meal, 23ten fat oxen, twenty [†]pasture-fed oxen, one 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 security, 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. 27And these deputies sustained 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 the legal judgment for him.

29And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of understanding in his heart, like the sand that is on the seashore. 30And Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31And he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol, and [†]Darda, the sons of Mahol; and the renown of his name was in all the surrounding nations. 32He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. 33And 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[†]And men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.