22. The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.
23. King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth.
24. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.
25. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift – articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.
26. Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.
27. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills.