King Solomon’s Administration
4 So King Solomon ruled over all Israel. 2 These were his officials:
Azariah son[a] of Zadok was the priest.
3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were the secretaries.
Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the record keeper.[b]
4 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the army.
Zadok and Abiathar were priests.
5 Azariah son of Nathan was supervisor over the governors.
Zabud son of Nathan, a priest, was the king’s personal advisor.[c]
6 Ahishar was the palace administrator,
and Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of forced labor.
7 Solomon had twelve governors, who were over all Israel. They supplied provisions for the king and for his palace. Each of them was assigned one month of the year during which he was responsible for supplying provisions. 8 These were their names:
Ben Hur[d] in the hill country of Ephraim,
9 Ben Deker in Makaz and in Sha’albim, Beth Shemesh, and
Elon Beth Hanan,
10 Ben Hesed in Arubboth (Sokoh and all the land of Hepher were his),
11 Ben Abinadad in all the heights of Dor[e] (Taphath daughter of
Solomon was his wife),
12 Ba’ana son of Ahilud in Ta’anach and Megiddo, and in all Beth
Shan, which is beside Zarethan, below Jezre’el, from Beth Shan to
Abel Meholah, up to the other side of Jokmeam,
13 Ben Geber in Ramoth Gilead (the villages of Jair son of Manasseh
in Gilead belonged to him, and the region of Argob in Bashan
belonged to him, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars),
14 Ahinadab son of Iddo in Mahanaim,
15 Ahima’az in Naphtali (he was married to Solomon’s
daughter Basemath),
16 Ba’ana son of Hushai in Asher and in Be’aloth,
17 Jehoshaphat son of Paruah in Issachar,
18 Shimei son of Ela in Benjamin,
19 Geber son of Uri in the land of Gilead (this included the land of both
Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan, but there was
only one governor for that land).
The Glory of Solomon’s Rule
20 Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea. They were eating, drinking, and rejoicing. 21 Solomon was ruling all the kingdoms from the River[f] to the land of the Philistines, up to the border of Egypt. They sent tribute and workers to Solomon all the days of his life.[g] 22 Solomon’s provisions for one day were one hundred eighty bushels[h] of fine flour and three hundred sixty bushels[i] of plain flour, 23 ten stall-fed cattle, twenty pasture-fed cattle, and one hundred sheep, not to mention deer, gazelle, roebucks, and fattened poultry.
24 Since Solomon was ruling over everything west of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kingdoms west of the River, he had peace on all sides. 25 Judah and Israel lived in safety, with every man sitting under his own vine and fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, throughout Solomon’s days. 26 Solomon had four thousand[j] teams[k] of horses for his chariots and twelve thousand charioteers.
27 His governors supplied provisions for King Solomon and for all those who gathered at King Solomon’s table. Each governor was responsible for one month, so the court lacked nothing. 28 They brought the barley and straw for the horses and steeds[l] to the location assigned to each one of them.
29 God gave Solomon wisdom and very great understanding and breadth of knowledge[m] like the sand on the seashore. 30 Solomon’s wisdom was greater than all the wisdom of the men of the East and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than any man, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, wiser than Heman, Kalkol, or Darda, the sons of Mahol. His name was known in all the surrounding nations. 32 He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered one thousand and five. 33 He spoke about trees, from the cedars of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He also spoke about animals, birds, reptiles and other crawling things, and fish. 34 From all the peoples and from all the kings of the earth who heard about Solomon’s wisdom, people came to listen to his wisdom.
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 4:2 Or grandson. See 1 Chronicles 6:8-9.
- 1 Kings 4:3 The record keeper served as a spokesman and chief of protocol. Like the secretary, he was a cabinet-level official.
- 1 Kings 4:5 Literally the friend of the king
- 1 Kings 4:8 Names beginning with ben (son of) are usually not personal names, but patronymics (family names like the English Johnson). The presence of so many names beginning with ben in this list is unusual and has led some commentators to conclude that some personal names are missing.
- 1 Kings 4:11 Or Naphoth Dor
- 1 Kings 4:21 That is, the Euphrates
- 1 Kings 4:21 The chapter division is different in the Hebrew text. English 4:21-34 equals Hebrew 5:1-14. English 5:1-18 equals Hebrew 5:15-32.
- 1 Kings 4:22 Literally thirty cors. The sizes of the cor and other ancient measures of volume are uncertain. Thirty cors may be about five tons.
- 1 Kings 4:22 Literally sixty cors
- 1 Kings 4:26 Four thousand is the reading of some manuscripts of the Greek Old Testament and the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 9:25. The Hebrew text reads forty thousand. Four thousand chariots correlates well with twelve thousand charioteers, at three riders per chariot.
- 1 Kings 4:26 Or stalls
- 1 Kings 4:28 The text has the common word for horses followed by a second name for another type of horse. The precise meaning of the second term is uncertain.
- 1 Kings 4:29 Literally breadth of heart