6. Solomon had forty thousand stalls for horses for chariots and twelve thousand horsemen.
7. The governors, one for each month, provided food for King Solomon and for all the guests at King Solomon’s table. They left nothing unprovided.
8. For the chariot horses and draft animals also, each brought his quota of barley and straw to the required place.
9. Moreover, God gave Solomon wisdom, exceptional understanding, and knowledge, as vast as the sand on the seashore.
10. Solomon’s wisdom surpassed that of all the peoples of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.
11. He was wiser than anyone else—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, or Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the musicians—and his fame spread throughout the neighboring peoples.
12. Solomon also uttered three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.
13. He spoke of plants, from the cedar on Lebanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall, and he spoke about beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes.
14. People from all nations came to hear Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
15. When Hiram, king of Tyre, heard that Solomon had been anointed king in place of his father, he sent an embassy to him; for Hiram had always been David’s friend.
16. Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:
17. “You know that David my father, because of the wars that beset him, could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God until such time as the Lord should put his enemies under the soles of his feet.