Solomon’s Officials
1Now King Solomon was king over all Israel.
2These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest;
3Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the secretary;
4and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
5and Azariah the son of Nathan was over 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 hill country of Ephraim;
9Ben-deker in Makaz and Shaalbim, and Beth-shemesh, and Elonbeth-hanan;
10Ben-hesed in Arubboth (Socoh was his and all the land of Hepher);
11Ben-abinadab in all
12Baana the son of Ahilud in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah as far as the other side of Jokmeam;
13Ben-geber in Ramoth-gilead (the villages of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead were his: the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars were his);
14Ahinadab the son of Iddo in Mahanaim;
15Ahimaaz in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon);
16Baana the son of Hushai in Asher and
17Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah in Issachar;
18Shimei the son of Ela in Benjamin;
19Geber the son of Uri in the land of Gilead, 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
20Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the
21
22Solomon’s
23ten fat oxen, twenty
24For he was ruling over everything
25So Judah and Israel lived securely, everyone under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
26Solomon had
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 baggage horses to the place where it was required, each deputy according to his duty.
29Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of
30Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the
31For he was wiser than all other people, more than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol, and
32He 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 came from all the