The supplies Solomon needed each day were 150 bushels of fine flour and 300 bushels of meal;

10 stall-fed cattle, 20 pasture-fed cattle, and 100 sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and poultry.

During all the twelve years that I was governor of the land of Judah, from the twentieth year that Artaxerxes was emperor until his thirty-second year, neither my relatives nor I ate the food I was entitled to have as governor.

Every governor who had been in office before me had been a burden to the people and had demanded forty silver coins a day for food and wine. Even their servants had oppressed the people. But I acted differently, because I honored God.

The wicked borrow and never pay back, but good people are generous with their gifts.

At all times they give freely and lend to others, and their children are a blessing.