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 me in the Lebanon. My servants will work with yours, and I will pay you any wages you may ask for your servants; for as you know, there is none among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
21When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was overjoyed. “Praised be the LORD this day,” he said, “for granting David a wise son to govern this great people.” 22So Hiram sent word to Solomon: “I have your message; I will supply all the cedar and cypress logs you require. 23My servants will bring them down to the sea from the Lebanon; and at the sea I will make them into floats and [deliver them] to any place that you designate to me. There I shall break them up for you to carry away. You, in turn, will supply the food I require for my household.” 24So Hiram kept Solomon provided with all the cedar and cypress wood he required, 25and Solomon delivered to Hiram 20,000 kors of wheat as provisions for his household and d-20 kors-d of beaten oil. Such was Solomon’s annual payment to Hiram.
26The LORD had given Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him. There was friendship between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.
27King Solomon imposed forced labor on all Israel; the levy came to 30,000 men. 28He sent them to the Lebanon in shifts of 10,000 a month: they would spend one month in the Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. 29Solomon also had 70,000 porters and 80,000 quarriers in the hills, 30apart from Solomon’s 3,300 officials who were in charge of the work and supervised the gangs doing the work.
31The king ordered huge blocks of choice stone to be quarried, so that the foundations of the house might be laid with hewn stones. 32Solomon’s masons, Hiram’s masons, and the men of Gebal shaped them. Thus the timber and the stones for building the house were made ready.
6 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, in the month of Ziv—that is, the second month—in the fourth year of his reign over Israel, Solomon began to build the House of the LORD. 2The House which King Solomon built for the LORD was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. 3The portico in front of the Great Hall of the House was 20 cubits long—along the width of the House—and 10 cubits deep to the front of the House. 4aHe made windows for the House, recessed and latticed. 5Against the outside wall of the House—the outside walls of the House enclosing the Great Hall and the Shrineb—he built a storied structure; and he made side chambers all around. 6The lowest story was 5 cubits wide, the middle one 6 cubits wide, and the third 7 cubits wide; for he had provided recesses around the outside of the House so as not to penetrate the walls of the House.
7When the House was built, only finished stones cut at the quarry were used, so that no hammer or ax or any iron tool was heard in the House while it was being built.
8The entrance to the middlec [story of] the side chambers was on the right side of the House; and winding stairs led up to the middle chambers, and from the middle chambers to the third story. 9When he finished building the House, d-he paneled the House with beams and planks of cedar.-d 10He built the storied structure against the entire House—each story 5 cubits high, so that it encased the House with timbers of cedar.
11Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, 12“With regard to this House you are building—if you follow My laws and observe My rules and faithfully keep My commandments, I will fulfill for you the promise that I gave to your father David: 13I will abide among the children of Israel, and I will never forsake My people Israel.”
14When Solomon had completed the construction of the House, 15he paneled the walls of the House on the inside with planks of cedar. He also overlaid the walls on the inside with
