1 Kings 4

Solomon's Officials

1 Now King Solomon was king over all Israel.
2 These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was 1the priest;
3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were secretaries; 2Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;
4 and 3Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and 4Abiathar were priests;
5 and Azariah the son of Nathan was over 5the 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 provided for the king and his household; each man had to provide for a month in the year.
8 These are their names: Ben-hur, in the 6hill country of Ephraim;
9 Ben-deker in Makaz and 7Shaalbim and 8Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan;
10 Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (9Socoh was his and all the land of 10Hepher );
11 Ben-abinadab, in all the 11height of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife );
12 Baana the son of Ahilud, in 12Taanach and Megiddo, and all 13Beth-shean which is beside 14Zarethan below * Jezreel, from Beth-shean to 15Abel-meholah as far as the other side of 16Jokmeam;
13 Ben-geber, in 17Ramoth-gilead (18the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead were his: 19the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars were his);
14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in 20Mahanaim;
15 21Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon );
16 Baana the son of 22Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;
17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;
18 23Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;
19 Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, 24the 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 25Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.
21 26Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms 27from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; 28they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
22 Solomon's provision for one day was thirty kors of fine flour and sixty kors of meal,
23 ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep besides * deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.
24 For he had dominion over everything west of the River, from Tiphsah even to 29Gaza, 30over all the kings west of the River; and 31he had peace on all sides around about him.
25 32So Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, 33from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
26 34Solomon had 40,000 * stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 * * horsemen.
27 Those deputies provided 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 35swift steeds to the place where * it should be, each according to his charge.
29 Now 36God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, 37like the sand that is on the seashore *.
30 Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all 38the sons of the east and 39all the wisdom of Egypt.
31 For 40he was wiser than all men, than 41Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, 42Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations.
32 43He 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 Men 44came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Cross References 44

Footnotes 21

1 Kings 4 Commentaries

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