46The king gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada and he went out and struck Shimeih down; and so he died.
Thus the kingdom was secured in Solomon’s hands.
3 Solomon allied himself by marriage with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He married Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the City of David [to live there] until he had finished building his palace, and the House of the LORD, and the walls around Jerusalem.
2The people, however, continued to offer sacrifices at the open shrines, because up to that time no house had been built for the name of the LORD. 3And Solomon, though he loved the LORD and followed the practices of his father David, also sacrificed and offered at the shrines.
4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the largest shrine; on that altar Solomon presented a thousand burnt offerings. 5At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask, what shall I grant you?” 6Solomon said, “You dealt most graciously with Your servant my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness and righteousness and in integrity of heart. You have continued this great kindness to him by giving him a son to occupy his throne, as is now the case. 7And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David; but I am a young lad, a-with no experience in leadership.-a 8Your servant finds himself in the midst of the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to be numbered or counted. 9Grant, then, Your servant an understanding mind to judge Your people, to distinguish between good and bad; for who can judge this vast people of Yours?”
10The LORD was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11And God said to him, “Because you asked for this—you did not ask for long life, you did not ask for riches, you did not ask for the life of your enemies, but you asked for discernment in dispensing justice—12I now do as you have spoken. I grant you a wise and discerning mind; there has never been anyone like you before, nor will anyone like you arise again. 13And I also grant you what you did not ask for—both riches and glory all your life—the like of which no king has ever had. 14And I will further grant you long life, if you will walk in My ways and observe My laws and commandments, as did your father David.”
15Then Solomon awoke: it was a dream! He went to Jerusalem, stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented offerings of well-being; and he made a banquet for all his courtiers.
16Later two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17The first woman said, “Please, my lord! This woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. 18On the third day after I was delivered, this woman also gave birth to a child. We were alone; there was no one else with us in the house, just the two of us in the house. 19During the night this woman’s child died, because she lay on it. 20She arose in the night and took my son from my side while your maidservant was asleep, and laid him in her bosom; and she laid her dead son in my bosom. 21When I arose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, it was not the son I had borne.”
22The other woman spoke up, “No, the live one is my son, and the dead one is yours!” But the first insisted, “No, the dead boy is yours; mine is the live one!” And they went on arguing before the king.
23The king said, “One says, ‘This is my son, the live one, and the dead one is yours’; and the other says, ‘No, the dead boy is yours, mine is the live one.’ 24So the king gave the order, “Fetch me a sword.” A sword was brought before the king, 25and the king said, “Cut the live child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.”
26But the woman whose son was the live one pleaded with the king, for she was overcome with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she cried, “give her the live child; only don’t kill it!” The other insisted, “It shall be neither yours nor mine; cut it in two!” 27Then the king spoke up. “Give the live child to her,” he said, “and do not put it to death; she is its mother.”
28When all Israel heard the decision that the king had rendered, they stood in awe of the king; for they saw that he possessed divine wisdom to execute justice.
4 King Solomon was now king over all Israel. 2These were his officials:
Azariah son of Zadok—the priest;
3Elihoreph and Ahijah sons of Shisha—scribes;
Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud—recorder;
4Benaiah son of Jehoiada—over the army;
Zadok and Abiathar—priests;
5Azariah son of Nathan—in charge of the prefects;
Zabud son of Nathan the priest—companion of the king;
6Ahishar—in charge of the palace; and
Adoniram son of Abda—in charge of the forced labor.
7Solomon had twelve prefects governing all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household; each had to provide food for one month in the year. 8And these were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; 9Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-bethhanan; 10Ben-hesed in Arubboth—he governed Socho and all the Hepher area; 11Ben-abinadab, [in] all of Naphath-dor (Solomon’s daughter Taphath was his wife); 12Baana son of Ahilud [in] Taanach and Megiddo and all Beth-shean, which is beside Zarethan, below Jezreel—from Bethshean to Abel-meholah as far as the other side of Jokmeam; 13Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead—he governed the villages of Jair son of Manasseh which are in Gilead, and he also governed the district of Argob which is in Bashan, sixty large towns with walls and bronze bars; 14Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; 15Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he too took a daughter of Solomon—Basemath—to wife); 16Baanah son of Hushi, in Asher and Bealoth;a 17Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar; 18Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin; 19Geber son of Uri, in the region of Gilead, the country of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan; b-and one prefect who was in the land.-b
20Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sands of the sea; they ate and drank and were content.
5 Solomon’s rule extended over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and the boundary of Egypt. They brought Solomon tribute and were subject to him all his life. 2Solomon’s daily provisions consisted of 30 kors of semolina, and 60 kors of [ordinary] flour, 310 fattened oxen, 20 pasture-fed oxen, and 100 sheep and goats, besides deer and gazelles, roebucks and a-fatted geese.-a 4For he controlled the whole region west of the Euphrates—all the kings west of the Euphrates, from Tiphsah to Gaza—and he had peace on all his borders roundabout. 5All the days of Solomon, Judah and Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba dwelt in safety, everyone under his own vine and under his own fig tree. 6Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariotry and 12,000 horsemen.
7bAll those prefects, each during his month, would furnish provisions for King Solomon and for all who were admitted to King Solomon’s table; they did not fall short in anything. 8They would also, each in his turn, deliver barley and straw for the horses and the swift steeds to the places where they were stationed.
9The LORD endowed Solomon with wisdom and discernment in great measure, with understanding as vast as the sands on the seashore. 10Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the Kedemites and than all the wisdom of the Egyptians. 11He was the wisest of all men: [wiser] than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Chalkol, and Darda the sons of Mahol. His fame spread among all the surrounding nations. 12He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered one thousand and five. 13He discoursed about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; and he discoursed about beasts, birds, creeping things, and fishes. 14Men of all peoples came to hear Solomon’s wisdom, [sent] by all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
15King Hiram of Tyre sent his officials to Solomon when he heard that he had been anointed king in place of his father; for Hiram had always been a friend of David. 16Solomon sent this message to Hiram: 17“You know that my father David could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the enemiesc that encompassed him, until the LORD had placed them under the soles of his feet. 18But now the LORD my God has given me respite all around; there is no adversary and no mischance. 19And so I propose to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD promised my father David, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for My name.’ 20Please, then, give orders for cedars to be cut for
