2 Chronicles 9

¹And the queen of Sheba heard the report of Solomon, and she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with riddles, with a very great retinue, and camels carrying spices and gold in abundance and precious stone; and she came to Solomon and spoke with him all that was on her heart.

²Solomon answered all her questions; there was not a word hidden from Solomon that he did not explain to her.

³And the queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built.

⁴the food of his table and the seating of his servants and the standing of his attendants and their garments and his cupbearers and their garments and his upper room by which he ascended to the house of the Lord — there was no more spirit in her.

⁵And she said to the king, 'True was the word that I heard in my land concerning your words and concerning your wisdom.

⁶Yet I did not believe their words until I came and my own eyes saw it; and behold, not even half of the greatness of your wisdom was told to me — you have exceeded the report I heard.

⁷Blessed are your men and blessed are your servants, these who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom.

⁸Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, to set you on his throne as king for the Lord your God. Because your God loved Israel, to establish them forever, he has made you king over them to do justice and righteousness.

⁹She gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and spices in very great abundance and precious stones; there had never been such spices as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰Also the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir brought algum wood and precious stone.

¹¹The king made from the algum wood walkways for the house of the Lord and for the house of the king, and lyres and harps for the musicians; no such things had ever been seen before in the land of Judah.

¹²And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she asked, besides what she had brought to the king. And she turned and went to her land, she and her servants.

¹³The weight of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold.

¹⁴besides what the traveling merchants and traders brought; and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each large shield.

¹⁶And three hundred shields of beaten gold, three hundred shekels of gold going into each shield; and the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷The king also made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.

¹⁸And there were six steps up to the throne, and a footstool of gold fastened to the throne, and armrests on this side and on that side at the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests.

¹⁹Twelve lions stood there on the six steps, one on each side; nothing like it had been made for any kingdom.

²⁰And all the vessels of King Solomon's drinking were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of refined gold; silver was not reckoned as anything in the days of Solomon.

²¹For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years the Tarshish fleet would come in, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

²²And King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

²³All the kings of the earth were seeking an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.

²⁴And they brought each his tribute, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and garments, weapons, and spices, horses, and mules — a set rate year after year.

²⁵Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

²⁶And he was ruling over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt.

²⁷And the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore trees that are in the Shephelah.

²⁸Horses were imported for Solomon from Egypt and from all the lands.

²⁹And the rest of the acts of Solomon, the first and the last, are they not written in the words of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat?

³⁰Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.

³¹And Solomon lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David his father; and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.