1 N ow King Solomon was king over all Israel.

2 T hese were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest;

3 E lihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

4 a nd Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

5 a nd Azariah the son of Nathan was over the deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king’s friend;

6 a nd Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

7 S olomon 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.

8 T hese are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;

9 B en-deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan;

10 B en-hesed, in Arubboth ( Socoh was his and all the land of Hepher);

11 B en-abinadab, in all the height of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife);

12 B aana 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;

13 B en-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);

14 A hinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

15 A himaaz, in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon);

16 B aana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;

17 J ehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

18 S himei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

19 G eber 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

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

21 N ow 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.

22 S olomon’s provision for one day was thirty kors of fine flour and sixty kors of meal,

23 t en fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.

24 F or 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.

25 S o 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.

26 S olomon had 40, 000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12, 000 horsemen.

27 T hose deputies provided for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking.

28 T hey also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where it should be, each according to his charge.

29 N ow God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore.

30 S olomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.

31 F or 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.

32 H e also spoke 3, 000 proverbs, and his songs were 1, 005.

33 H e 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 M en came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.