¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you.^{(A) 15} I do not call you servants^[a] any longer, because the servant^[b] does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

Alliance with Egypt Is Futile

Solomon’s Military and Commercial Activity

¹⁴ Solomon gathered together chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.^{(A) 15} The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamores of the Shephelah.^{(B) 16} Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue; the king’s traders received them from Kue at the prevailing price.^{(C) 17} They imported from Egypt (and then exported) a chariot for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for one hundred fifty, so through them these were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

²⁸ Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price.^(A)