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.
1 Kings 11:1. Solomon loved many strange women, of gentile nations, and was connected with them. To this day thousands of women in India are married to great men merely as a mark of honour, and they die at home without ever seeing their unlawful husbands.
1 Kings 11:3. Seven hundred wives. In the Canticle or Song of Solomon, he says that he had sixty queens, eighty concubines, and virgins without number, who were employed as maids and servants in his various palaces. Hence we ought candidly to allow, though he had a thousand women in his palaces, he had not intercourse with more than the law of custom accounted his wives. What is far worse, those indulgences rendered his salvation doubtful, and proved calamitous to his posterity. It is true, Ahasuerus and most of the eastern kings did the same. Esther 2:3. But from Solomon a better example might have been expected; for the divine law forbade the kings of Israel to imitate the tyrants of the gentiles in multiplying wives. Happy, had he obeyed his own proverb: Delight thyself in the wife of thy youth, and let her breasts satisfy thee at all times.
1 Kings 11:4. When Solomon was old. This should have been a ripening time for heaven; but alas, these foreign queens, having all along secreted their idols, now took advantage of the king's weakness to get little altars and chapels erected for them. What good results from foreign alliances by marriage! The quarrels, the wars, and the mischiefs are often far more than the advantages.
1 Kings 11:5. Ashtoreth. See Joshua 23:7; Judges 10:6.
1 Kings 11:7. Chemosh, the god of drunkenness, Priapus.
1 Kings 11:27. Solomon built Millo, the fortress which commanded the temple, on an elevation adjoining the wall of the temple.
1 Kings 11:40. Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam, a brave but misguided man. This shows that when the glory of divine defence departed from Solomon, he lost his allies abroad, and all his friends at home. It is said that while Solomon almost destroyed the lower city to build the fortress of Millo, and make a grand ascent to the temple, and lay heavy imposts on the people, that Jeroboam opposed Solomon, and thereby incurred his high displeasure.
REFLECTIONS.
After tracing this prince and sun of Israel to his high meridian lustre, we see the evening of life beclouded with the thickest darkness, and excessive shame. While engaged for more than twenty years in augmenting the happiness of his people, in the most splendid architecture, and in fortifying his empire, he was the pride and glory of Israel; but now, falling so grossly by one unregulated passion, who would not despise him as the meanest of men. After spending his youth in the love of wisdom, he degraded his old age by the doting folly of uxorious weakness. After building the temple and altar of the Lord, he built an altar on mount Olivet to idols. Thus the glory of his youth, and all his active years, was less than the shame of his declining life.
The effects which his habits produced on his body are very instructive. He was a feeble worn-out man, when but fifty years of age: and the operations of the strongest intellects are always enfeebled by the weakness of the brain. Sardanapalus, the last of the Assyrian monarchs, assumed a woman's habit, and shut himself up with his wives, till he became more effeminate than a woman. When Arbactus, his lieutenant over the Medes, had gained access to him, though not without the greatest difficulty, he found him spinning purple, and assigning tasks to the ladies, which provoked him so that he immediately revolted, and ultimately compelled the lascivious sovereign to burn himself in his palace. Justin, lib. 1. cap. 3. So the great Nebuchadnezzar, after all his conquests, and after rebuilding Babylon, was driven from the society of men, by an imbecility probably super-induced by the same cause. And how many other aged men, distinguished in youth by a multitude of virtues, have degraded old age by the predominancy of some lurking passion, not sufficiently mortified in the vigour of life.
Solomon, now made weak and loaded with folly, was hurried into sin in his old age, to which through the whole of life he had never discovered the smallest propensity. The blame of his fall therefore very much attaches to the apostate and faithless people who surrounded his person. His courtiers flattered his passion, the merchants converted it into gain by the introduction of idolatrous women. Thus when a man is deeply corrupted, without a miracle of grace, he usually runs with greater and greater impetuosity, till he plunges himself into utter destruction. The women, as might naturally be expected, availing themselves of his weakness, would allure him to their feasts, familiarise his ears with incantations to their household gods, and then induce him to bend the knee. And having secretly corrupted his heart, they prevailed upon him to build them altars on the hills, and opposite the very temple he had built to the Lord of hosts. What sad monuments of insult to his father's God: what proofs of his weakness, wickedness, and fall. What a subject of weeping to the truly faithful in the land!
After crimes committed, God sends admonitions; and then, when repentance fails, punishments ensue. Such is the order of providence in every age. But it is really astonishing that among all the fattened priests and levites in the temple, not one of them out of zeal for the Lord resigned his place. Ahijah alone, whose heart was pure, was counted worthy to bear a faithful message from the insulted JEHOVAH to the fallen king. The prophet reproaches him with his sin, and apprizes him that the family covenant, twice renewed by special revelation, was forfeited; and consequently his life and kingdom were likewise forfeited. But he added, the early judgments of God having mercy for their object, that in consideration of David's piety, he would still leave the tribe of Judah in the hands of his family; and with this tribe Benjamin was now associated. How humbling, yet consoling, is the mention of a faithful father to his faithless son. David erred as well as Solomon; but of David's repentance we have the fullest proof, while of Solomon's we have nothing but the dubious repentance in the book of Ecclesiastes. Our Lord mentions his glory, but not his restoration; and St. Paul has enrolled the father, but not the son, among the cloud of witnesses.
The punishments denounced by the prophet, followed in the order of providence. Hadad, prince of Edom, returned to his country when the young men were grown; for Joab had exercised the severest laws of war against the males in all the cities which refused to surrender. Rezon did the same in Damascus. Both those princes threw off the yoke of Israel, and set Solomon at defiance. But the divine call of Jeroboam to the throne of Israel, was the most serious stroke to the house of David, and to the whole nation. And had this brave man been faithful to God, and refrained from setting up the golden calves, the Lord would have made his throne equal to the throne of David. Oh Lord God of Israel, and of all the earth, what is this that we learn from thine awful ways? Were the house of Phinehas, the house of Eli, and the house of Abiathar, successively rejected from the priesthood? Did Samson lose his presidency, Saul his throne, and Solomon the ten tribes by sin? Let the first of saints and the wisest of men tremble, lest even in old age they should forfeit thy favour. So shall thy covenant remain for ever with us and with our children; for this light of David is Messiah the light of the world.