2 Chronicles 9:13-28

Common English Bible

Solomon’s wealth

¹³ Solomon received an annual income of six hundred sixty-six kikkars of gold, ¹⁴ not including income from the traders and merchants. All the Arabian kings and the governors of the land also brought Solomon gold and silver. ¹⁵ King Solomon made two hundred body-sized shields of hammered gold, using fifteen pounds^[a] of hammered gold in each shield; ¹⁶ and three hundred small shields of hammered gold, using seven and a half pounds^[b] of hammered gold in each shield. The king placed these in the Forest of Lebanon Palace.

¹⁷ The king also made a large ivory throne and covered it with pure gold. ¹⁸ Six steps led up to the throne, which had a gold footrest attached. Two lions stood beside the armrests on both sides of the throne. ¹⁹ Another twelve lions stood on both sides of the six steps. No other kingdom had anything like this.

²⁰ All King Solomon’s drinking cups were made of gold, and all the items in the Forest of Lebanon Palace were made of pure gold, not silver, since even silver wasn’t considered good enough in Solomon’s time! ²¹ The royal fleet sailed to Tarshish with the servants of Huram, returning once every three years with gold, silver, ivory, monkeys, and peacocks.^[c]

²² King Solomon far exceeded all the earth’s kings in wealth and wisdom, ²³ and kings of every nation wanted an audience with Solomon in order to hear his God-given wisdom. ²⁴ Year after year they came with tribute: objects of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

²⁵ Solomon also had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, together with twelve thousand horsemen that he kept in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁶ He ruled all the kings from the Euphrates^[d] to the Philistines’ land and the border of Egypt. ²⁷ In Jerusalem, the king made silver as common as stones and cedar as common as sycamore trees that grow in the foothills. ²⁸ Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and every land.