1 Kings 11:1-43
1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;
2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.
3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
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.
5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcoma the abomination of the Ammonites.
6 And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.
7 Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
8 And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
9 And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,
10 And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded.
11 Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.
12 Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.
13 Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen.
14 And the LORD stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite: he was of the king's seed in Edom.
15 For it came to pass, when David was in Edom, and Joab the captain of the host was gone up to bury the slain, after he had smitten every male in Edom;
16 (For six months did Joab remain there with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom:)
17 That Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father's servants with him, to go into Egypt; Hadad being yet a little child.
18 And they arose out of Midian, and came to Paran: and they took men with them out of Paran, and they came to Egypt, unto Pharaoh king of Egypt; which gave him an house, and appointed him victuals, and gave him land.
19 And Hadad found great favour in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him to wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.
20 And the sister of Tahpenes bare him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh's house: and Genubath was in Pharaoh's household among the sons of Pharaoh.
21 And when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to mine own country.
22 Then Pharaoh said unto him, But what hast thou lacked with me, that, behold, thou seekest to go to thine own country? And he answered, Nothing: howbeit let me gob in any wise.
23 And God stirred him up another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliadah, which fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah:
24 And he gathered men unto him, and became captain over a band, when David slew them of Zobah: and they went to Damascus, and dwelt therein, and reigned in Damascus.
25 And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, beside the mischief that Hadad did: and he abhorred Israel, and reigned over Syria.
26 And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon's servant, whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widow woman, even he lifted up his hand against the king.
27 And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo, and repairedc the breaches of the city of David his father.
28 And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious,d he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.
29 And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field:
30 And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces:
31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee:
32 (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:)
33 Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father.
34 Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand: but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my servant's sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes:
35 But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will give it unto thee, even ten tribes.
36 And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a lighte alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.
37 And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel.
38 And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee.
39 And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever.
40 Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, unto Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
41 And the rest of the actsf of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?
42 And the timeg that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.
43 And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboamh his son reigned in his stead.
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 was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon (1 Kings 11:25), whereas Solomon's apostasy is expressly assigned to the end of his reign (1 Kings 11:4) when Solomon was old. His adversaries belonged to the three nations which were destined to cause trouble to his successors on the throne of David, Edom represented by Hadad, Syria by Rezon, and Israel by Jeroboam.
In the LXX of 1 Kings 11:8 it is implied that not only did the king's wives sacrifice to their gods, but Solomon himself. The verse (1 Kings 11:3) giving the number of his wives appears in different places in the Heb. and LXX, and is perhaps a late insertion. The number is incredible. A large harem was not allowed in the Law to a king of Israel (Deuteronomy 17:17). In fact, polygamy was the exception and not the rule. The prohibitions to intermarry with the surrounding nations are Deuteronomy 7:1; Exodus 34:11 (P). In these, however, only the Hittites occur in the list of the nationalities of Solomon's wives (1 Kings 11:1), unless we include Zidonians as Canaanites. Ezra and Nehemiah discouraged marriages with Moabites and Ammonites (Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 13:23).
The deities to whom Solomon erected sanctuaries (1 Kings 11:5) were: (a) Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians (2 Kings 23:13). She was extensively worshipped, but especially in Phœ nicia. Her name was probably Ashtart, and the Heb. word is probably this pointed with the vowels of bosheth, i.e. shame (1 Kings 16:32 *, 1 Samuel 14:49 *, Judges 2:11 *). She is the Ishtar of Babylonia, and probably the Aphrodite of Greece. Lucian mentions a temple to her at Zidon (De Dea Syra, E. 4); see Driver, EBi. 167. (b) Milcom (1 Kings 11:5) is the same as Molech (1 Kings 11:7) or Moloch: they are all varieties of the word melek, king (Leviticus 18:21 *, Jeremiah 7:31 *). Except here the name has the article in Heb. the Moloch (or king). This worship was terribly common at Jerusalem, with its accompanying sacrifices of children. The god of Tyre was called Melkarth, and was identified by the Greeks with Hercules. (c) Chemosh, the national god of Moab (Judges 11:24), is mentioned frequently on the Moabite Stone. The scene of these idolatrous rites is described as the hill that is before Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:7). This is probably the Mt. of Olives, perhaps once known as the mount of anointing the words anointing and corruption being similar in Hebrew. In 2 Kings 23:13 we have the Mt. of Corruption. The hill S. of Jerusalem is now known by this name.
The narrative (1 Kings 11:14) concerning Hadad (Heb. Adad, 1 Kings 11:17) is somewhat confused. The difficulty is that in 1 Kings 11:17 Hadad is represented as a child when he went to Egypt, and in 1 Kings 11:19 as old enough to secure the Pharaoh's favour. Two narratives may have been combined, one of an Edomite chief Hadad, and another of a child named Adad. As the subsequent history shows, Hadad, though able to annoy Solomon, did not emancipate his country. Why he was so well received in Egypt is not known. Is it possible that here Egypt (Mizraim) is Musri in N. Arabia?
Rezon (1 Kings 11:23), the founder of the kingdom of Damascus, was a vassal of Hadad-ezer, the king of Zobah in Syria, who after his master's defeat (2 Samuel 8:3 ff.), established himself as an independent prince. In 1 Kings 15:18, the king of Syria, Benhadad, is called the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion. The Vatican MS. of the LXX calls Rezon (Esrom?) Hezron or Hezion.
The story of Jeroboam's rise to a position of influence is difficult for two reasons. (a) The whole account of him in 1 Kings is coloured by the prejudices of a much later age, and in view of all the evil which followed from the partition of the two kingdoms. (b) The LXX gives an independent account of his early progress at the court of Solomon. Two narratives have been combined an Israelite one which does not regard his rebellion as a crime, and an antagonistic Judæ an story told from a Deuteronomic standpoint. The LXX has the following particulars not in the Heb. Jeroboam was an Ephraimite. His mother's name was Sareisa. He built a city, and called it after his mother, and was banished to Egypt, where he was favourably received by Shishak. He married Anoth, the sister of Shishak's wife; and like Hadad, to whom he in this story bears a marked resemblance, insisted on going back to his native land.
1 Kings 11:29. Ahijah was a native of Shiloh, where Eli's sanctuary had been.
1 Kings 11:31. This is the first recorded symbolical act by a prophet, so common later. Ahijah rent his garment into twelve pieces, giving ten to Jeroboam. But it is repeatedly said (1 Kings 11:32; 1 Kings 12:20) that only one tribe remained to Rehoboam. Benjamin was sometimes reckoned with Judah, but Bethel, the rival sanctuary, was in its territory.
1 Kings 11:37. Jeroboam is to be king over Israel. Since David, Judah had been reckoned apart (2 Samuel 2:4; 2 Samuel 19:41 ff; 2 Samuel 20:2).
1 Kings 11:41 f. The duration of Solomon's reign is given at the end, and not, as is usual, at the beginning of the account. Forty years is probably an approximate figure, being the same as the reign of David. It is not, however, necessarily so, as the forty years of David are made up of two periods, seven as king of Judah, and thirty-three as ruler over all Israel. Solomon was a mere youth at his succession, so that even forty years would not have brought him to old age at the time of his death.