1 Kings 4:1-19
Evangelical Heritage Version
King Solomon’s Administration
4 So King Solomon ruled over all Israel. 2 These were his officials:
Azariah son[a] of Zadok was the priest.
3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were the secretaries.
Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the record keeper.[b]
4 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the army.
Zadok and Abiathar were priests.
5 Azariah son of Nathan was supervisor over the governors.
Zabud son of Nathan, a priest, was the king’s personal advisor.[c]
6 Ahishar was the palace administrator,
and Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of forced labor.
7 Solomon had twelve governors, who were over all Israel. They supplied provisions for the king and for his palace. Each of them was assigned one month of the year during which he was responsible for supplying provisions. 8 These were their names:
Ben Hur[d] in the hill country of Ephraim,
9 Ben Deker in Makaz and in Sha’albim, Beth Shemesh, and
Elon Beth Hanan,
10 Ben Hesed in Arubboth (Sokoh and all the land of Hepher were his),
11 Ben Abinadad in all the heights of Dor[e] (Taphath daughter of
Solomon was his wife),
12 Ba’ana son of Ahilud in Ta’anach and Megiddo, and in all Beth
Shan, which is beside Zarethan, below Jezre’el, from Beth Shan to
Abel Meholah, up to the other side of Jokmeam,
13 Ben Geber in Ramoth Gilead (the villages of Jair son of Manasseh
in Gilead belonged to him, and the region of Argob in Bashan
belonged to him, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars),
14 Ahinadab son of Iddo in Mahanaim,
15 Ahima’az in Naphtali (he was married to Solomon’s
daughter Basemath),
16 Ba’ana son of Hushai in Asher and in Be’aloth,
17 Jehoshaphat son of Paruah in Issachar,
18 Shimei son of Ela in Benjamin,
19 Geber son of Uri in the land of Gilead (this included the land of both
Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan, but there was
only one governor for that land).
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 4:2 Or grandson. See 1 Chronicles 6:8-9.
- 1 Kings 4:3 The record keeper served as a spokesman and chief of protocol. Like the secretary, he was a cabinet-level official.
- 1 Kings 4:5 Literally the friend of the king
- 1 Kings 4:8 Names beginning with ben (son of) are usually not personal names, but patronymics (family names like the English Johnson). The presence of so many names beginning with ben in this list is unusual and has led some commentators to conclude that some personal names are missing.
- 1 Kings 4:11 Or Naphoth Dor
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.