1 Kings 4–5

Chapter 4

Solomon’s Officials

¹Now 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 secretaries; ^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.

⁷Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who ¹provided for the king and his household; each man had to ²provide 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 (^bthe towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead were 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.

Solomon’s Power, Wealth and Wisdom

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

^211aNow Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms ^bfrom the ²River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; ^cthey brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²²Solomon’s ¹provision for one day was thirty ²kors of fine flour and sixty kors of meal,

²³ten fat oxen, twenty ¹pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.

²⁴For he had dominion over everything ¹west of the ²River, from Tiphsah even to ^aGaza, ^bover all the kings west of the River; and ^che had peace on all sides around about him.

^25aSo Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, ^bfrom Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

^26aSolomon had ¹40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.

²⁷Those deputies ¹provided for 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 ^aswift steeds to the place where it should be, each according to his charge.

²⁹Now ^aGod gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of ¹mind, ^blike the sand that is on the seashore.

³⁰Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ^athe sons of the east and ^ball the wisdom of Egypt.

³¹For ^ahe was wiser than all men, than ^bEthan the Ezrahite, Heman, ^cCalcol and ¹Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his ²fame was known in all the surrounding nations.

^32aHe also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.

³³He 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.

³⁴¹Men ^acame from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Chapter 5

Alliance with King Hiram

^11aNow Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for ^bHiram had ²always been a friend of David.

²Then ^aSolomon sent word to Hiram, saying,

³“You know that ^aDavid my father was unable to build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars which surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.

⁴“But now ^athe Lord my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor ¹misfortune.

⁵“Behold, ^aI ¹intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house for My name.’

⁶“Now therefore, command that they cut for me ^acedars from Lebanon, and my servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

⁷When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the Lord today, who has given to David a wise son over this great people.”

⁸So Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message which you have sent me; I will do ¹what you desire concerning the cedar and cypress timber.

⁹“My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea; and I will make them into rafts to go by sea ^ato the place where you ¹direct me, and I will have them broken up there, and you shall carry them away. Then ^byou shall accomplish my desire by giving food to my household.”

¹⁰So ¹Hiram ²gave Solomon ³as much as he desired of the cedar and cypress timber.

^11aSolomon then gave Hiram 20,000 ¹kors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty kors of beaten oil; thus Solomon would give Hiram year by year.

^12aThe Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, just as He ¹promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a covenant.

Conscription of Laborers

¹³Now ^aKing Solomon ¹levied forced laborers from all Israel; and the forced laborers ²numbered 30,000 men.

¹⁴He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in relays; they were in Lebanon a month and two months at home. And ^aAdoniram was over the forced laborers.

¹⁵Now ^aSolomon had 70,000 ¹transporters, and 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains,

^16abesides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were over the ¹project and who ruled over the people who were doing the work.

¹⁷Then ^athe king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones.

¹⁸So Solomon’s builders and ¹Hiram’s builders and ^athe Gebalites ²cut them, and prepared the timbers and the stones to build the house.