2 Chronicles 9

The Queen of Sheba

1The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame and came to Jerusalem to put him to the test with riddles. She arrived with a very large retinue, camels loaded with spices, gold in abundance and precious stones; and when she reached Solomon she talked with him about everything that was on her mind. 2Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too obscure for Solomon to explain to her. 3So the queen of Sheba took in Solomon’s wisdom, the house he had built, 4the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attendance of his servants and their robes, his cupbearers and their robes, and the ascent by which he went up to the house of Yahweh, it left her breathless. 5She said to the king: “What I heard in my own country about your words and your wisdom was true. 6I did not believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes — and I had not been told the half of your great wisdom. You go far beyond the report I heard. 7How fortunate your people are, and how fortunate these servants of yours, who stand before you day after day and hear your wisdom! 8Blessed be Yahweh your God, who delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for Yahweh your God. Because your God loves Israel and means to establish it for ever, he has made you king over them, to deal out justice and right.” 9She gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in immense quantity, and precious stones. There has never been spice like the spice the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. 10Huram’s servants and Solomon’s servants, who brought gold from Ophir, also brought algum wood and precious stones. 11Out of the algum wood the king made stairways for the house of Yahweh and for the royal palace, and lyres and harps for the singers. Nothing like them had ever been seen before in the land of Judah. 12King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, over and above what she had brought to the king. Then she turned and went back to her own land with her attendants.

The Splendour of Solomon, and His Death

13The weight of gold that came to Solomon in a single year was six hundred and sixty-six talents, 14besides what came in from the travelling merchants and the traders. The kings of Arabia and the governors of the land, all of them, were bringing gold and silver in to Solomon. 15King Solomon made two hundred long shields of hammered gold, six hundred of hammered gold going into each shield, 16and three hundred small shields of hammered gold, three hundred of gold going into each shield. The king placed them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. 17The king further made a large throne of ivory, which he plated with pure gold. 18The throne had six steps, with a golden footrest fastened to it, arms on either side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms. 19Twelve lions stood there on the six steps, one at each end of every step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any kingdom. 20All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and every vessel of the House of the Forest of Lebanon was refined gold. Silver counted for nothing in Solomon’s days, 21for the king had ships that sailed to Tarshish with Huram’s servants; once every three years the ships of Tarshish would come in, carrying gold and silver, ivory, apes and baboons. 22So in wealth and in wisdom King Solomon rose above every king on earth, 23and every king on earth was seeking Solomon’s presence, to hear the wisdom God had set in his heart. 24Each of them brought his gift — objects of silver and objects of gold, robes, weaponry, spices, horses and mules — year after year. 25Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot towns and with the king in Jerusalem. 26His rule extended over all the kings from the River as far as the land of the Philistines and the frontier of Egypt. 27The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as the sycamore-figs of the lowlands. 28Horses were brought in for Solomon from Egypt and from every land. 29And what else Solomon did, from the beginning to the end — is that not all set down in the records of Nathan the prophet, in Ahijah the Shilonite’s prophecy, and in the visions Jedo the seer had concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat? 30Over all Israel, from Jerusalem, Solomon was king for forty years. 31Then Solomon lay down with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David his father, and Rehoboam his son became king in his place.