8. How blessed your men must be! How blessed these servants of yours must be because they are always stationed in front of you, listening to your wisdom!
9. Thank the Lord your God, who is pleased with you. He has put you on the throne of Israel. Because of your God’s eternal love for the people of Israel, he has made you king so that you would maintain justice and righteousness.”
10. She gave the king 9,000 pounds of gold, a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again was such a large quantity of spices brought ⌊into Israel⌋ as those that the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.
11. Hiram’s fleet that brought gold from Ophir also brought a large quantity of sandalwood and precious stones from Ophir.
12. With the sandalwood the king made supports for the Lord’s temple and the royal palace, and lyres and harps for the singers. Never again was sandalwood like this imported ⌊into Israel⌋, nor has any been seen ⌊there⌋ to this day.
13. King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba anything she wanted, whatever she asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal generosity. Then she and her servants went back to her country.
14. The gold that came to Solomon in one year weighed 49,950 pounds,
15. not counting ⌊the gold⌋ which came from the merchants, the traders’ profits, all the Arab kings, and the governors of the country.
16. King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold, using 15 pounds of gold on each shield.
17. He also made 300 small shields of hammered gold, using four pounds of gold on each shield. The king put them in the hall ⌊which he called⌋ the Forest of Lebanon.
18. The king also made a large ivory throne and covered it with fine gold.
19. Six steps led to the throne. Carved into the back of the throne was a calf’s head. There were armrests on both sides of the seat. Two lions stood beside the armrests.
20. Twelve lions stood on six steps, one on each side. Nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.
21. All King Solomon’s cups were gold, and all the utensils for the hall ⌊which he called⌋ the Forest of Lebanon were fine gold. (Nothing was silver, because it wasn’t considered valuable in Solomon’s time.)
22. The king had a fleet headed for Tarshish with Hiram’s fleet. Once every three years the Tarshish fleet would bring gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.