1 Kings 10

And the queen of Saba heard the name of Solomon and the name of the Lord, and she came to test him with riddles.

And she came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stone; and she came in to Solomon and told him all that was in her heart.

And Solomon told her all her words; there was no word overlooked by the king which he did not tell her.

And the queen of Saba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had built,

and the food of Solomon, and the seating of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and his apparel, and his cupbearers, and his whole burnt offering which he offered up in the house of the Lord — and she was beside herself.

And she said to king Solomon: True was the report which I heard in my own land concerning your words and concerning your wisdom.

And I did not believe those who told me, until I came and my eyes had seen; and behold, it is not the half of what they reported to me: you have added good things to them, beyond all the report which I heard in my own land.

Blessed are your women, blessed are your servants, these who stand before you continually, who hear all your wisdom.

Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you to set you upon the throne of Israel; because the Lord loved Israel, to establish it for ever, he made you king over them, to execute judgement in righteousness and in their causes.

And she gave Solomon a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and very many spices, and precious stone. There never again came such an abundance of spices as those which the queen of Saba gave to king Solomon.

And the ship of Chiram, which carried the gold from Souphir, brought very much unhewn timber and precious stone.

And the king made the unhewn timber into supports for the house of the Lord and the house of the king, and lyres and harps for the singers. Such unhewn timber had never come into the land, nor has it been seen anywhere to this day.

And king Solomon gave to the queen of Saba all that she desired, whatever she asked, besides all that he had given her by the hand of king Solomon. And she turned back and came to her own land, she and all her servants.

And the weight of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,

besides the tribute of those made subject, and of the merchants, and of all the kings beyond, and of the satraps of the land.

And Solomon made three hundred spears of beaten gold; three hundred pieces of gold went upon each spear.

And three hundred shields of beaten gold; three mnas of gold went into each shield. And he put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

And the king made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with proven gold.

The throne had six steps, and calves' heads on the throne at the back of it, and arms on either side at the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms.

And twelve lions standing on the six steps on either side. Nothing like it had been made for any kingdom.

And all Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and the lavers were of gold; all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were enclosed with gold. There was no silver, because it was not reckoned as anything in the days of Solomon.

For the king had a ship of Tharsis at sea with the ships of Chiram; once every three years a ship came to the king from Tharsis with gold and silver and carved and hewn stones. This was the business of the forced levy which king Solomon raised: to build the house of the Lord and the house of the king and the wall of Jerusalem and the citadel, to close in the wall of the city of David, and Assour and Magdan and Gazer and Baithoron the upper and Iethermath, and all the cities of the chariots and all the cities of the horsemen, and the work of Solomon which he undertook to build in Jerusalem and in all the land, so that none should have dominion over him. All the people that were left of the Chettite and the Amorite and the Pherezite and the Canaanite and the Euite and the Iebousite and the Gergesite, who were not of the sons of Israel — their children who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel were unable to destroy utterly — these Solomon brought up to forced labour, to this day. But of the sons of Israel Solomon appointed none for the work, because they were the men of war and his servants and the commanders of his chariots and his horsemen.

And Solomon was magnified above all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.

And all the kings of the earth sought the face of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which the Lord had put in his heart.

And they each brought his gifts: vessels of gold and apparel, myrrh-oil and spices and horses and mules, year by year.

And Solomon had four thousand mares for chariots and twelve thousand horsemen; and he stationed them in the cities of the chariots and with the king in Jerusalem. And he was ruler over all the kings from the River as far as the land of the Allophyles and as far as the borders of Egypt.

And the king made gold and silver in Jerusalem as plentiful as stones, and he made the cedars as plentiful as the sycamores in the lowland.

And the export of Solomon's horses was from Egypt and from Thekoue; the king's merchants used to take them from Thekoue at a price.

And the export went up out of Egypt: a chariot for a hundred of silver, and a horse for fifty of silver. And thus they were exported by way of the sea to all the kings of the Chettiin and the kings of Syria.