NAS - 1 Kings Chapter 4 to 5

4 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 secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder; 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 friend; ⁶and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

⁷Solomon 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. ⁸These are 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 the height of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife); 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 towns 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 Bealoth; 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 seashore in abundance; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.

²¹Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²²Solomon's provision for one day was thirty kors of fine flour and sixty kors of meal, ²³ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. ²⁴For he had dominion over everything west of the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River; and he had peace on all sides around about him. ²⁵So Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. ²⁶Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. ²⁷Those deputies provided for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon's table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking. ²⁸They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where it should be, each according to his charge.

²⁹Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. ³⁰Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations. ³²He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. ³³He 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. ³⁴Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

5 Alliance with King Hiram

¹Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always been a friend of David. ²Then Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying, ³"You know that David my father was unable to build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the wars which surrounded him, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet. ⁴"But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor misfortune. ⁵"Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spoke to David my father, saying, `Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house for My name.' ⁶"Now therefore, command that they cut for me cedars from Lebanon, and my servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians."

⁷When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, "Blessed be the LORD today, who has given to David a wise son over this great people." ⁸So Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, "I have heard the message which you have sent me; I will do what you desire concerning the cedar and cypress timber. ⁹"My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea; and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place where you direct me, and I will have them broken up there, and you shall carry them away. Then you shall accomplish my desire by giving food to my household." ¹⁰So Hiram gave Solomon as much as he desired of the cedar and cypress timber. ¹¹Solomon then gave Hiram 20,000 kors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty kors of beaten oil; thus Solomon would give Hiram year by year. ¹²The LORD gave wisdom to Solomon, just as He promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a covenant.

Conscription of Laborers

¹³Now King Solomon levied forced laborers from all Israel; and the forced laborers numbered 30,000 men. ¹⁴He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in relays; they were in Lebanon a month and two months at home. And Adoniram was over the forced laborers. ¹⁵Now Solomon had 70,000 transporters, and 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains, ¹⁶besides Solomon's 3,300 chief deputies who were over the project and who ruled over the people who were doing the work. ¹⁷Then the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones. ¹⁸So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites cut them, and prepared the timbers and the stones to build the house.