1 Kings 10

1 And the queen of Sheba heard the name of Solomon and the name of the Lord, and she came to test him with riddles. [a] 2 She came to Jerusalem with a very great company, and camels carrying spices, and very much gold, and precious stones. And she came in to Solomon and told him everything that was in her heart, [b] 3 and Solomon answered her, every question of hers. There was no matter the king overlooked, none that he did not explain to her.

4 And the queen of Sheba saw all the discernment of Solomon, and the house that he had built, [c] 5 and the food of his table, and the seating of his servants, and the standing of those who served him, and his clothing, and his cupbearers, and the whole burnt offering that he offered in the house of the Lord — and she was beside herself. [d]

6 And she said to king Solomon, “The report was true that I heard in my own land about your words and about your discernment, 7 and I did not believe the ones who told me, until I came and my own eyes saw. And look — what they reported to me was not the half of it. You have added good things to them, beyond all the report that I heard in my land.

8 Blessed are your wives. Blessed are these servants of yours who stand before you always, who hear all your discernment. [e] 9 May the Lord your God be blessed, who delighted in you and gave you a place on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loves Israel, to establish it forever, he has made you king over them, to do judgment in righteousness and in the cases they bring.”

10 And she gave Solomon four and a half tons of gold, and very many spices, and precious stones. Never again did spices come in such abundance as those the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon. [f] 11 And the ship of Hiram that carried the gold from Ophir brought very much unhewn timber and precious stones, [g] 12 and the king made the unhewn timber into supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, and into harps and lyres for the singers. No such unhewn timber had ever come into the land, nor has any been seen anywhere, to this day. [h] 13 And king Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she wanted, whatever she asked, besides all that he had given her by the hand of king Solomon. And she turned back and went to her own land, she and all her servants. [i]

14 And the weight of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was about twenty-five tons, [j] 15 besides the tribute from the peoples made subject to him, and from the merchants, and from all the kings of the country beyond the River, and from the governors of the land. [k]

16 And Solomon made three hundred spears of beaten gold — seven and a half pounds of gold went onto each spear — [l] 17 and three hundred shields of beaten gold — three and three-quarter pounds of gold went into each shield — and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. [m]

18 And the king made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with tested gold. 19 The throne had six steps, and calves’ heads standing out from the throne behind it, and arms on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms, [n] 20 and twelve lions standing on the six steps, on this side and on that. Nothing like it was ever made for any kingdom. 21 And all Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and the basins were gold; all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of refined gold. There was no silver, because silver counted for nothing in the days of Solomon — [o]

22 for the king had a ship of Tarshish at sea with the ships of Hiram, and once in three years a ship came to the king from Tarshish with gold and silver and carved stone and hewn stone. This was the account of the labor that king Solomon raised, to build the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and the wall of Jerusalem, and the citadel, to close the wall of the city of David; and Assur, and Megiddo, and Gezer, and Upper Beth-horon, and Jethermath, and all the cities of the chariots and all the cities of the horsemen; and the work Solomon undertook to build in Jerusalem and in all the land, so that nothing should have rule over him. All the people who were left of the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hivite and the Jebusite and the Girgashite, who were not of the sons of Israel — their children left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel had not been able to destroy — these Solomon brought up under tribute, and so it is to this day. But of the sons of Israel Solomon put no one to that work, for they were the fighting men, and his servants, and the commanders of his chariots, and his horsemen. [p]

23 And Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and in discernment, 24 and all the kings of the earth sought the face of Solomon, to hear the discernment that the Lord had put in his heart. 25 And every one of them brought his gift — vessels of gold, and clothing, oil of myrrh and spices, and horses and mules — so much, year after year.

26 And Solomon had four thousand mares for the chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, and he stationed them in the cities of the chariots and with the king in Jerusalem. And he was leader over all the kings from the River as far as the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. [u] 27 And the king made gold and silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as many as the sycamores of the lowland.

28 And Solomon’s horses came out of Egypt and out of Tekoa; the king’s merchants took them from Tekoa at a price. [v] 29 And what came out of Egypt went up at this rate: a chariot for a hundred pieces of silver, about two and a half pounds, and a horse for fifty. And so it went for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram — they went out by sea. [w]