1 The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame, linked with the name of the LORD, and she came to put him to the test with riddles.
2 She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large company, camels carrying spices, a great deal of gold and precious stones. She came to Solomon and talked with him about everything she had in mind.
3 Solomon gave answers to all her questions; there was nothing too obscure for the king to explain to her.
4 When the queen of Sheba observed all Solomon's wisdom and the house he had built,
5 the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the way his attendants stood and how they were dressed, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he offered up at the LORD's house, it left her breathless.
6 She told the king, "It was the truth, what I heard in my own country about your affairs and your wisdom.
7 I would not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes saw it, and look, I was not told the half of it. Your wisdom and wealth go beyond the report I heard.
8 How blessed your men are, how blessed these servants of yours who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom!
9 Blessed is the LORD your God, who took pleasure in you and placed you on Israel's throne! Because of the LORD's everlasting love for Israel he made you king, to carry out justice and righteousness."
10 She presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great abundance and precious stones. Never again did spices come in such quantity as those the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.
11 Hiram's ships, too, which carried gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great quantities of almug wood and precious stones.
12 From the almug wood the king made supports for the LORD's house and for the king's house, as well as lyres and harps for the singers. Such almug wood has never come again, nor been seen to this day.
13 King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she wished for and asked, apart from what he gave her from his royal generosity. Then she turned and went home to her country, she and her servants.
14 The gold that came to Solomon in a single year weighed six hundred and sixty-six talents,
15 not counting what came from the merchants and the traffic of the traders, from all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land.
16 King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold, using six hundred shekels of gold for each shield,
17 and three hundred small shields of hammered gold, using three minas of gold for each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
18 The king also made a great ivory throne and covered it with the finest gold.
19 There were six steps up to the throne, and at the back the throne had a rounded top. There were arms on either side of the seat, with two lions standing next to the arms,
20 and twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each. Nothing of the kind was ever made in any kingdom.
21 Every drinking vessel of King Solomon was gold, and every vessel of the House of the Forest of Lebanon was refined gold. None were silver; silver was thought of no value in Solomon's days.
22 For the king had ships of Tarshish at sea along with Hiram's ships. Every three years the ships of Tarshish would come in, carrying gold and silver, ivory, apes and peacocks.
23 King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom.
24 All the earth sought an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had placed in his heart.
25 Each one would bring his gift: objects of silver and objects of gold, clothing, armor, spices, horses and mules, a set amount every year.
26 Solomon amassed chariots and horsemen; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he kept them in the chariot towns and with the king in Jerusalem.
27 The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamore trees in the Shephelah.
28 Solomon's horses were brought from Egypt and from Kue; the king's merchants would buy them from Kue for a price.
29 A chariot brought up from Egypt cost six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse a hundred and fifty. In the same way they were exported through them to all the Hittite kings and the kings of Syria.