Solomon’s Administrative Officers

4 King Solomon was king over all Israel, ² and these were his high officials: Azari′ah the son of Zadok was the priest; ³ Elihor′eph and Ahi′jah the sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehosh′aphat the son of Ahi′lud was recorder; ⁴ Benai′ah the son of Jehoi′ada was in command of the army; Zadok and Abi′athar were priests; ⁵ Azari′ah the son of Nathan was over the officers; Zabud the son of Nathan was priest and king’s friend; ⁶ Ahi′shar was in charge of the palace; and Adoni′ram the son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.

⁷ Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household; each man had to make provision for one month in the year. ⁸ These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of E′phraim; ⁹ Ben-deker, in Makaz, Sha-al′bim, Beth-she′mesh, and E′lon-beth-ha′nan; ¹⁰ Ben-hesed, in Arub′both (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher); ¹¹ Ben-abin′adab, in all Naphath-dor (he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as his wife); ¹² Ba′ana the son of Ahi′lud, in Ta′anach, Megid′do, and all Beth-she′an which is beside Zarethan below Jezre′el, and from Beth-she′an to A′bel-meho′lah, as far as the other side of Jok′meam; ¹³ Ben-geber, in Ra′moth-gil′ead (he had the villages of Ja′ir the son of Manas′seh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars); ¹⁴ Ahin′adab the son of Iddo, in Mahana′im; ¹⁵ Ahim′a-az, in Naph′tali (he had taken Bas′emath the daughter of Solomon as his wife); ¹⁶ Ba′ana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; ¹⁷ Jehosh′aphat the son of Paru′ah, in Is′sachar; ¹⁸ Shim′e-i the son of Ela, in Benjamin; ¹⁹ Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. And there was one officer in the land of Judah.

Magnificence of Solomon’s Rule

²⁰ Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea; they ate and drank and were happy. ^21 [a] Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphra′tes to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²² Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour, and sixty cors of meal, ²³ ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides harts, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl. ²⁴ For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphra′tes from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphra′tes; and he had peace on all sides round about him. ²⁵ And Judah and Israel dwelt in safety, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon. ²⁶ Solomon also had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. ²⁷ And those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month; they let nothing be lacking. ²⁸ Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his charge.

Fame of Solomon’s Wisdom

²⁹ And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and largeness of mind like the sand on the seashore, ³⁰ so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ez′rahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations round about. ³² He also uttered three thousand proverbs;^[b] and his songs were a thousand and five. ³³ He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. ³⁴ And men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

Dedication of the Temple

6 Then Solomon said,

³ Then the king faced about, and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. ⁴ And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David my father, saying, ⁵ ‘Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city in all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there, and I chose no man as prince over my people Israel; ⁶ but I have chosen Jerusalem that my name may be there and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’ ⁷ Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ⁸ But the Lord said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart; ⁹ nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’ ¹⁰ Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise which he made; for I have risen in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹¹ And there I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord which he made with the people of Israel.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

¹² Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands. ¹³ Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the court; and he stood upon it. Then he knelt upon his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven; ¹⁴ and said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to thy servants who walk before thee with all their heart; ¹⁵ who hast kept with thy servant David my father what thou didst declare to him; yea, thou didst speak with thy mouth, and with thy hand hast fulfilled it this day. ¹⁶ Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father what thou hast promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a man before me to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’ ¹⁷ Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, let thy word be confirmed, which thou hast spoken to thy servant David.

¹⁸ “But will God dwell indeed with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! ¹⁹ Yet have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, hearkening to the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prays before thee; ²⁰ that thy eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where thou hast promised to set thy name, that thou mayest hearken to the prayer which thy servant offers toward this place. ²¹ And hearken thou to the supplications of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they pray toward this place; yea, hear thou from heaven^[a] thy dwelling place; and when thou hearest, forgive.

²² “If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and comes and swears his oath before thy altar in this house, ²³ then hear thou from heaven, and act, and judge thy servants, requiting the guilty by bringing his conduct upon his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

²⁴ “If thy people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against thee, when they turn again and acknowledge thy name, and pray and make supplication to thee in this house, ²⁵ then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again to the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers.

²⁶ “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee, if they pray toward this place, and acknowledge thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them, ²⁷ then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, thy people Israel, when thou dost teach them the good way^[b] in which they should walk; and grant rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people as an inheritance.

²⁸ “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in any of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is; ²⁹ whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by any man or by all thy people Israel, each knowing his own affliction, and his own sorrow and stretching out his hands toward this house; ³⁰ then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each whose heart thou knowest, according to all his ways (for thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of the children of men); ³¹ that they may fear thee and walk in thy ways all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest to our fathers.

³² “Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of thy people Israel, comes from a far country for the sake of thy great name, and thy mighty hand, and thy outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this house, ³³ hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to thee; in order that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name and fear thee, as do thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.

³⁴ “If thy people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way thou shalt send them, and they pray to thee toward this city which thou hast chosen and the house which I have built for thy name, ³⁵ then hear thou from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

³⁶ “If they sin against thee—for there is no man who does not sin—and thou art angry with them, and dost give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near; ³⁷ yet if they lay it to heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to thee in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have acted perversely and wickedly’; ³⁸ if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their captivity, to which they were carried captive, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest to their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name, ³⁹ then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause and forgive thy people who have sinned against thee. ⁴⁰ Now, O my God, let thy eyes be open and thy ears attentive to a prayer of this place.

Thanksgiving for Earth’s Bounty

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.