Solomon’s Great Wealth

¹⁴ The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, ¹⁵ besides that from the ^(A)traveling merchants, from the income of traders, ^(B)from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country.

¹⁶ And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. ¹⁷ He also made ^(C)three hundred shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the ^(D)House of the Forest of Lebanon.

^18 (E)Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold. ¹⁹ The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round at the back; there were armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests. ²⁰ Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.

^21 (F)All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. ²² For the king had ^(G)merchant^[a] ships at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant ^(H)ships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and ^[b]monkeys. ²³ So ^(I)King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

²⁴ Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. ²⁵ Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year.

^26 (J)And Solomon ^(K)gathered chariots and horsemen; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he ^[c]stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. ^27 (L)The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland.

^28 (M)Also Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Keveh; the king’s merchants bought them in Keveh at the current price. ²⁹ Now a chariot that was imported from Egypt cost six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse one hundred and fifty; ^(N)and ^[d]thus, through their agents, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.