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1 Kings 4:1-34 — Solomon's Officials and Wisdom

1Kgs.4.1-34

¹Now King Solomon was king over all Israel. ²These were his officials: Azariah son of Zadok, the priest; ³Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud, the recorder; ⁴Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; ⁵Azariah son of Nathan was over the governors; and Zabud son of Nathan was a priest and the king's adviser; ⁶Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram son of Abda was over the forced labor. ⁷Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel, and they provided for the king and his household; each one had to provide for one month in the year. ⁸These were their names: Ben-Hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; ⁹Ben-Deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan; ¹⁰Ben-Hesed, in Arubboth; he had Socoh and all the land of Hepher; ¹¹Ben-Abinadab, in all the heights of Dor; Taphath, Solomon's daughter, was his wife; ¹²Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam; ¹³Ben-Geber, in Ramoth-gilead; he had the villages of Jair son of Manasseh that are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars; ¹⁴Ahinadab son of Iddo, at Mahanaim; ¹⁵Ahimaaz, in Naphtali; he also took Basemath, Solomon's daughter, as his wife; ¹⁶Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Aloth; ¹⁷Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar; ¹⁸Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin; ¹⁹Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and there was one governor in the land. ²⁰Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing. ²¹Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. ²²Solomon's provisions for one day were thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal, ²³ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, and a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. ²⁴For he had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates; and he had peace on every side around him. ²⁵And Judah and Israel lived in safety, each 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 governors provided 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 the barley and straw for the horses and the swift steeds to the proper place, each according to his duty. ²⁹And God gave Solomon wisdom, very great understanding, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore. ³⁰Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹He was wiser than every man, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. ³²He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. ³³He spoke about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he also spoke about beasts, birds, creeping things, and fish. ³⁴People came from every nation to hear the wisdom of Solomon, sent by all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

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4/11/2026

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