1 King 4
4
1 Kings 4
Solomon’s Administrative Officers
1King Solomon was king over all Israel, 2and these were his high officials: Azariah son of Zadok was the priest; 3Elihoreph and Ahijah sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; 4Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in command of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; 5#v 7Azariah son of Nathan was over the officials; Zabud son of Nathan was priest and king’s friend; 6Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.
7Solomon had twelve officials over all Israel who provided food for the king and his household; each one had to make provision for one month in the year. 8#Josh 24.33These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; 9#Josh 21.16Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan; 10#Josh 12.17; 15.35Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher); 11#Josh 11.1, 2Ben-abinadab, in all Naphath-dor (he had Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, as his wife); 12#Josh 3.16; 17.11; 1 Kings 19.16; 1 Chr 6.68Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, and from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the other side of Jokmeam; 13#Num 32.41; Deut 3.4Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the villages of Jair son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars); 14#Josh 13.26Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; 15#2 Sam 15.27Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath, Solomon’s daughter, as his wife); 16#2 Sam 15.32Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; 17Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar; 18#1 Kings 1.8Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin; 19#Deut 3.8–10Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of King Sihon of the Amorites and of King Og of Bashan. And there was one garrison in the land.
Magnificence of Solomon’s Rule
[[ 20#Gen 32.12; 1 Kings 3.8Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea; they ate and drank and were happy. 21#Gen 15.18; 2 Chr 9.26; Ps 68.29; 72.10, 11#4.21 5.1 in HebSolomon was sovereign over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, even to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.#4.20–21 Gk lacks 4.20–21]]
22Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of choice flour and sixty cors of meal, 23ten fat oxen and twenty pasture-fed cattle, one hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl. 24#1 Chr 22.9; Ps 72.11For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates,#4.24 Gk: Heb adds from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates and he had peace on all sides. 25#Judg 20.1; Jer 23.6; Mic 4.4; Zech 3.10During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all of them under their vines and fig trees. 26#1 Kings 10.26; 2 Chr 1.14Solomon also had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. 27#v 7Those officials supplied provisions for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month; they let nothing be lacking. 28They also brought to the required place barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds, each according to his charge.
Fame of Solomon’s Wisdom
29 #
1 Kings 3.12
God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore, 30#Gen 25.6; Acts 7.22so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31#1 Kings 3.12; 1 Chr 2.6; 6.33; 15.19He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, children of Mahol; his fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations. 32#Prov 1.1; Eccl 12.9; Song 1.1He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five. 33He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish. 34#1 Kings 10.1; 2 Chr 9.23People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
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1 King 4: NRSVUE
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New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
