1 Kings 4:1–20

Solomon’s Officials

¹So King Solomon was king over all Israel.

²These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was ^athe priest;

³Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were scribes; ^aJehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

⁴and ^aBenaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and ^bAbiathar were priests;

⁵and Azariah the son of Nathan was over ^athe 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 ^ahill country of Ephraim;

⁹Ben-deker in Makaz and ^aShaalbim and ^bBeth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan;

¹⁰Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (^aSocoh was his and all the land of ^bHepher);

¹¹Ben-abinadab, in all ¹the ^aheight of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife);

¹²Baana the son of Ahilud, in ^aTaanach and Megiddo, and all ^bBeth-shean which is beside ^cZarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to ^dAbel-meholah as far as the other side of ^eJokmeam;

¹³Ben-geber, in ^aRamoth-gilead (now ^1bHavvoth-Jair—Jair being the son of Manasseh—which is in Gilead was his: ^cthe region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars were his);

¹⁴Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in ^aMahanaim;

^15aAhimaaz, in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon);

¹⁶Baana the son of ^aHushai, in Asher and ¹Bealoth;

¹⁷Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

^18aShimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

¹⁹Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, ^athe 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

^20aJudah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the ¹seashore in abundance; they were eating and drinking and being glad.