1 Kings 4:5-26

⁵Nathan's son Azariah was the administrator of the governors. Another of Nathan's sons, Zabud, was a priest and the king's chief advisor.

⁶Ahishar supervised the servants who worked in the palace. Abda's son Adoniram supervised the men who were forced to do work for the government.

⁷Solomon appointed twelve men, one to govern each of the regions in Israel. They also were required to provide food for the king and all the others who lived and worked in the palace. Each man was required to provide from his own region the food for one month each year.

⁸Their names were: Ben-Hur, for the hilly area of the tribe of Ephraim.

⁹Ben-Deker, for Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-Shemesh, and Elon-Bethhanan cities;

¹⁰Ben-Hesed, for Arubboth and Socoh towns and the area near Hepher town;

¹¹Ben-Abinadab, who was married to Solomon's daughter Taphath, for all the Dor district;

¹²Ahilud's son Baana, for Taanach and Megiddo towns, and all the region near Zarethan city, and from Beth-Shan city south of Jezreel as far as Abel-Meholah town and Jokmeam city;

¹³Ben-Geber, for Ramoth city in the Gilead region, and for the villages in Gilead that belonged to Jair, who was a descendant of Manasseh, and the Argob area in the Bashan region. There were 60 large towns in that region altogether, each town with a wall around it and bronze bars across the gates.

¹⁴Iddo's son Ahinadab, for Mahanaim city east of the Jordan River;

¹⁵Ahimaaz, who had married Solomon's daughter Basemath, for the territory of the tribe of Naphtali;

¹⁶Hushai's son Baana, for the territory of the tribe of Asher and for Aloth town;

¹⁷Paruah's son Jehoshaphat, for the territory of the tribe of Issachar;

¹⁸Ela's son Shimei, for the territory of the tribe of Benjamin;

¹⁹Uri's son Geber, for the Gilead region, the land that Sihon the king of the Amor people-group formerly ruled, and the Bashan area, which was the area that Og formerly ruled. In addition to all those, Solomon appointed one governor for the territory of the tribe of Judah.

²⁰There were as many people in Judah and Israel as there are grains of sand HYP on the seashore. They had plenty to eat and drink and they were happy.

²¹Solomon's kingdom extended from the Euphrates River in the northeast to the Philistia area in the west and to the border of Egypt in the south. The conquered people in those areas paid taxes and were under Solomon's control for the rest of his life.

²²To feed the people in his palace and his guests Solomon needed people to bring to him every day 150 bushels of fine flour and 300 bushels of wheat,

²³ten cattle that were kept in stalls/barns, twenty cattle that were kept in pastures, 100 sheep, and ◄deer and gazelles and roebucks/three kinds of deer►, and poultry.

²⁴Solomon ruled over all the area west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah city in the northeast to Gaza city in the southwest. He ruled over all the kings in that area. And there was peace between his government and the governments of nearby countries.

²⁵All during the years that Solomon ruled, the people of Judah and Israel lived safely. Each family had its own grapevines and fig trees.

²⁶Solomon had 4,000 stalls for the horses that pulled his chariots and 12,000 men who rode on horses (OR, in the chariots).