1 Kings 4

New American Standard Bible

Solomon’s Officials

4 Now King Solomon was king over all Israel. ²These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was ^(A)the priest; ³Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were scribes; ^(B)Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the secretary; ⁴and ^(C)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and ^(D)Abiathar were priests; ⁵and Azariah the son of Nathan was over ^(E)the deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king’s confidant; ⁶and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the forced labor.

⁷Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household; each deputy had to provide food for a month in the year. ⁸And these were their names: Ben-hur, in the ^(F)hill country of Ephraim; ⁹Ben-deker in Makaz and ^(G)Shaalbim, and ^(H)Beth-shemesh, and Elonbeth-hanan; ¹⁰Ben-hesed in Arubboth (^(I)Socoh was his and all the land of ^(J)Hepher); ¹¹Ben-abinadab in all ^[a]the ^(K)hills of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife); ¹²Baana the son of Ahilud in ^(L)Taanach and Megiddo, and all ^(M)Beth-shean which is beside ^(N)Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to ^(O)Abel-meholah as far as the other side of ^(P)Jokmeam; ¹³Ben-geber in ^(Q)Ramoth-gilead (^(R)the villages of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead were his: ^(S)the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars were his); ¹⁴Ahinadab the son of Iddo in ^(T)Mahanaim; ¹⁵^(U)Ahimaaz in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon); ¹⁶Baana the son of ^(V)Hushai in Asher and ^[b]Bealoth; ¹⁷Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah in Issachar; ¹⁸^(W)Shimei the son of Ela in Benjamin; ¹⁹Geber the son of Uri in the land of Gilead, ^(X)the 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^(Y)Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the ^[c]seashore in abundance; they were eating, drinking, and rejoicing.

²¹^[d]^(Z)Now Solomon was ruling over all the kingdoms ^(AA)from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; ^(AB)they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²²Solomon’s ^[e]provision for one day was ^[f]thirty kors of fine flour and ^[g]sixty kors of meal, ²³ten fat oxen, twenty ^[h]pasture-fed oxen, and a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened geese. ²⁴For he was ruling over everything ^[i]west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah even to ^(AC)Gaza, ^(AD)over all the kings ^[j]west of the River; and ^(AE)he had peace on all sides surrounding him. ²⁵^(AF)So Judah and Israel lived securely, everyone under his vine and his fig tree, ^(AG)from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. ²⁶^(AH)Solomon had ^[k]forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. ²⁷And those deputies provided food for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they allowed nothing to be lacking. ²⁸They also brought barley and straw for the war horses and ^(AI)baggage horses to the place where it was required, each deputy according to his duty.

²⁹Now ^(AJ)God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of ^[l]mind, ^(AK)like the sand that is on the seashore. ³⁰Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ^(AL)the ^[m]people of the east and ^(AM)all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹For ^(AN)he was wiser than all other people, more than ^(AO)Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, ^(AP)Calcol, and ^[n]Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his ^[o]fame was known in all the surrounding nations. ³²^(AQ)He also told three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered 1,005. ³³He told of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he told also of animals, birds, crawling things, and fish. ³⁴People ^(AR)came from all the ^[p]nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.