And God said to him, Because thou have asked this thing, and have not asked for thyself long life, neither have asked riches for thyself, nor have asked the life of thine enemies, but have asked for thyself understanding to discern

behold, I have done according to thy word. Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there has been none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like thee.

And I have also given thee that which thou have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like thee all thy days.

And if thou will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David walked, then I will lengthen thy days.

And Solomon awoke, and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of LORD, and offered up burnt-offerings, and offered peace-offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

Then two women who were harlots came to the king, and stood before him.

And the one woman said, Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. And I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

And it came to pass the third day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also. And we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, except we two in the house.

And this woman's child died in the night, because she lay upon it.

And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me while thy handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead. But when I had looked at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I bore.

And the other woman said, No, but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And the other woman said, No, but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before the king.

Then the king said, The one says, This is my son that lives, and thy son is the dead. And the other says, No, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.

And the king said, Fetch me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.

And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill it. But the other said, It shall be neither mine nor thine.

Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and by no means kill it; she is the mother of it.

And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged. And they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice.

And king Solomon was king over all Israel.

And these were the rulers whom he had: Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest;

Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder;

and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; and Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister, [and] the king's friend;

and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to task work.

And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel who provided provisions for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for a month in the year.

And these are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill-country of Ephraim;

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

Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him [pertained] Socoh, and all the land of Hepher);

Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam;

Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (to him [pertained] the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; [even] to him [pertained] the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and brazen bars);

Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;

Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan, and [he was] the only officer who was in the land.

Judah and Israel were as many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.

And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute, and served Solomon all the days of his life.

And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and sixty measures of meal,

ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and a hundred sheep, besides harts, and gazelles, and roebucks, and fatted fowl.

For he had dominion over all [the region] on this side the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the River. And he had peace on all sides round about him.

And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

And those officers provided provisions for king Solomon, and for all who came to king Solomon's table, every man in his month; they let nothing be lacking.

Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where [the officers] were, every man according to his charge.

And God gave Solomon exceedingly much wisdom and understanding, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore.

And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the sons of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

For he was wiser than all men: than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame was in all the nations round about.

And he spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five.

And he spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of fishes.

And there came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father, for Hiram was ever a devotee of David.

And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,

And, behold, I purpose to build a house for the name of LORD my God, as LORD spoke to David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy place, he shall build the house for my name.

Now therefore command thou that they cut for me cedar trees out of Lebanon. And my servants shall be with thy servants. And I will give thee wages for thy servants according to all that thou shall say, for thou know that there is n

And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be LORD this day, who has given to David a wise son over this great people.

And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have heard [that] which thou have sent to me. I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir.

My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. And I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that thou shall appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and thou shall receive them. And thou shall

So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of fir according to all his desire.

And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil; thus Solomon gave to Hiram year by year.

And LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two made a league together.

And king Solomon raised a conscription out of all Israel, and the conscription was thirty thousand men.

And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses. They were in Lebanon a month, and at home two months. And Adoniram was over the men subject to task work.

And Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were hewers in the mountains,

besides Solomon's chief officers who were over the work: three thousand and three hundred who bore rule over the people that labored in the work.

And the king commanded, and they hewed out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with shaped stone.

And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites fashioned them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to bui

And the house which king Solomon built for LORD, the length of it was sixty cubits, and the breadth of it twenty [cubits], and the height of it thirty cubits,

and the porch in front of the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, [and] ten cubits was the breadth of it in front of the house.

And he made windows of fixed lattice-work for the house.

And against the wall of the house he built stories round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle. And he made side-chambers round about.

The lowest story was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad, for on the outside he made offsets [in the wall] of the house round about, that [the beams] should not be fastened i

And the house, when it was being built, was built of stone made ready at the quarry. And there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was being built.

The door for the middle side-chambers was in the right side of the house. And they went up by winding stairs into the middle [story], and out of the middle into the third.

So he built the house, and finished it. And he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.

And he built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

And the word of LORD came to Solomon, saying,

Concerning this house that thou are building, if thou will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them, then I will establish my word with thee, which I spoke to David thy father.

And I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.

So Solomon built the house, and finished it.

And he built the walls of the house inside with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood. And he covered the floor of the house with boards of fir.

And he built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls [of the ceiling]. He built [them] for it inside, for an oracle, even for the most holy place.

And the house, that is, the temple in front of [the oracle], was forty cubits [long].

And there was cedar on the house inside, carved with knops and open flowers. All was cedar; there was no stone seen.

And he prepared an oracle in the midst of the house inside, to set there the ark of the covenant of LORD.

And inside the oracle was [a space of] twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height of it. And he overlaid it with pure gold. And he covered the altar with cedar.

So Solomon overlaid the house inside with pure gold. And he drew chains of gold across before the oracle, and he overlaid it with gold.

And the whole house he overlaid with gold until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar that belonged to the oracle he overlaid with gold.

And in the oracle he made two cherubim of olive-wood, each ten cubits high.

And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub. From the outermost part of the one wing to the outermost part of the other were ten cubits.

And the other cherub was ten cubits; both of the cherubim were of one measure and one form.

The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so it was of the other cherub.

And he set the cherubim inside the inner house. And the wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. And their wings touched

And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, inside and outside.

And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, inside and outside.

And for the entrance of the oracle he made doors of olive-wood. The lintel [and] door-posts were a fifth part [of the wall].

So [he made] two doors of olive-wood. And he carved upon them carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold. And he spread the gold upon the cherubim, and upon the palm trees.

and two doors of fir-wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.

And he carved [thereon] cherubim and palm trees and open flowers. And he overlaid them with gold fitted upon the graven work.

And he built the inner court with three courses of hewn stone, and a course of cedar beams.

And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all the parts of it, and according to all the fashion of it. So he was seven years in building it.

And Solomon was thirteen years building his own house, and he finished all his house.