Chapter 4

Solomon’s Officials

1 Now King Solomon was king over all Israel.

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

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

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

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

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

7 Solomon 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.

8 These are their names: Ben-hur, in the ahill country of Ephraim;

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

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

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

12 Baana 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;

13 Ben-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);

14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in aMahanaim;

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

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

17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

18 aShimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

19 Geber 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

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

21 1aNow 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.

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

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

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

25 aSo 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.

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

27 Those deputies 1provided for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking.

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

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

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

31 For 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.

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

33 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 1Men acame from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.