1 Kings 4

Good News Translation

Solomon's Officials

4 Solomon was king of all Israel, ² and these were his high officials:

⁷ Solomon appointed twelve men as district governors in Israel. They were to provide food from their districts for the king and his household, each man being responsible for one month out of the year. ⁸ The following are the names of these twelve officers and the districts they were in charge of:

Besides these twelve, there was one governor over the whole land.

Solomon's Prosperous Reign

²⁰ The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore; they ate and drank, and were happy. ^21 (A)Solomon's kingdom included all the nations from the Euphrates River to Philistia and the Egyptian border. They paid him taxes and were subject to him all his life.

²² The supplies Solomon needed each day were 150 bushels of fine flour and 300 bushels of meal; ²³ 10 stall-fed cattle, 20 pasture-fed cattle, and 100 sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and poultry.

²⁴ Solomon ruled over all the land west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah on the Euphrates as far west as the city of Gaza. All the kings west of the Euphrates were subject to him, and he was at peace with all the neighboring countries. ²⁵ As long as he lived, the people throughout Judah and Israel lived in safety, each family with its own grapevines and fig trees.

^26 (B)Solomon had forty thousand stalls for his chariot horses and twelve thousand cavalry horses. ²⁷ His twelve governors, each one in the month assigned to him, supplied the food King Solomon needed for himself and for all who ate in the palace; they always supplied everything needed. ²⁸ Each governor also supplied his share of barley and straw, where it was needed,^[a] for the chariot horses and the work animals.

²⁹ God gave Solomon unusual wisdom and insight, and knowledge too great to be measured. ³⁰ Solomon was wiser than the wise men of the East or the wise men of Egypt. ^31 (C)He was the wisest of all men: wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame spread throughout all the neighboring countries. ^32 (D)He composed three thousand proverbs and more than a thousand songs. ³³ He spoke of trees and plants, from the Lebanon cedars to the hyssop that grows on walls; he talked about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. ³⁴ Kings all over the world heard of his wisdom and sent people to listen to him.