1 Kings 4:7

THE CHIEF TAX COLLECTORS OF SOLOMON'S GOVERNMENT

"And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided victuals for the king and his household: each man to make provision for a month in the year. And these are their names: Ben-hur in the hill-country of Ephraim; Ben-deker in Makaz and in Shaalbim, and Bethshemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan; Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him pertained Socoh, and all the land of Hepher); Ben-abinadab, in all the height of Dor (he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon to wife); Bana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Bethshean which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Bethshean to Abel-meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam; Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (to him pertained the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; even to him pertained the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars; Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon to wife); Bana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar; Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin; Geber the son of Uri in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Ammorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer that was in the land."

"To all intents and purposes, this list of names is unidentifiable."[7] We would also like to add that there could be no possible Christian interest in this list. These were the men unequivocably described by Keil as "tax collectors,"[8] and their names are therefore of the same interest to God's people today as a list of the principal agents of the I.R.S. in the U.S.A. They were the ones who extorted the enormous taxation that supported the bloated Solomonic government.