4:1 Now King Solomon became king over all Israel. |
4:2 These we identify as his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok served as the priest; |
4:3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha served as secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud served as the recorder; |
4:4 and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada ruled over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar served as the priests; |
4:5 and Azariah the son of Nathan presided over the deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, became the king's friend; |
4:6 and Ahishar presided over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda presided over the men subject to forced labor. |
4:7 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. |
4:8 These we identify as their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; |
4:9 Ben-deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan; |
4:10 Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (Socoh became his and all the land of Hepher); |
4:11 Ben-abinadab, in all the height of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon became his wife); |
4:12 Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which stands beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah as far as the other side of Jokmeam; |
4:13 Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which lie in Gilead belonged to him: the region of Argob, which lies in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars belonged to him); |
4:14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; |
4:15 Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon); |
4:16 Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; |
4:17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar; |
4:18 Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin; |
4:19 Geber 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 served as the only deputy who lived in the land. |
4:20 Judah and Israel grew as numerous as the sand that lies on the seashore in abundance; they ate and drank and rejoiced. |
4:21 Now 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. |
4:22 Solomon's provision for one day consisted of thirty kors of fine flour and sixty kors of meal, |
4:23 ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. |
4:24 For 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. |
4:25 So 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. |
4:26 Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. |
4:27 Those deputies provided for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon's table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking. |
4:28 They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where it should go, each according to his charge. |
4:29 Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that lie on the seashore. |
4:30 Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. |
4:31 For he grew wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame spread through all the surrounding nations. |
4:32 He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs numbered 1,005. |
4:33 He spoke of trees, from the cedars that lie in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. |
4:34 Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. |