2 Chronicles - Chapter 9

¹ The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame and came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with difficult questions, with a very large retinue with camels laden with spices and an immense quantity of gold and precious stones. Having reached Solomon, she discussed everything that she had in mind with him,

² and Solomon had an answer for all her questions; not one of them was too obscure for Solomon to answer for her.

³ When the queen of Sheba saw how wise Solomon was, the palace which he had built,

⁴ the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cupbearers and the way they were dressed, and the burnt offerings, which he made in the Temple of Yahweh, it left her breathless,

⁵ and she said to the king, 'The report I heard in my own country about you and about your wisdom in handling your affairs was true, then!

⁶ Until I came and saw for myself, I did not believe the reports, but clearly I was told less than half about the true extent of your wisdom. You surpass what was reported to me.

⁷ How fortunate your people are! How fortunate your courtiers, continually in attendance on you and listening to your wisdom!

⁸ Blessed be Yahweh your God. Because your God loved Israel and meant to keep it secure for ever, he has made you its king to administer law and justice.'

⁹ And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones. There never were such spices as those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰ Similarly, the men employed by Huram and the men employed by Solomon, who brought the gold from Ophir, also brought back algum wood and precious stones.

¹¹ Of the algum wood the king made steps for the Temple of Yahweh and for the royal palace, and harps and lyres for the musicians, the like of which had never before been seen in Judah.

¹² And King Solomon, in his turn, presented the queen of Sheba with everything that she expressed a wish for, besides what he gave her in exchange for what she had brought to the king. After which, she went home to her own country, she and her servants.

¹³ The weight of the gold received annually by Solomon amounted to six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,

¹⁴ besides what tolls and foreign trade brought in; all the Arab kings and the provincial governors also brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵ King Solomon made two hundred great shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of beaten gold going into one shield;

¹⁶ also three hundred small shields of beaten gold, three hundred shekels of gold going into one shield; and the king put these into the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷ The king also made a great ivory throne which he overlaid with refined gold.

¹⁸ The throne had six steps with a golden foot-rest attached to the throne, and arms on each side of the seat and two lions standing beside the arms,

¹⁹ and twelve lions stood on either side of the six steps. Nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.

²⁰ All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the plate in the House of the Forest of Lebanon was of pure gold; silver was little thought of in Solomon's days,

²¹ since the king's ships went to Tarshish with Huram's employees, and once every three years the merchantmen would come back laden with gold and silver, ivory, apes and baboons.

²² For riches and for wisdom, King Solomon surpassed all kings on earth,

²³ and all the kings in the world consulted Solomon to hear the wisdom which God had implanted in his heart,

²⁴ and everyone would bring a present with him: objects of silver and of gold, robes, armour, spices, horses and mules; and this went on year after year.

²⁵ Solomon also had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand cavalrymen; these he stationed in the chariot towns and near the king in Jerusalem.

²⁶ He was overlord of all the kings from the River to the territory of the Philistines and the Egyptian border.

²⁷ In Jerusalem the king made silver as common as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as sycamore in the Lowlands.

²⁸ Horses were imported for Solomon from Muzur and all the other countries too.

²⁹ The rest of the history of Solomon, from first to last, is this not all written down in the records of Nathan the prophet, in the Prophecy of Ahijah of Shiloh, and in the Vision of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat?

³⁰ Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.

³¹ When Solomon fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of his father David; Rehoboam his son succeeded him.

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