1 Kings

1 Kings 10:14–29

¹⁴The weight of gold that came to Solomon each year was 666 talents,^d ¹⁵not including the revenue from the merchants, traders, and all the Arabian kings and governors of the land.

¹⁶King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold^e went into each shield. ¹⁷He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold^f went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸Additionally, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. ¹⁹The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. There were armrests on both sides of the seat, with a lion standing beside each armrest. ²⁰Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like this had ever been made for any kingdom.

²¹All King Solomon’s drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, because it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. ²²For the king had the ships of Tarshish^g at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.^h

²³So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. ²⁴The whole world sought an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart. ²⁵Year after year, each visitor would bring his tribute: articles of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

²⁶Solomon accumulatedⁱ 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses,^j which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. ²⁷The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills.^k

²⁸Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue;^l the royal merchants purchased them from Kue. ²⁹A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver,^m and a horse for a hundred and fifty.ⁿ Likewise, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram.

Footnotes

d 10:14 666 talents is approximately 25.1 tons or 22.8 metric tons of gold.
e 10:16 600 shekels is approximately 15.1 pounds or 6.8 kilograms of gold.
f 10:17 3 minas is approximately 3.77 pounds or 1.71 kilograms of gold; possibly a reference to double minas, that is, approximately 7.54 pounds or 3.42 kilograms.
g 10:22 Or a fleet of trading ships; twice in this verse
h 10:22 Or baboons
i 10:26 Literally Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had
j 10:26 Or horsemen or charioteers
k 10:27 Hebrew Shephelah or lowlands; that is, the western foothills of Judea
l 10:28 Probably an area in Cilicia, a province in the southeast of Asia Minor
m 10:29 600 shekels is approximately 15.1 pounds or 6.8 kilograms of silver.
n 10:29 150 shekels is approximately 3.8 pounds or 1.7 kilograms of silver.