14 ^lNow the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 15 besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. 16 King Solomon made 200 large ^mshields of beaten gold; 600 shekels¹ of gold went into each shield. 17 And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas² of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the ⁿHouse of the Forest of Lebanon. 18 The king also made a great ^oivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. 19 The throne had six steps, and the throne had a round top,³ and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, 20 while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. 21 All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. 22 For the king had a fleet of ^pships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.⁴

23 Thus King Solomon ^qexcelled all the kings of the earth in riches and ^rin wisdom. 24 And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. 25 Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh,⁵ spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.

26 ^sAnd Solomon gathered together ^tchariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 27 And the king made ^usilver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the ^vsycamore of the Shephelah. 28 And Solomon’s import of ^whorses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price. 29 A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so through the king’s traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.

1 Now King Solomon loved ^xmany foreign women, along with the ^ydaughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, ^z“You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. 4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not ^awholly true to the Lord his God, ^bas was the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after ^cAshtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon ^ddid what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not ^ewholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for ^fChemosh the abomination of Moab, and for ^gMolech the abomination of the Ammonites, on ^hthe mountain east of Jerusalem. 8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.