1 Kings 4:7
And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his household: each man his month in a year made provision. And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his household: each man his month in a year made provision.
1 Kings 4:7 belongs to the account of Solomon's reign in the undivided kingdom, the same period covered by 2 Chronicles 1-9. That chapter gives a brief, comprehensive account of his officers, the kingdom's condition at the beginning of his reign, and his power, wealth, and wisdom.
Solomon appointed twelve officers over all Israel to provide victuals for the king and his household, each man making provision in his assigned month of the year. These high officers and their men were placed up and down the country for administration, stationed in different parts of the land. Each oversaw a particular region and its cities. The arrangement shows a year divided into twelve months, with one officer responsible for each month. In the calculation of prophetic time, this twelve-month year combines with the thirty-day month to make a 360-day year.
The verse displays Solomon's greatness as well as his wisdom. It belongs to the time when the people were exalted to the utmost height of earthly grandeur and triumph, with all enemies subdued and peace on every hand. Under this order the people were numerous and contented, and his fame spread into neighboring lands. There were ample riches for building the temple which God honored by visibly taking possession of it and sending fire to consume the offerings, along with other houses of wonderful magnificence at almost unlimited expense. Silver and gold were at Jerusalem as plenteous as stones, and wisdom and largeness of heart were as the sand on the seashore. He spoke 3000 proverbs and 1005 songs and discoursed on trees from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop out of the wall and on beasts and fowls and creeping things and fishes, so that all the kings of the earth sought his presence and the Queen of Sheba found the one-half had not been told. The account is set forth to manifest that nothing permanently good can be made out of poor human nature by the utmost grant of earthly prosperity, and to raise the question whether anything of lasting value can be developed in men only as they are schooled in adversity and affliction.