1 ነገሥት 4

Solomon’s officials

¹King Solomon ruled as king over all Israel.

²These were his high officials: Azariah son of Zadok was the priest;^a

³Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, served as secretaries; the recorder was Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud; ⁴Benaiah son of Jehoiada was commander of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;^b

⁵Azariah son of Nathan was in charge of the district governors; Zabud son of Nathan was a priest and the king’s friend;^{c 6}Ahishar was in charge of the palace, and Adoniram son of Abda had charge of the forced labor.

Solomon’s twelve district governors

⁷Solomon had twelve district governors over all Israel, who supplied food for the king and his household. Each of them had to provide for one month in the year.

⁸These are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;

⁹Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh and Elon-beth-hanan;^d

¹⁰Ben-hesed, in Arubboth; Socoh and all the land of Hepher were his;

¹¹Ben-abinadab, all Naphath-dor (Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, was his wife);

¹²Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo and all Beth-shean beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and on beyond Jokmeam;

¹³Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead. The villages of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead were his, and so was the region of Argob in Bashan: sixty large cities with walls and bronze bars;

¹⁴Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; ¹⁵Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he too had married a daughter of Solomon, Basemath); ¹⁶Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;^e

¹⁷Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar;

¹⁸Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin;

¹⁹Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the territory of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. In the land there was one governor.^{f 20}Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea; they ate and drank and were glad.^g