1 Kings

4 And King Solomon was king over all Israel. 2 And these are the ministers he had: ʽAzariah the son of Priest Sadok, 3 Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shausha, secretaries for documents; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the private secretary; 4 and Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ, over the army; and Sadok and Abiathar, priests; 5 and ʽAzariah the son of Nathan, over the commissioners; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, the king’s friend; 6 and Ahishar, steward of the palace; and Adoniram the son of ʽAbda, superintendent of the corvée.

7 And Solomon had twelve commissioners over all Israel, and they provisioned the king and his household, each being responsible for the provisioning for a month in the year. 8 And these are their names: the son of Hur in the highland of Ephraim; 9 the son of Deker in Makas and Shaʽalbim and Beth-Shemesh and Elon, to Beth-Hanan; 10 the son of Hesed in Ha-arubboth—he had Socoh and all the country of Hepher; 11 the son of Abinadab, all Naphath-Dor—Solomon’s daughter Taphath became his wife; 12 Baʽana the son of Ahilud, Taʽanac and Megiddo and all Beth-Shean, alongside Sarethan, below Jezreʽel, from Beth-Shean to Abel-Meholah, to beyond Jokmeam; 13* the son of Geber at Ramoth-Gilead—he had the Havvoth of Jair the son of Manasseh, in Gilead; he had the Pale of Argob in the Bashan, sixty large cities with walls and bronze bars; 14 Ahinadab the son of ʽIddo at Mahanaim; 15 Ahimaʽas in Naphtali—he too received Solomon’s daughter Basemath as wife; 16* Baʽana the son of Hushai in Asher and Baʽaloth; 17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah in Issacar; 18 Shimei the son of Ela in Benjamin; 19** Geber the son of Uri in the country of Gilead, the country of King Sihon of the Amorites and King ʽOg of the Bashan; and one chief over all the commissioners in the country. 20 Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand by the sea, eating and drinking and rejoicing. 21 And Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the River to the country of the Philistines and to the boundary of Egypt, who presented tribute and were subject to Solomon all his life.

22* And Solomon’s provisions for one day were ten thousand quarts of farina and twenty thousand quarts of meal, 23 ten fat cattle and twenty range cattle and a hundred sheep, besides deer and gazelle and antelope and coop-fed waterfowl; 24 for he bore empire over everything across the River, from Tiphsah to Ghaza, and over all the kings across the River; and he had peace on all sides round about. 25* And Judah and Israel lived unafraid, each under his grapevine and his fig-tree, from Dan to Beer-Shebaʽ, throughout Solomon’s time; and throughout Solomon’s time nobody was hostile.

26 And Solomon had forty thousand teams of ponies for his chariots, and twelve thousand cavalry horses. 27 And these commissioners provisioned King Solomon and all who were in relations with King Solomon’s table, a month each; they let nothing be lacking. 28 And the barley and straw for the ponies and the blood-horses they brought to the place where it was to be, each as his duty was.

29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great intelligence, and a reach of brain like the sand on the seashore; 30 and Solomon’s wisdom exceeded that of the Eastern Beduins and all that of the Egyptians: 31 he was the wisest of all men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite or Heman and Calcol and Dardaʽ the sons of Mahol; and he was talked of among all the nations round about. 32* And he spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. 33* And he spoke of trees and shrubs, from the cedar in the Lebanon to the marjoram that comes out on the wall; and he spoke of animals, those that walk and those that fly and those that crawl and those that swim. 34 And out of all the peoples they came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, from all the kings on earth, who had heard of his wisdom.