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.
Chapter eleven.
But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughters of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites (1 Kings 11:1);
Now turn back for a moment to Deuteronomy chapter seventeen, beginning with verse fourteen. Here under the law four hundred years before the time of David, before the time of Solomon, God foresaw that the day would come when the people would demand a king. And so even in the law, God gave certain commandments for the kings.
"When you are come unto the land which the LORD thy God gives you, thou shall possess, and shall possess it, and your dwelling there, and you will say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are about me; thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among your brothers shall you set as the king: that you may not set a stranger over thee. But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, [Why?] that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write a copy of the law of the book which is before the priests of the Levites: and it shall be that he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn the fear of the LORD his God, to keep the words of the law and statutes" (Deuteronomy 17:14-19).
Now Solomon you know just disobeyed in all cases. First of all, he multiplied horses. He had forty thousand horses. He began to go down to Egypt, verse twenty-eight, had horses brought out of Egypt. And then chapter eleven, he loved many strange women. And we are told in that he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. And we've been reading how he multiplied gold and silver around Jerusalem. He did exactly those things that God said he should not do.
Now the reason why the Lord said the king shouldn't do these things lest their hearts be turned away from the Lord. And what happened to Solomon? His heart was turned away from the Lord.
There is an old saying that declares, "The dice of the gods are loaded." By which they are saying you cannot go against God's word and win. God has established His word. And you cannot, you cannot violate the Word of God and win. Anytime you violate God's word, you are a loser.
And Solomon, with all of his wisdom, all of his blessings, disobeyed the commandment of the Lord and just as God said, it happened. His heart was turned away from the Lord, verse three.
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. And it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not completely towards Jehovah his God, as was the heart of David his father. Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, did not go fully after the LORD, as David his father. And then Solomon built a 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. And likewise did he for all of his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods (1 Kings 11:3-8).
So for each of his wives he built a little shrine, a worship shrine that they might worship the gods that were native to their own ethnic groups. And "his heart wasn't fully towards Jehovah his God." And in his wives turned him away from the Lord.
So the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD the God of Israel, which had appeared to him twice, and he commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded. Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and you have not kept the covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and give it to thy servant. However it will not happen in your days but it will happen in the days of your son. So the LORD stirred up began to stir up adversaries against Solomon, [the first adversary was] Hadad who was an Edomite (1 Kings 11:9-12; 1 Kings 11:14):
Now David had just about exterminated all of the males in Edom. In fact, Joab stayed down there for six months to make sure that they killed all of the men. But one of the princes of Edom whose name was Hadad escaped down to Egypt and there he married the daughter of the Pharaoh in Egypt and he became a very powerful man. When he heard that David and Joab were dead, then he requested the Pharaoh that he might be able to go back to Edom and the Pharaoh said, What's the matter? You've got everything here. Why would you want to go back there? But Hadad insisted and came back to Edom, gathered a company of men and he began to make excursions against the southern borders of Israel and harassment against Solomon. The other one who began to harass Solomon was up in the area of Damascus and he also began to harass Solomon in the northern borders of their land.
Now beginning with verse twenty-six, we find that
Jeroboam lifted up his hand against the king. And Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and when Solomon saw that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all of the charge of the house of Joseph (1 Kings 11:26; 1 Kings 11:28).
Which would be the northern part.
And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh found him there in the way; and he had just bought him a new robe; and Ahijah grabbed hold of the robe and he ripped the thing. And then he ripped it into twelve pieces: And he gave unto Jeroboam ten pieces: and he said, Thus the Lord is going to tear the kingdom away from Solomon, [and from the house of David] and the Lord is going to give you ten tribes to rule over: (and He's going to just leave one tribe for the house of David:) (1 Kings 11:29-32)
That is, one tribe outside of Judah. And so the Southern Kingdom was Judah and Benjamin. And the Northern Kingdom, of course, were the other ten tribes. They comprise the kingdom that became known as Israel and the southern two became known as Judah. So here is the prophecy of Ahijah to Jeroboam. The fact that he is going to become the ruler and the king over ten of the tribes of Israel.
And so the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon (1 Kings 11:41)?
Now here is a book of the Bible that we do not have. There are many books that are mentioned that we do not have. They would add perhaps somewhat to the color and the life history of Solomon if we could only find one of these books, the acts of Solomon, the wisdom of this man. We do have the book of Proverbs; we do have the Song of Solomon. He wrote a thousand and five songs, we have one in the Bible, the Song of Solomon. I've never counted the number of proverbs that we have in the book of Proverbs but he actually wrote three thousand proverbs. We do have the book of the proverbs but there is also another book, the Acts of Solomon that we do not have that record, much of his wisdom and all. It would be very interesting to have but we really don't need it for God's revelation to us of His purposes and all.
So Solomon slept with his fathers, was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead (1 Kings 11:43). "