Online Bible

Solomon’s Officials

So King Solomon was king over all Israel. 2 These were his officials:

Azariah the son of Zadok was ^athe priest;

Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were scribes;

^aJehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

and ^aBenaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army;

and Zadok and ^bAbiathar were priests;

and Azariah the son of Nathan was over ^athe deputies;

and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king’s friend;

and Ahishar was over the household;

and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

7 Now 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. 8 These are their names:

Ben-hur, in the ^ahill country of Ephraim;

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

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

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

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;

Ben-geber, in ^aRamoth-gilead (now ¹^bHavvoth-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);

Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in ^aMahanaim;

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

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

Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

^aShimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

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.

Judah’s and Israel’s Abundance and Security

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

21 ¹^aNow 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 And Solomon’s ¹provision for one day was ²thirty kors of fine flour and ³sixty kors of meal, 23 ten fat oxen, twenty ¹pasture-fed oxen, one 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 ³west of the ⁴River; and ^che had peace on all sides around about him. 25 ^aSo Judah and Israel lived in security, 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 And these deputies sustained 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 the legal judgment for him.

29 And ^aGod gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of understanding in his heart, ^blike the sand that is on the seashore. 30 And Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ^athe sons of the east and ^ball the wisdom of Egypt. 31 And ^ahe was wiser than all men, than ^bEthan the Ezrahite, Heman, ^cCalcol, and ¹Darda, the sons of Mahol; and the renown of his name was in all the surrounding nations. 32 ^aHe also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. 33 And 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 ¹And men ^acame from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.