1 Kings 5
Wisdom Wider Than the Sand of the Sea
← 1 Kings 4 · 1 Kings: all chapters · 1 Kings 6 →
The Daily Provision of Solomon’s Table
5:1The appointed officers thus provided for King Solomon and all the orders for the king’s table, each in his month; they did not depart from an instruction. They brought barley and straw for the horses and chariots to the place where the king would be, each according to his assignment.
5:2These were Solomon’s requirements for one day: thirty kors of fine flour and sixty kors of pounded meal,
5:3ten choice calves, twenty pasture-fed cattle, and a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, and choice birds—fattened provisions.
5:4For he was ruler beyond the River, and he had peace on every side around him.
The Wisdom of Solomon
5:9The Lord gave Solomon discernment, very great wisdom, and abundance of heart like the sand beside the sea.
5:10Solomon increased greatly beyond the discernment of all ancient people and beyond all the discerning people of Egypt.
5:11He became wiser than all people; he became wiser than Gaithan the Ezraite, Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mal.
5:12Solomon spoke three thousand parables, and his songs numbered five thousand.
5:13He spoke about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing through the wall. He spoke about livestock, birds, creeping things, and fish.
5:14All the peoples came to hear Solomon’s wisdom, and he received gifts from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
Pharaoh’s Daughter and the City of Gezer
5:14aSolomon took Pharaoh’s daughter as his wife and brought her into the City of David until he finished the Lord’s house, his own house, and Jerusalem’s wall.
5:14bThen Pharaoh king of Egypt went up, captured Gezer beforehand, and burned it and the Canaanite who lived in Mergab. Pharaoh gave them as parting gifts to his daughter, Solomon’s wife; and Solomon built Gezer.
Hiram King of Tyre Sends to Solomon
5:15Hiram king of Tyre sent his attendants to anoint Solomon in place of David his father, for Hiram had always loved David.
5:16Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,
5:17“You know that my father David could not build a house for the name of the Lord my God because of the wars that surrounded him, until the Lord put them beneath the footsteps of his feet.
5:18But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side; there is no plotter and no evil encounter.
5:19Look, I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord God told my father David: ‘Your son, whom I shall place on your throne in your stead, shall build the house for My name.’
5:20Now command that they cut timber from Lebanon for me. Look, my servants are with your servants, and I will pay you the wages of your service according to whatever you say; for you know that no one among us knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
5:21When Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be God today, who has given David a discerning son over this great people!”
5:22He sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard about everything you sent to me. I will fulfill all your wishes: cedar and pine timber.
5:23My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. I will make them into rafts as far as the place you send word to me, and shake them apart there; you shall take them away. You shall fulfill my wish by providing loaves for my household.”
5:24Hiram supplied Solomon with cedars and all that he desired.
5:25Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors of wheat and machir for his household, and twenty thousand beth of beaten oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram each year.
5:26The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a covenant between themselves.
The Levy of Workers for Lebanon
5:27The king raised a levy from all Israel; the levy was thirty thousand men.
5:28He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts: one month they were in Lebanon and two months at their home. Adoniram was over the levy.
5:29Solomon had seventy thousand burden-bearers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country,
5:30besides the chiefs appointed over Solomon’s works, three thousand six hundred overseers who performed the works.
5:32They prepared the stones and timber for three years.
← 1 Kings 4 · 1 Kings: all chapters · 1 Kings 6 →
Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.