1 Kings 4:1-19--Solomon's Officials

1 Kings 4:1-19
English Standard Version

Solomon's Officials
4 King Solomon was king over all Israel, 2 and these were his high officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest; 3 Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; 4 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was in command of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; 5 Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; Zabud the son of Nathan was priest and king's friend; 6 Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram the son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.

7 Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for one month in the year. 8 These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; 9 Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elonbeth-hanan; 10 Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher); 11 Ben-abinadab, in all Naphath-dor (he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as his wife); 12 Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean that is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, and from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the other side of Jokmeam; 13 Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the villages of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars); 14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; 15 Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath the daughter of Solomon as his wife); 16 Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; 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 of Og king of Bashan. And there was one governor who was over the land.

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All twelve of the tribes of Israel followed King Solomon.  This passage give account of his officials that made up his advisors and cabinet-level positions.  The first listed was the High Priest of Israel.  That job went to Azariah the son of Zadok, for Solomon had commanded that priesthood would be led by Zadok's family and no longer by the family of Adonjiah (who was a descendant of Eli, whom Saul had made to be high priest)).  The following positions don't seem as important to us, but they are probably the ones writing much of the books of Kings and Chronicles as they were charged to be secretaries and the official recorder (that is probably the official records-keeper).  Next we see those that were leftover from his father's officials that continued to serve him-Benaiah continued to command the army and Zadok and Abiathar continued to serve as priests (though it seems Zadok's son served as high priest).  Azariah, the son of Nathan, served as what we would call "chief-of-staff" as he was over all these officers and officials, and Zabud the son of Nathan was a close counselor to the king as his friend and trusted confidant although he had no official duties.  It is important for those in leadership to still have some people to be friends who aren't "work friends" as well.  The last two to be listed here are Ahishar who was in charge of the palace (and probably all the servants that worked there), and finally Adoniram the son of Abda who was in charge of forced labor (they did not have prisons as far as we know in Israel--the options for punishment according to the Law were limited and for most serious offenses were the death penalty.  For smaller offenses, it seems that the kings had come up with a system of forced labor both for those they captured as enemy combatants and for those who were their own people who were criminals).

Next in the list were the twelve men officially tasked with providing food for the king and all in the palace for one of the twelve months out of the year.  They must have been wealthy men and of some means to be able to afford to take care of the king and all of his household (he had many wives and concubines) for an entire month.  My guess is that these men had some authority or means by which to "tax" the people to help provide for these things, but it seems Solomon never tried to make any provision for himself, not even having his own shepherds or farmers that were his servants like King Saul and King David had to help provide food and money for them.  It seems that Solomon just expected everyone else, both his people and the people that he conquered, to pay the way for him and his family.  We'll see later that other nations are afraid of being conquered by Israel and they will pay tribute to Solomon, so he will take the wealth of the nations and use it for other purposes, some of which we'll see listed for us in our next section when we talk about Solomon's wealth and wisdom.