1 Kings 4–5

SOLOMON’S OFFICIALS

4King Solomon reigned over all Israel,^{u 2}and these were his officials:^v

Azariah son of Zadok, priest;

³Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha, secretaries;

Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud, court historian;

⁴Benaiah son of Jehoiada, in charge of the army;

Zadok and Abiathar, priests;

⁵Azariah son of Nathan, in charge of the deputies;

Zabud son of Nathan, a priest and adviser to the king;

⁶Ahishar, in charge of the palace;

and Adoniram son of Abda, in charge of forced labor.

⁷Solomon had twelve deputies for all Israel. They provided food for the king and his household; each one made provision for one month out of the year.^{w 8}These were their names:

Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;

⁹Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;

¹⁰Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (he had Socoh and the whole land of Hepher);

¹¹Ben-abinadab, in all Naphath-dor (Taphath daughter of Solomon was his wife);

¹²Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach, 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 (he had the villages of Jair son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);

¹⁴Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

¹⁵Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also had married a daughter of Solomon—Basemath);

¹⁶Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;

¹⁷Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar;

¹⁸Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin;

¹⁹Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of King Sihon of the Amorites and of King Og of Bashan.

There was one deputy in the land of Judah.^A

SOLOMON’S PROVISIONS

²⁰Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea;^a they were eating, drinking, and rejoicing. ²¹Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt.^b They offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.^c

²²Solomon’s provisions for one day were 180 bushels^B of fine flour and 360 bushels^C of meal, ²³ten fattened cattle, twenty range cattle, and a hundred sheep and goats, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and pen-fed poultry,^{Dd 24}for he had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza and over all the kings west of the Euphrates. He had peace on all his surrounding borders. ²⁵Throughout Solomon’s reign, Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan to Beer-sheba,^e each person under his own vine and his own fig tree.^{f 26}Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.^{g 27}Each of those deputies for a month in turn provided food for King Solomon and for everyone who came to King Solomon’s table. They neglected nothing. ²⁸Each man brought the barley and the straw for the chariot teams and the other horses^h to the required place according to his assignment.^B

SOLOMON’S WISDOM AND LITERARY GIFTS

²⁹God gave Solomon wisdom, very great insight, and understandingⁱ as vast as the sand on the seashore. ³⁰Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East,^j greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.^{k 31}He was wiser than anyone^l—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite,^m and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, sons of Mahol.ⁿ His reputation extended to all the surrounding nations.^o

³²Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs,^p and his songs numbered 1,005.^{q 33}He spoke about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall. He also spoke about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. ³⁴Emissaries of all peoples, sent by every king on earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom.^r

HIRAM’S BUILDING MATERIALS

5King Hiram of Tyre^s sent his emissaries to Solomon when he heard that he had been anointed king in his father’s place,^t for Hiram had always been friends with David.^u

²Solomon sent this message to Hiram: ³“You know my father David was not able to build a temple for the name of the Lord his God. This was because of the warfare all around him until the Lord put his enemies under his feet.^{v 4}The Lord my God has now given me rest on every side; there is no enemy or misfortune.^{w 5}So I plan to build a temple for the name of the Lord my God,^x according to what the Lord promised my father David: ‘I will put your son on your throne in your place, and he will build the temple for my name.’^y

⁶“Therefore, command that cedars from Lebanon be cut down for me. My servants will be with your servants, and I will pay your servants’ wages according to whatever you say, for you know that not a man among us knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”^z

⁷When Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the Lord today!^aa He has given David a wise son to be over this great people!” ⁸Then Hiram sent a reply to Solomon, saying, “I have heard your message; I will do everything you want regarding the cedar and cypress timber. ⁹My servants will bring the logs down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place you indicate. I will break them apart there, and you can take them away. You then can meet my needs by providing my household with food.”^a

¹⁰So Hiram provided Solomon with all the cedar and cypress timber he wanted, ¹¹and Solomon provided Hiram with one hundred twenty thousand bushels^A of wheat as food for his household and one hundred twenty thousand gallons^B of oil from crushed olives.^b Solomon did this for Hiram year after year.

¹²The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him.^c There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.^d

SOLOMON’S WORK FORCE

¹³Then King Solomon drafted forced laborers from all Israel;^e the labor force numbered thirty thousand men. ¹⁴He sent ten thousand to Lebanon each month in shifts; one month they were in Lebanon, two months they were at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. ¹⁵Solomon had seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountains,^{f 16}not including his thirty-three hundred deputies^g in charge of the work. They supervised the people doing the work. ¹⁷The king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones.^{h 18}So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders,ⁱ along with the Gebalites,^j quarried the stone and prepared the timber and stone for the temple’s construction.