31 Solomon became the son-in-law of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter as his wife, keeping her in the town of David, till the house he was building for himself, and the house of the Lord and the wall round Jerusalem, were complete. 2 But all this time the people were making their offerings in the high places, because no house had been put up to the name of the Lord till those days.
3 And Solomon, in his love for the Lord, kept the laws of David his father; but he made offerings and let them go up in smoke on the high places. 4 And the king went to Gibeon to make an offering there, because that was the chief high place: it was Solomon's way to make a thousand burned offerings on that altar.
5 In Gibeon, Solomon had a vision of the Lord in a dream by night; and God said to him, Say what I am to give you. 6 And Solomon said, Great was your mercy to David my father, as his life before you was true and upright and his heart was true to you; and you have kept for him this greatest mercy, a son to take his place this day. 7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in the place of David my father; and I am only a young boy, with no knowledge of how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant has round him the people of your selection, a people so great that they may not be numbered, and no account of them may be given. 9 Give your servant, then, a wise heart for judging your people, able to see what is good and what evil; for who is able to be the judge of this great people? 10 Now these words and Solomon's request were pleasing to the Lord. 11 And God said to him, Because your request is for this thing, and not for long life for yourself or for wealth or for the destruction of your haters, but for wisdom to be a judge of causes; 12 I have done as you said: I have given you a wise and far-seeing heart, so that there has never been your equal in the past, and never will there be any like you in the future. 13 And with this I have given you what you made no request for: wealth and honour, so that no king was ever your equal. 14 And if you go on in my ways, keeping my laws and my orders as your father David did, I will give you a long life. 15 And Solomon, awakening, saw that it was a dream; then he came to Jerusalem, where he went before the ark of the agreement of the Lord, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings; and he made a feast for all his servants.
16 Then two loose women of the town came and took their places before the king; 17 And one of them said, O my lord, I and this woman are living in the same house; and I gave birth to a child by her side in the house. 18 And three days after the birth of my child, this woman had a child: we were together, no other-person was with us in the house but we two only. 19 In the night, this woman, sleeping on her child, was the cause of its death. 20 And she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was sleeping; and she took it in her arms and put her dead child in my arms. 21 And when I got up to give my child the breast, I saw that it was dead; but in the morning, looking at it with care, I saw that it was not my son. 22 And the other woman said, No; but the living child is my son and the dead one yours. But the first said, No; the dead child is your son and the living one mine. So they kept on talking before the king. 23 Then the king said, One says, The living child is my son, and yours is the dead: and the other says, Not so; but your son is the dead one and mine is the living. 24 Then he said, Get me a sword. So they went and put a sword before the king. 25 And the king said, Let the living child be cut in two and one half given to one woman and one to the other. 26 Then the mother of the living child came forward, for her heart went out to her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the child; do not on any account put it to death. But the other woman said, It will not be mine or yours; let it be cut in two. 27 Then the king made answer and said, Give her the child, and do not put it to death; she is the mother of it. 28 And news of this decision which the king had made went through all Israel; and they had fear of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to give decisions.
41 Now Solomon was king over all Israel. 2 And these were his chief men: Azariah, the son of Zadok, was the priest; 3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were scribes; Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder; 4 Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was head of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; 5 Azariah, the son of Nathan, was over those in authority in the different divisions of the country; Zabud, the son of Nathan, was priest and the king's friend; 6 Ahishar was controller of the king's house; Adoniram, the son of Abda, was overseer of the forced work. 7 And Solomon put twelve overseers over all Israel, to be responsible for the stores needed for the king and those of his house; every man was responsible for one month in the year. 8 And these are their names: ... the son of Hur in the hill country of Ephraim; 9 ... the son of Deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan; 10 ... the son of Hesed in Arubboth; Socoh and all the land of Hepher were under his control; 11 ... the son of Abinadab in all Naphath-dor; his wife was Taphath, the daughter of Solomon. 12 Baana, the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is by the side of Zarethan, under Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the far side of Jokmeam; 13 ... the son of Geber in Ramoth-gilead; he had the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and the country of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great towns with walls and locks of brass. 14 Ahinadab, the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; 15 Ahimaaz in Naphtali; he took Basemath, the daughter of Solomon, as his wife; 16 Baana, the son of Hushai, in Asher and Aloth; 17 Jehoshaphat, the son of Paruah, in Issachar; 18 Shimei, the son of Ela, in Benjamin; 19 Geber, the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan; and one overseer had authority over all the overseers who were in the land.
20 Judah and Israel were as great in number as the sand by the seaside, and they took their food and drink with joy in their hearts. 21 And Solomon was ruler over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the edge of Egypt; men gave him offerings and were his servants all the days of his life. 22 And the amount of Solomon's food for one day was thirty measures of crushed grain and sixty measures of meal; 23 Ten fat oxen and twenty oxen from the fields, and a hundred sheep, in addition to harts and gazelles and roes and fat fowls. 24 For he had authority over all the country on this side of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace round him on every side. 25 So Judah and Israel were living safely, every man under his vine and his fig-tree, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon. 26 And Solomon had four thousand boxed-off spaces for horses for his carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen. 27 And those overseers, every man in his month, saw that food was produced for Solomon and all his guests, they took care that nothing was overlooked. 28 And they took grain and dry grass for the horses and the carriage-horses, to the right place, every man as he was ordered.
29 And God gave Solomon a great store of wisdom and good sense, and a mind of wide range, as wide as the sand by the seaside. 30 And Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all men, even than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman and Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he had a great name among all the nations round about. 32 He was the maker of three thousand wise sayings, and of songs to the number of a thousand and five. 33 He made sayings about all plants, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop hanging on the wall; and about all beasts and birds and fishes and the small things of the earth. 34 People came from every nation to give ear to the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had word of his wisdom.
11 And Solomon, the son of David, made himself strong in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and made him very great. 2 And Solomon sent word to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every chief in all Israel, heads of their families. 3 Then Solomon, and all the men of Israel with him, went to the high place at Gibeon, because the Tent of meeting of God, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the waste land, was there. 4 But the ark of God had been moved by David from Kiriath-jearim to the place which he had made ready for it, for he had put up a tent for it at Jerusalem. 5 And the altar of brass which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the Tent of the Lord; and Solomon and all the people went to give worship there. 6 And Solomon went up there to the brass altar before the Lord at the Tent of meeting, offering on it a thousand burned offerings. 7 In that night God came to Solomon in a vision, and said to him, Say what I am to give you. 8 And Solomon said to God, Great was your mercy to David my father, and you have made me king in his place. 9 Now, O Lord God, let your word to David my father come true; for you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in number. 10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge, so that I may go out and come in before this people: for who is able to be the judge of this great people of yours? 11 And God said to Solomon, Because this was in your heart, and you did not make request for money, property, or honour, or for the destruction of your haters, or for long life; but you have made request for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, so that you may be the judge of my people over whom I have made you king: 12 Wisdom and knowledge are given to you; and I will give you wealth and honour, such as no king has had before you or ever will have after you.
13 So Solomon went back from the high place at Gibeon, from before the Tent of meeting, to Jerusalem; and he was king over Israel.
14 And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, which he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem. 15 And the king made silver and gold as common as stones in Jerusalem, and cedar like the sycamore-trees of the lowland in number. 16 And Solomon's horses came out of Egypt; the king's traders got them from Kue at a price. 17 A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: they got them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.
721 Give the king your authority, O God, and your righteousness to the king's son.
2 May he be a judge of your people in righteousness, and make true decisions for the poor. 3 May the mountains give peace to the people, and the hills righteousness. 4 May he be a judge of the poor among the people, may he give salvation to the children of those who are in need; by him let the violent be crushed. 5 May his life go on as long as the sun and moon, through all generations. 6 May he come down like rain on the cut grass; like showers watering the earth. 7 In his days may the upright do well, living in peace as long as there is a moon in heaven. 8 Let his kingdom be from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth. 9 Let those who are against him go down before him; and let his haters be low in the dust. 10 Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands come back with offerings; let the kings of Sheba and Seba give of their stores. 11 Yes, let all kings go down before him; let all nations be his servants. 12 For he will be a saviour to the poor in answer to his cry; and to him who is in need, without a helper. 13 He will have pity on the poor, and be the saviour of those who are in need. 14 He will keep their souls free from evil designs and violent attacks; and their blood will be of value in his eyes. 15 May he have long life, and may gold from Sheba be given to him: may prayers be made for him at all times; may blessings be on him every day. 16 May there be wide-stretching fields of grain in the land, shaking on the top of the mountains, full of fruit like Lebanon: may its stems be unnumbered like the grass of the earth. 17 May his name go on for ever, as long as the sun: may men be blessing themselves by him; may all nations be blessing his name.
18 Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, the only doer of wonders. 19 Praise to the glory of his noble name for ever; let all the earth be full of his glory. So be it, So be it. 20 The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
