1 Kings
Chapter 4
Administration of the Kingdom
King Solomon was king over all Israel
and had the following for his high officials: Azariah, son of Zadok, was the priest;
Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, were secretaries; Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was recorder;
Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, was general of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
Azariah, son of Nathan, was head of the officers; Zabud, son of Nathan, was priest and the king’s adviser;
Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram, son of Abda was in charge of forced labor.
Solomon had twelve governors over all of Israel who provided food for the king and his household, each making provisions for one month during the year.
These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;
Ben-deker, in Makaz; Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon Beth-hanan;
Benhesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher);
Ben-abinadab, in all of Naphath-dor (he had Taphath, daughter of Solomon, for his wife);
Baana, son of Ahilud, in Taanach; Megiddo and all of Beth-shean beside Zarethan below Jezreel, and from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as Jokmeam and beyond;
Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the villages of Jair, son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, as also the region of Argob in Bashan, sixty big towns, walled and barred with brazen bars);
Ahinadab, son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;
Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath, daughter of Solomon, for his wife);
Baana, son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;
Jehoshaphat, son of Paruah, in Issachar;
Shimei, son of Ela, in Benjamin;
Geber, 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 also an attendant in the land of Judah.
The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore, eating, drinking, and making merry.
Commentaries
Administration of the Kingdom.
As the government becomes more centralized, the administrative system expands. Not all positions can be accurately described, and the Hebrew text shows some inconsistencies that must be clarified using the Greek version or the list in Chronicles. Although the positions are not strictly hereditary, the king seems to favor a certain continuity of families. In the territorial division, several Canaanite cities appear to have been fully incorporated into the Israelite territory. The governors were responsible not only for administrative costs but also for all the construction of the capital and the king’s luxurious lifestyle: they would soon become sources of widespread dissatisfaction.