Solomon & The Temple

Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. By no means should you kill him; she is his mother.”

When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

So King Solomon ruled over Israel,

and these were his chief officials: Azariah son of Zadok was the priest;

Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder;

Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in charge of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

Azariah son of Nathan was in charge of the governors; Zabud son of Nathan was a priest and adviser to the king;

Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.

Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel to provide food for the king and his household. Each one would arrange provisions for one month of the year,

and these were their names: Ben-hur in the hill country of Ephraim;

Ben-deker in Makaz, in Shaalbim, in Beth-shemesh, and in Elon-beth-hanan;

Ben-hesed in Arubboth (Socoh and all the land of Hepher belonged to him);

Ben-abinadab in Naphath-dor (Taphath, a daughter of Solomon, was his wife);

Baana son of Ahilud in Taanach, in Megiddo, and in all of Beth-shean next to Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and on past Jokmeam;

Ben-geber in Ramoth-gilead (the villages of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead belonged to him, as well as the region of Argob in Bashan with its sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);

Ahinadab son of Iddo in Mahanaim;

Ahimaaz in Naphtali (he had married Basemath, a daughter of Solomon);

Baana son of Hushai in Asher and in Aloth;

Jehoshaphat son of Paruah in Issachar;

Shimei son of Ela in Benjamin;

Geber son of Uri in the land of Gilead, including the territories of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. There was also one governor in the land of Judah.

The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.

And Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

Solomon’s provisions for a single day were thirty cors of fine flour, sixty cors of meal,

ten fat oxen, twenty range oxen, and a hundred sheep, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened poultry.