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Then Solomon removed Abiathar from being the Lord 's priest. This happened as the Lord had said it would, when he was speaking in Shiloh about the priest Eli and his descendants.

Joab and his family will be forever guilty for their deaths, but there will be peace from the Lord for David, his descendants, his family, and his throne forever."

So Benaiah son of Jehoiada killed Joab, and he was buried near his home in the desert.

But three years later two of Shimei's slaves ran away to Achish king of Gath, who was the son of Maacah. Shimei heard that his slaves were in Gath,

so he put his saddle on his donkey and went to Achish at Gath to find them. Then he brought them back from Gath.

Then the king ordered Benaiah to kill Shimei, and he did. Now Solomon was in full control of his kingdom.

Solomon made an agreement with the king of Egypt by marrying his daughter and bringing her to Jerusalem. At this time Solomon was still building his palace and the Temple of the Lord , as well as a wall around Jerusalem.

Solomon showed he loved the Lord by following the commands his father David had given him, except many other places of worship were still used to offer sacrifices and to burn incense.

Solomon answered, "You were very kind to your servant, my father David. He obeyed you, and he was honest and lived right. You showed great kindness to him when you allowed his son to be king after him.

After Solomon woke up from the dream, he went to Jerusalem. He stood before the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord , where he made burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. After that, he gave a feast for all his leaders and officers.

The king sent his servants to get a sword. When they brought it to him,

These are the names of his leading officers: Azariah son of Zadok was the priest;

Solomon placed twelve governors over the districts of Israel, who gathered food from their districts for the king and his family. Each governor was responsible for bringing food to the king one month of each year.

Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These countries brought Solomon the payments he demanded, and they were under his control all his life.

Solomon needed much food each day to feed himself and all the people who ate at his table: one hundred ninety-five bushels of fine flour, three hundred ninety bushels of grain,

Solomon controlled all the countries west of the Euphrates River—the land from Tiphsah to Gaza. And he had peace on all sides of his kingdom.

During Solomon's life Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, also lived in peace; all of his people were able to sit under their own fig trees and grapevines.

Solomon had four thousand stalls for his chariot horses and twelve thousand horses.

God gave Solomon great wisdom so he could understand many things. His wisdom was as hard to measure as the grains of sand on the seashore.

His wisdom was greater than any wisdom of the East, or any wisdom in Egypt.