1So King Solomon was king over all Israel.
2These were the chief men he had: Azariah the son of Zadok the priest,
3Elihoreph and Ahiah, the sons of Shisha, were the scribes. Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder.
4Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army. Zadok and Abiathar were the priests.
5Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers. Zabud the son of Nathan was the chief officer, and the king's friend.
6Ahishar was over the household. Adoniram the son of Abda was over the forced labour.
7Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel. They supplied food for the king and his household. Each man had to provide food for one month in the year.
8These are their names: the son of Hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;
9the son of Dekar, in Makaz, in Shaalbim, in Bethshemesh, and in Elonbethhanan;
10the son of Hesed, in Aruboth; Sochoh and all the land of Hepher belonged to him;
11the son of Abinadab, in all the region of Dor; he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as his wife;
12Baana the son of Ahilud; Taanach and Megiddo belonged to him, and all Bethshean, which is beside Zartanah below Jezreel, from Bethshean to Abelmeholah, as far as the place beyond Jokneam;
13the son of Geber, in Ramothgilead; the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, belonged to him, and also the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bars of bronze;
14Ahinadab the son of Iddo had Mahanaim;
16Baanah the son of Hushai was in Asher and in Aloth;
17Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;
18Shimei the son of Elah, in Benjamin;
19Geber the son of Uri was in the country of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. He was the only officer in that land.
20Judah and Israel were many, as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were glad.
21Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt. They brought gifts and served Solomon all the days of his life.
22Solomon's food for one day was thirty measures of fine flour and sixty measures of meal,
23ten fat oxen, twenty oxen from the pastures, and a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened birds.
24For he ruled over all the region on this side of the River, from Tiphsah to Azzah, over all the kings on this side of the River. And he had peace on every side around him.
25Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
26Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.
27Those officers supplied food for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon's table, each man in his month. They let nothing be lacking.
28They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where the officers were, each man as he was ordered.
29God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and a mind as wide as the sand on the seashore.
30Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the east, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.
31He was wiser than anyone else. He was wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. His fame spread to all the nations around.
32He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five.
33He spoke about trees, from the cedar tree in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He also spoke about animals, and birds, and creeping things, and fish.
34People came from every nation to hear the wisdom of Solomon. They came from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.