King Solomon was king over all the people of Israel. 2 These were his chief officials: Azariah the 1son of Zadok was athe high priest;Here as in other passages, the Hebrew word son may refer to a grandson or more distant descendant, just as father is also used of grandfathers and other ancestors.1 Chr 6:10 3 Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha, were scribes; aJehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder of important events;2 Sam 8:16 4 aBenaiah the son of Jehoiada was in command of the army; Zadok and bAbiathar were priests;1 Kin 2:351 Kin 2:27 5 Azariah the son of Nathan was in charge of athe deputies; Zabud the son of Nathan was priest and was the king’s friend and trusted advisor;1 Kin 4:7 6 Ahishar was in charge of the household ; and Adoniram the son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.
7 Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who 1secured provisions for the king and his household; each man had to provide for a month in the year.Lit provided. 8 These were their names: Ben-hur, in the ahill country of the tribe of Ephraim;Josh 24:33 9 Ben-deker in Makaz and aShaalbim and bBeth-shemesh and Elon-beth-hanan;Judg 1:35Josh 21:16 10 Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged aSocoh and all the land of bHepher);Josh 15:35Josh 12:17 11 Ben-abinadab, in all the hills of aDor (Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, was his wife);Josh 11:1, 2 12 Baana the son of Ahilud, in aTaanach, Megiddo, and all bBeth-shean which is beside cZarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to dAbel-meholah as far as beyond eJokmeam;Judg 5:19Josh 17:11Josh 3:161 Kin 19:161 Chr 6:68 13 Ben-geber, in aRamoth-gilead (bthe villages of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead belonged to him, also cthe region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);1 Kin 22:3-15Num 32:41Deut 3:4 14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in aMahanaim;Josh 13:26 15 aAhimaaz, in the tribe of Naphtali (he also married Basemath, Solomon’s daughter);2 Sam 15:27 16 Baana the son of aHushai, in the tribe of Asher and Bealoth;2 Sam 15:32 17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in the tribe of Issachar; 18 aShimei the son of Ela, in the tribe of Benjamin;1 Kin 1:8 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 officer who was in the land.Deut 3:8-10
20 aThe people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is in abundance by the sea; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.Gen 22:17; 32:12; 1 Kin 3:8
21 1aNow Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms bfrom the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; cthey brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.In the Hebrew text ch 5 begins with this verse.2 Chr 9:26Gen 15:18; Josh 1:42 Sam 8:2, 6
22 Solomon’s food for the royal household for one day was thirty 1kors of finely milled flour, sixty kors of wheat flour,This was the largest unit of volume, but the actual amount varied because it was based on the volume of an egg, the basic Jewish standard of volume. The kor was equivalent to the homer and was supposed to equal 4,320 eggs. Modern estimates of the volume range between seven and twelve bushels. 23 ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep not counting fallow deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. 24 For he was ruling over everything west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to aGaza, bover all the kings west of the Euphrates River; and che had peace on all sides around him.Judg 1:18Ps 72:111 Chr 22:9 25 aJudah and Israel lived in security, every man under his vine and fig tree in peace and prosperity, bfrom Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, during all the days of Solomon. Mic 4:3, 4Jer 23:6; Mic 4:4; Zech 3:101 Sam 3:20 26 aSolomon also had 140,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.One ms reads 4,000; cf 2 Chr 9:25.1 Kin 10:26; 2 Chr 1:14 27 Those deputies provided food for King Solomon and for all the staff who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they let nothing be lacking. 28 They also brought the barley and straw for the horses and aswift steeds to the place where it was needed, each man according to his assignment.Esth 8:10, 14; Mic 1:13
29 Now aGod gave Solomon exceptional wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, blike the sand of the seashore.1 Kin 3:121 Kin 4:20 30 Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all athe sons of the east and ball the wisdom of Egypt.Gen 29:1; Judg 6:33Is 19:11; Acts 7:22 31 For ahe was wiser 1than all other men, wiser than 2bEthan the Ezrahite, and Heman, cCalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. His fame was known in all the surrounding nations.“Wiser than all +[other+] men,” until Christ came. Jesus said, “Someone more and greater than Solomon is here” (Matt 12:42).Together with Zimri (1 Chr 2:6), these men were reputed to be the wisest in the world.1 Kin 3:121 Chr 15:19; Ps 89: title1 Chr 2:6 32 aHe also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.Prov 1:1; 10:1; 25:1; Eccl 12:9; Song 1:1 33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon to the hyssop vine that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and fish. 34 People acame from all the peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.1 Kin 10:1; 2 Chr 9:23