9:22 King Solomon was wealthier and wiser than any of the kings of the earth. 6 9:23 All the kings of the earth wanted to visit Solomon to see him display his God-given wisdom. 7 9:24 Year after year visitors brought their gifts, which included items of silver, items of gold, clothes, perfume, spices, horses, and mules. 8
9:25 Solomon had 4,000 stalls for his chariot horses 9 and 12,000 horses. He kept them in assigned cities and in Jerusalem. 10 9:26 He ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River 11 to the land of the Philistines as far as the border of Egypt. 9:27 The king made silver as plentiful 12 in Jerusalem as stones; cedar was 13 as plentiful as sycamore fig trees are in the lowlands 14 . 9:28 Solomon acquired horses from Egypt and from all the lands.
9:29 The rest of the events of Solomon’s reign, from start to finish, are recorded 15 in the Annals of Nathan the Prophet, the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and the Vision of Iddo the Seer pertaining to Jeroboam son of Nebat. 9:30 Solomon ruled over all Israel from Jerusalem 16 for forty years. 9:31 Then Solomon passed away 17 and was buried in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam replaced him as king.
1 tn Heb “for ships belonging to the king were going [to] Tarshish with the servants of Huram.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish.
2 tn Heb “servants.”
3 tn Heb “the fleet of Tarshish [ships].”
4 tn Heb “the ships of Tarshish came carrying.”
5 tn The meaning of this word is unclear; some suggest it refers to “baboons.” NEB has “monkeys,” NASB, NRSV “peacocks,” and NIV “baboons.”
6 tn Heb “King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth with respect to wealth and wisdom.”
7 tn Heb “and all the kings of the earth were seeking the face of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had placed in his heart.”
8 tn Heb “and they were bringing each one his gift, items of silver…and mules, the matter of a year in a year.”
9 tc The parallel text of 1 Kgs 10:26 reads “fourteen hundred chariots.”
10 tn Heb “he placed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.”
11 tn Heb “the River.” In biblical Hebrew the Euphrates River was typically referred to simply as “the River.”
12 tn The words “as plentiful” are supplied for clarification.
13 tn Heb “he made cedar.”
14 tn Heb “as the sycamore fig trees which are in the Shephelah.”
15 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Solomon, the former and the latter, are they not written?”
16 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
17 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”