College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
1 Kings 11:1-13
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 after the LORD as had David his father. (7) Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon. (8) And thus he did for all his foreign wives who burnt incense and offered sacrifices to their gods. (9) And the LORD became angry with Solomon because he turned his heart from with the LORD God of Israel who had appeared unto him twice. (10) And He had commanded him concerning this thing not to go after other gods; but he did not keep that which the LORD commanded him. (11) And the LORD said to Solomon, Because you have done this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes which I commanded you, I will surely rend the kingdom from you and I will give it to your servant. (12) But in your days I will not do it because of David your father; from the hand of your son I will rend it. (13) Only all of the kingdom I will not rend; one tribe I will give to your son because of David My servant and because of Jerusalem which I have chosen.
[292] The masculine form of the word is actually used in the Hebrew because the language has no word for goddess.
COMMENTS
In 1 Kings 11:1-13 the author relates the sad story of how Solomon violated the third of the three prohibitions placed upon Israelite kings by almighty God in Deuteronomy 17. Previously Solomon's multiplication of wealth (1 Kings 10:14-25) and of horses (1 Kings 10:27-29) has been narrated. In the present section the ruin of this great prince becomes inevitable as he multiplies wives unto himself. The account in Chronicles is altogether silent with regard to Solomon's fall, as it is also with regard to David's sin. The conjunction with which chapter 11 begins suggests that the account is a direct continuation of the preceding chapter. The polygamy was but a part of the worldliness of this king like the chariots and gold already mentioned.
Besides his marriage to Pharaoh's daughter, the uniqueness of which has already been indicated, Solomon married many other strange or foreign women. As a matter of fact, Solomon must have married Naamah the Ammonitess a couple of years before he became king, and thus before he married the Egyptian princess.[293] Pharaoh's daughter is set apart from the other foreign wives in 1 Kings 11:1 not because she was his first wife or even his favorite wife, but because of the uniqueness of that marriage (cf. 1 Kings 3:1).
[293] Rehoboam the son of Naamah was forty-one when Solomon died at the end of a forty year reign (1 Kings 14:21; 2 Chronicles 12:13). Thus the import of 1 Kings 11:1 cannot be that Pharaoh's daughter was Solomon's first and therefore legitimate wife and that all subsequent wives were strange in the sense of being illegitimate.
Among Solomon's foreign wives were women of Moab and Ammon. Ammonites and Moabites were not to be received into the congregation of the Lord until the tenth generation (Deuteronomy 23:3). While marriage to a woman of these nations was not, strictly speaking, forbidden, such marriages must have been repugnant. The Edomites were viewed with more favor, being allowed to enter the congregation of the Lord in the third generation (Deuteronomy 23:7). The mention of Sidonians among the wives of Solomon has given rise to the tradition that Solomon married a daughter of Hiram.[294] One would not expect, however, a marriage to Hiram's daughter to be passed over without special mention. The Hittite women were from those kingdoms which had once been subject to the Hittite empire prior to the collapse of that empire about 1200 B.C. (1 Kings 11:1). With the exception of Jehoram who married Athaliah, the semi-Phoenician daughter of Ahab, none of Solomon's successors on the throne of Judah married foreign princesses so far as the record goes.[295]
[294] Meander of Tyre states that Solomon married the daughter of Hiram. Quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1, 114.2.
[295] Honor, JCBR, p. 151.
God desired His people to be separated from the pagan nations round about. The prohibition against association with idolaters served as a safeguard against intermarriage with them. On numerous occasions God had warned His people about intermarriage with foreign peoples. Of the nations enumerated in 1 Kings 11:1, the law expressly forbade marriage with the Hittites alone (Exodus 34:11-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-4), although the Sidonians are probably to be included in the prohibition as being Canaanites (cf. Genesis 10:15). But the principle which applied to marriage with the seven nations of Canaan applied equally to all other idolaters, viz., they will turn away your sons from following after me (Deuteronomy 7:4). Thus by marrying any of these foreign women Solomon was certainly violating the spirit of the law. Despite the prohibitions of the law and the warnings regarding such marriages, Solomon clung unto these women in love (1 Kings 11:2). By placing the object of the preposition before the verb, the Hebrew suggests an emphasis which may be missed in the English: even them Solomon clung to. Instead of clinging to God as commanded in the Law (Deuteronomy 4:4; Deuteronomy 10:20; Deuteronomy 30:20), Solomon chose to cling to his women!
Seven hundred of Solomon's wives were princesses, i.e., members of the royal houses of neighboring nations. His concubineswives of secondary ranknumbered three hundred. Keil suggests that these figures represent the total number in the harem at different periods of Solomon's reign rather than the number present at any one time. In all due respect to the interpretive genius of Keil, this does not appear to be the natural interpretation of the words. These numbers, when compared with the practice of other monarchs of the Near East, are not found at all to be incredible.[296]
[296] Hammond, PC, p. 221. Darius Codomannus took with him on his expedition against Alexander three hundred sixty female attendants.
The vast number of the harem suggests that Solomon was not motivated by sensuality in gathering these women. It is difficult to believe that a thousand women were kept for mere purposes of passion! The mention that seven hundred of these women were princesses suggests that the object of this array of mistresses was to enhance Solomon's state and renown. As he exceeded other kings in glory, wisdom, and power, so must he excel them, not only in armies, chariots, and horses, but also in the number of his wives. It was pride rather than passion that drove Solomon to violate God's command against the multiplication of wives. Solomon paid the price for his pride, for these women turned his heart away from God (1 Kings 11:3). Like Samson he became too weak to withstand the constant pressure of female importunity.[297]
[297] Farrar, SHLT, p. 143.
The time, manner, and extent of Solomon's defection are spelled out in 1 Kings 11:4. Solomon's wives got to him when he was old. As he was but sixty at the time of his death, old is here used in a relative sense and must mean toward the close of his life. The king's wives were successful in turning Solomon's heart away from his God and toward pagan deities. This need not be taken to mean that Solomon himself took part in idolatrous practices, but only that he sanctioned such practices in the vicinity of Jerusalem.[298] In his early reign he had been uneasy at the mere presence of Pharaoh's daughter in the city of David; but now he crowned the hills overlooking the Temple precincts with monuments to idolatry.
[298] A king who actually engaged in idolatry is said to have served other gods (cf. 1 Kings 16:31; 1 Kings 22:53; 2 Kings 16:3 etc.). The phrase went after other gods (1 Kings 11:5) is sometimes used of actual idolatry (Deuteronomy 11:28; Deuteronomy 13:2; Deuteronomy 28:14); but in the majority of passages, even this phrase is joined to some more precise phrase (e.g., and served them or and worshiped them) when participatory idolatry is intended.
Two of the deities to whom Solomon showed favor are named in 1 Kings 11:5. The first is Ashtoreth[299] who should not be confused with Asherah, the consort of Baal. Ashtoreth is the Hebrew name of Astarte, one of the principal Phoenician goddesses. She had many functions; in the main however she was goddess of fertility. As such she was worshiped by means of sexual intercourse in her temples. In Canaan she is first encountered among the offering lists and myths of the Ugaritic texts which date to about 1400 B.C. Her precise role in the Canaanite mythology is uncertain. Small clay figurines of her with her breasts and pudenda accentuated have been found in Palestinian excavations in great abundance.[300]
[299] The singular form of the name is found only here and in 2 Kings 23:13. More commonly the plural Ashtaroth is used in general statements about Canaanite paganism.
[300] Burrows, WMTS, p. 230f.
Milcom, the second deity mentioned in 1 Kings 11:5, was the god of the Ammonites. He is called an abomination because of the worship offered to him which included the sacrifice of little children. The children were not merely passed through the fire in some dedicatory rite, but were actually offered as whole burnt offerings to this deity. This is the first direct historical allusion to the worship of Milcom in the Old Testament, although a warning against this type of worship is found in Leviticus 20:2-5. The name is spelled Milcam in Jeremiah 49:13 and Amos 1:15, and Molech in 1 Kings 11:9 of the present chapter. It also would appear that the Ammonite god Milcom is the same deity called by the Moabites Chemosh[301] (1 Kings 11:7). Whether or not Solomon permitted the child sacrifice rituals to be performed in Jerusalem cannot be determined. Human sacrifice in Israel is first explicitly attested under Ahaz in Judah (2 Kings 16:3), and in Israel under Hoshea (2 Kings 17:17). No doubt the sacred historian would have voiced loud protest had Solomon permitted the sacrifice of innocent children in Jerusalem. Nonetheless, because of his inclination to permit idolatry within the environs of Jerusalem, Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord and was only half-hearted in his devotion to Him (1 Kings 11:6).
[301] Gray, OTL, pp. 258-59. Jephthah's reply to the Ammonites (Judges 11:24) seems to support this conclusion.
The extent to which Solomon went after pagan gods is spelled out in 1 Kings 11:7-8. He is said to have built a high placea shrinefor Chemosh the god of Moab on a hill beside Jerusalem. The hill upon which this shrine was erected was the Mt. of Olives on the east side of Jerusalem, which is called in 2 Kings 23:13 the mount of corruption. In the same vicinity Solomon erected a shrine for Molech the national god of Ammon (1 Kings 11:7). The king also built places of worship for all the other gods worshiped by his foreign wives. The women made use of these sanctuaries by offering incense and animal sacrifices to their respective deities (1 Kings 11:8).
With regard to the question of Solomon's apostasy, 1 Kings 11:8 is again suggestive. While Solomon built the altars, his wives sacrificed and worshiped at them. These shrines erected by Solomon remained for three hundred years inviolable and untouched even during the reigns of such reformers as Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah. At last they were removed during Josiah's thorough reform movement in the seventh century before Christ (2 Kings 23:13). The divine appraisal of Solomon's folly is nowhere more aptly stated than in the words of Nehemiah:
Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin (Nehemiah 13:26).
The Lord was extremely angry with Solomon because his allegiance to Him had grown cold. Exceptional favors had been granted to this man. Twice he had been permitted to receive direct revelations from God (1 Kings 11:9)once at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:5) and a second time in Jerusalem (1 Kings 9:2). He had been solemnly warned about pursuing other gods; but he had paid no heed to what the Lord had commanded (1 Kings 11:10). Therefore, the Lord in His anger pronounced a solemn judgment upon Solomon. No doubt the pronouncement came through the mouth of one of God's prophetsperhaps Ahijah or Iddofor it is hardly likely that God would condescend to grant this apostate prince yet another direct revelation. The message is dreadful. Because Solomon had failed to live up to his obligations before God, the Lord would rend the kingdom from him and give it to one of his servants (1 Kings 11:11).
How bitter is this decree! A mere servant would be heir to all of Solomon's glory and treasure. Yet God tempered the threat with two gracious and merciful limitations: (1) the blow would not fall until after the death of Solomon (1 Kings 11:12); and (2) the disruption would only be partial. One tribe, Judah,[302] would remain under the control of the Davidic dynasty. Two reasons are given for these merciful limitations: (1) for David my servant's sake, i.e., because of David's piety and because of the promises made to David (cf. 2 Samuel 7:13); and (2) far Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen (1 Kings 11:13). God had chosen Jerusalem as the site of His Temple and as the appropriate capital of His earthly kingdom.
[302] The tribes of Benjamin and Simeon were also a part of the kingdom left to the descendants of Solomon, but they were too small in number and significance to be specified at this point.
DIVINE COMMUNICATION TO SOLOMON
TIME
REFERENCE
MEANS
SUMMARY
At the Beginning of his Reign
In a Dream
Solomon promised riches and honor as well as wisdom
During the Temple Construction
By a Prophet
If he is faithful. God will dwell in the Temple
At the Height of his Prosperity
In a Dream
Warning that apostasy would lead to national destruction
At the Time of his Apostasy
By a Prophet
Announcement that the kingdom would be taken from Solomon's son