1 Kings 11:4

_FOR IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN SOLOMON WAS OLD, THAT HIS WIVES TURNED AWAY HIS HEART AFTER OTHER GODS: AND HIS HEART WAS NOT PERFECT WITH THE LORD HIS GOD, AS WAS THE HEART OF DAVID HIS FATHER._ When Solomon was old. He could not have been more than 50. But his love of splendour was intense; and a long course of voluptuous indulgence had so far weakened the energy of his will, that, in opposition, it must be supposed, to his better judgment, he succumbed to the domination of the senses. HIS WIVES TURNED AWAY HIS HEART AFTER OTHER GODS. Some, considering the lapse of Solomon into idolatry as a thing incredible, regard him as merely humouring his wives in the practice of their superstition, and, in countenancing their respective rites by his presence, as giving only an outward homage, a sensible worship, in which neither his understanding nor his heart were engaged, but from his fondness for...

1-8 There is not a more melancholy and astonishing instance of human depravity in the sacred Scriptures, than that here recorded. Solomon became a public worshipper of abominable idols! Probably he by degrees gave way to pride and luxury, and thus lost his relish for true wisdom. Nothing forms in itself a security against the deceitfulness and depravity of the human heart. Nor will old age cure the heart of any evil propensity. If our sinful passions are not crucified and mortified by the grace of God, they never will die of themselves, but will last even when opportunities to gratify them are taken away. Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. We see how weak we are of ourselves, without the grace of God; let us therefore live in constant dependence on that grace. Let us watch and be sober: ours is a dangerous warfare, and in an enemy's country, while our worst foes are t...

OLD - About fifty or fifty-five. From his age at his accession (1 Kings 2:2 note) he could not have been more than about sixty at his death. The true nature of Solomon’s idolatry was neither complete apostasy - an apostasy from which there could be no recovery; nor a mere toleration, rather praise-worthy than blameable. Solomon did not ever openly or wholly apostatize. He continued his attendance on the worship of Yahweh, and punctually made his offerings three times a year in the temple 1 Kings 9:25; but his heart was not “perfect” with God. The religious earnestness of his younger days was weakened by wealth, luxury, sensualism, an increasing worldliness leading him to worldly policy and latitudinarianism arising from contact with all the manif

EXPOSITION SOLOMON'S DEFECTION.—The observant reader will have already remarked in this history some intimations of Solomon's approaching fall. Among these are, first, the repeated warnings which are addressed to him, especially in 1 Kings 9:6, and, second, his repeated transgressions of the law by which he ruled. We have already heard of the multiplication of silver and gold (1 Kings 10:14-11), in defiance of Deuteronomy 17:17, and of the multiplication of horses (1 Kings 10:27-11), in disregard of...

AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN SOLOMON WAS OLD,.... Toward the latter end of his reign, when he might be near sixty years of age; for Rehoboam his son and successor was forty one when he began to reign, 1 Kings 14:21 which is observed either as an aggravation of the sin of Solomon, that in his old age, when by long experience he might have been thought to be still wiser, and less lustful: and yet THAT HIS WIVES TURNED AWAY HIS HEART AFTER OTHER GODS; or as pointing at the advantage his wives took of his age: AND HIS HEART WAS NOT PERFECT WITH THE LORD HIS GOD, AS WAS THE HEART OF DAVID HIS FATHER; who, though guilty of many sins, never inclined to idolatry; his heart was always right in that point, and sincere in his worship, see Psalms 18:20....

7. SOLOMON'S FAILURE: JUDGMENT ANNOUNCED AND THE BEGINNING OF DISRUPTION CHAPTER 11 _ 1. Solomon's polygamy and departure from God (1 Kings 11:1)_ 2. Hadad the Edomite (1 Kings 11:14) 3. Rezon the second adversary (1 Kings 11:23) 4. Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:26) 5. Solomon's reign and death (1 Kings 11:41) “But--.” An ominous word with which this chapter begins. It introduces us to the sad picture of Solomon's great apostasy. “He shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people

SIN OF SOLOMON, AND THE ADVERSARIES RAISED UP IN CONSEQUENCE. From various differences in the arrangement of the earlier verses in the LXX and Heb., it has been supposed that in its original form the narrative merely recorded the fact that Solomon had a number of wives, and that he built sanctuaries and offered sacrifice to their gods. In its present form the influence of a Deuteronomic editor is unmistakable. But the account of Solomon's adversaries (1 Kings 11:14 ff.) must be derived from an earlier source; and even as it stands does not necessarily mean that they were raised up in punishment of his sin. Hadad, the Edomite (1 Kings 11:14) must have troubled him early in his reign (1 Kings 11:21 f.), and Rezon wa

NOT PERFECT. See note on 1 Kings 8:61. AS. according to. David was faultless as to idolatry....

_when Solomon was old_ At least half of the king's reign was over before the Temple and the king's house and the other buildings were completed. It was therefore in the latter half of his reign, and probably towards the close of that, when the influence of his wives gained undue sway over him. _perfect with the Lord_ i.e. Completely devoted to His service, see note on 1 Kings 8:61. Solomon has described the state in his prayer (1 Kings 8:61) -to walk in His statutes, and to keep His commandments." The language of the verse indicates, not that Solomon forsook for himself the worship of Jehovah, but that he was less earnest about it, and allowed side by side with it the temples of heathen gods to be erected, and their worship to be something more than tolerated, even perhaps abundantly supported from h

I. SOLOMON'S TRANSGRESSIONS 11:1-13 TRANSLATION (1) And King Solomon loved many strange women, even Pharaoh's daughter, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women (2) from the nations of which the LORD had said onto the children of Israel, Do not go among them, and they shall not come among you; surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Even these Solomon clung to in love. (3) And he had seven hundred wives who were princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. (4) And it came to pass in Solomon's old age that his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not with the LORD his God as was the heart of David his father. (5) And Solomon went after Ashtoreth goddess[292] of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. (6) And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD and did not go fully af...