1Ki 4 | NASB2020 | STEP | Now King Solomon was king over all Israel .

1 Kings 4

Solomon’s Officials

1 Now King Solomon was king over all Israel. 2 These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was ^athe priest; 3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were scribes; ^bJehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the secretary; 4 and ^cBenaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and ^dAbiathar were priests; 5 and Azariah the son of Nathan was over ^ethe deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king’s confidant; 6 and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the forced labor.

7 Solomon 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. 8 And these were their names: Ben-hur, in the ^fhill country of Ephraim; 9 Ben-deker in Makaz and ^gShaalbim, and ^hBeth-shemesh, and Elonbeth-hanan; 10 Ben-hesed in Arubboth ( ⁱSocoh was his and all the land of ^jHepher); 11 Ben-abinadab in all ^{▼▼Or Naphoth-dor}the ^lhills of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife); 12 Baana the son of Ahilud in ^mTaanach and Megiddo, and all ⁿBeth-shean which is beside ^oZarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to ^pAbel-meholah as far as the other side of ^qJokmeam; 13 Ben-geber in ^rRamoth-gilead ( ^sthe villages of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead were his: ^tthe region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars were his); 14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo in ^uMahanaim; 15 ^vAhimaaz in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon); 16 Baana the son of ^wHushai in Asher and ^{▼▼Or in Aloth}Bealoth; 17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah in Issachar; 18 ^yShimei the son of Ela in Benjamin; 19 Geber the son of Uri in the land of Gilead, ^zthe 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

20 ^aaJudah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the ^{▼▼Lit sea}seashore in abundance; they were eating, drinking, and rejoicing.

21 ^{▼▼Ch 5:1 in Heb
,} ^adNow Solomon was ruling over all the kingdoms ^aefrom the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; ^afthey brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

22 Solomon’s ^{▼▼Lit bread}provision for one day was ^{▼▼About 231 cubic feet or 6.5 cubic meters}thirty kors of fine flour and ^{▼▼About 462 cubic feet or 13 cubic meters}sixty kors of meal, 23 ten fat oxen, twenty ^{▼▼Lit oxen of the pasture}pasture-fed oxen, and a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened geese. 24 For he was ruling over everything ^{▼▼Lit beyond}west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah even to ^alGaza, ^amover all the kings ^{▼▼Lit beyond}west of the River; and ^aohe had peace on all sides surrounding him. 25 ^apSo Judah and Israel lived securely, everyone under his vine and his fig tree, ^aqfrom Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. 26 ^arSolomon had ^{▼▼One LXX ms reads 4,000, cf. 2 Chr 9:25}forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. 27 And 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. 28 They also brought barley and straw for the war horses and ^atbaggage horses to the place where it was required, each deputy according to his duty.

29 Now ^auGod gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of ^{▼▼Lit heart}mind, ^awlike the sand that is on the seashore. 30 Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ^axthe ^{▼▼Lit sons}people of the east and ^azall the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For ^bahe was wiser than all other people, more than ^bbEthan the Ezrahite, Heman, ^bcCalcol, and ^{▼▼In 1 Chr 2:6, Dara}Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his ^{▼▼Lit name}fame was known in all the surrounding nations. 32 ^bfHe also told three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered 1,005. 33 He 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. 34 People ^bgcame from all the ^{▼▼Lit peoples}nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.