I Kings 4 · The Lantern

Solomon’s Princes

And King Solomon was king over all Israel.

And these were the officials he had: Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest;

Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder;

and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar, priests;

and Azariah the son of Nathan over the deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, the king’s friend;

and Ahishar over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda over the forced labor.

Solomon’s Twelve Officers

And Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, and they provided for the king and his household; one month in the year it fell to each one to provide.

And these are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;

Ben-deker, in Makaz and in Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elon-beth-hanan;

Ben-hesed, in Arubboth — to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher;

Ben-abinadab, all the heights of Dor — Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, became his wife;

Baana the son of Ahilud: Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam;

Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead — to him belonged the villages of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; to him the region of Argob, which is in Bashan: sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars;

Ahinadab the son of Iddo, at Mahanaim;

Ahimaaz, in Naphtali — he also took Basemath, Solomon’s daughter, as a wife;

Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;

Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead — the land of Sihon, king of the Amorite, and of Og, king of Bashan; and there was one deputy who was in the land.

Solomon’s Prosperity

Judah and Israel were many, like the sand that is by the sea in multitude — eating and drinking and rejoicing.

And Solomon was ruling over all the kingdoms from the River, the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt — bringing tribute and serving Solomon all the days of his life.

And Solomon’s bread for one day was thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of flour,

ten fattened oxen and twenty pasture oxen and a hundred sheep — besides deer, and gazelle, and roebuck, and fattened fowl.

For he held sway over all the region beyond the River, from Tiphsah as far as Gaza, over all the kings beyond the River; and he had peace on all his sides, all around.

And Judah and Israel lived in security, each man under his own vine and under his own fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

And those deputies provided for King Solomon, and for all who came near to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they let nothing be lacking.

And the barley and the straw for the horses and for the swift steeds they would bring to the place where it was needed, each according to his charge.

Solomon’s Wisdom

And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great understanding, and breadth of heart like the sand that is on the shore of the sea.

And Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the sons of the east, and than all the wisdom of Egypt.

And he was wiser than all mankind — than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his name was among all the nations round about.

And he spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five.

And he spoke of the trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that comes out of the wall; and he spoke of the beasts, and of the birds, and of the creeping things, and of the fish.