Solomon appointed 550 of them to supervise the people working on his various projects.
Parallel translations
- WEB These were the five hundred fifty chief officers who were over Solomon’s work, who ruled over the people who labored in the work.
- KJV These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.
- BSB They were also the chief officers over Solomon’s projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work.
- NKJV Others were chiefs of the officials who were over Solomon’s work: five hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people who did the work.
- NASB These were the chief officers who were in charge of Solomon’s work, 550, who ruled over the people doing the work.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Five hundred fifty chief officers supervised Solomon's labor force. It shows the organized scale of his administration.
Overview
This verse names the layer of management overseeing the workers on Solomon's projects. The detail underscores how vast and well-structured his enterprise had become. While the numbers differ slightly from parallel accounts (2 Chronicles 8:10), the overall picture is consistent: a kingdom of impressive order and productivity, made possible by the wisdom God had granted Solomon.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- 1 Kgs 5:16besides Solomon’s chief officers who were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who ruled over the people who labored in the work.
- 2 Chr 8:10These were the chief officers of king Solomon, even two-hundred fifty, who ruled over the people.
- 2 Chr 2:18He set seventy thousand of them to bear burdens, eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to assign the people their work.
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Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 9:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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