1 Kings 3:1-2

IV. PHARAOH'S UNPRECEDENTED RECOGNITION OF Song of Solomon 3:1

TRANSLATION

(1) Then Solomon became allied to Pharaoh king of Egypt by marriage, for he took the daughter of Pharaoh, and brought her unto the city of David, until he had finished building his house, the house of the LORD and the wall of Jerusalem round about.

COMMENTS

The note concerning Solomon's marriage to Pharaoh's daughter is inserted at this point in the narrative for two reasons: (1) because it demonstrates how Solomon was able to strengthen his position through this important external alliance; and (2) because chronologically this marriage probably came shortly after the suppression of the internal foes described in the previous chapter.[127] This marriage has not been given the attention it deserves. Yet here is a political occurrence without parallel, not only in Israelite, but also in Egyptian history. No other example has yet been found of a Pharaoh's daughter being given in marriage to a foreign royal house. But never before had a power comparable to the kingdom of David and Solomon arisen on Egypt's frontiers, and this perhaps explains the sudden change in the long-standing Egyptian policy of refusing to give Pharaoh's daughter in marriage to foreign royalty.[128]

[127] According to 1 Kings 9:24 the Egyptian princess lived in the city of David unto the completion of Solomon's building projects. These projects were begun in the fourth year of his reign. The last event of chapter two, the death of Shimei, took place in Solomon's third year (1 Kings 2:39).

[128] Abraham Malamat, The Kingdom of David and Solomon in its Contact with Egypt and Aram Naharaim, BAR, II, 91-92. Kadashmanenlil, king of Babylon, asked for the hand of Amenhotep III'S daughter and was refused in the following terms: From of old, a daughter of the king of Egypt has not been given to anyone.

The Pharaoh who gave his daughter to Solomon cannot be positively identified. The kings of the twenty-first dynasty (1085-945 B.C.) were ruling at the time of David and during the first half of Solomon's reign. Under this dynasty Egyptian power declined and the country broke up into two separate units, the Theban theocracy in the South, and the kingdom of Tanis in the North. Certain archaeological evidence discovered in Tanis may furnish a clue as to the identity of Solomon's father-in-law. Here a bas-relief of King Siamon, the predecessor of Psusennes II, the last king of the twenty-first dynasty, was discovered. It depicted the king in the act of slaying an enemy, most likely from among the Sea Peoples. On the basis of this evidence it has been suggested that Siamon made a military expedition against the Philistines in the course of which he conquered the city of Gezer on the frontier between Philistia and Israel, a conquest which the Bible ascribes to Solomon's father-in-law (1 Kings 9:16). Even if this does not constitute incontrovertible proof of the identity of this Pharaoh, chronologically only the last two kings of the twenty-first dynasty fit the identification.[129]

[129] Malamat, BAR, II, 93.

Solomon's marriage was strictly political, an arrangement between two families in which any courtship was out of the question. Treaties between nations were customarily sealed by intermarriage of the two royal houses. Solomon needed the recognition of the prestigious and once powerful Egypt to help make his claim to the throne secure. Pharaoh needed trade concessions from the king who now controlled the important north-south highways, as well as assurance that his powerful neighbor would not attempt to expand his domain southward. Albeit, this alliance must have been very shocking to the average Israelite since Egypt was the ancestral foe of Israel. Solomon brought his new wife to the city of David and there she lived in the palace formerly occupied by David (2 Chronicles 8:11) until Solomon was able to complete his building projects on Mt. Moriahhis own house, the Temple and the rest of the wall of the city (1 Kings 3:1). He began building the Temple in the fourth year of his reign (1 Kings 6:1) and his own house in his eleventh year (1 Kings 7:1).

Marriage with foreign women is not without precedent in Old Testament history. Joseph married an Egyptian woman (Genesis 41:45); Moses married a Midianite woman (Exodus 2:21) and later a Cushite (Numbers 12:1), Rahab (Matthew 1:5) and Ruth (Ruth 4:13) both were foreign women who married Israelite men and became part of the genealogy of Christ. Only marriage to Canaanite women is specifically condemned in the Law of Moses (Exodus 34:11-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-5), and even that restriction apparently applied only to uncoverted Canaanite women. Thus while Solomon was within the letter of the law, the spirit of the Law of Moses would require that the foreign wife renounce idolatry and pledge allegiance to the Lord. Did Pharaoh's daughter abandon her idols upon becoming the wife of Solomon? Three factors lead one to believe that such was the case: (1) Solomon at this period of his life was an enthusiastic observer of the Law; (2) the king is never condemned for this particular marriage; and (3) no trace of Egyptian idolatry or religious rites can be found in Israel at this time.[130]

[130] Hammond, PC, p. 50.

V. SOLOMON'S COMMITMENT TO GOD 3:1-2

TRANSLATION

(2) Only the people were sacrificing in the high places because a house for the name of the LORD had not been built until those days. (3) And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, except in the high places he was sacrificing and offering incense.

COMMENTS

Just as Pharaoh's daughter was compelled to live in the city of David because Solomon's palace was not yet finished, so also the people were forced to continue worshiping God at high places until Solomon's Temple was completed (1 Kings 3:2). These high places (Heb., bamoth) sometimes consisted of an altar alone, but often a shrine was erected near by. The Canaanites were accustomed to worshiping on such high places long before the Israelites entered the land. Sometimes Canaanite high places were taken over by the Israelites, modified and converted to the worship of the Lord. The high place at Gibeon mentioned in 1 Kings 3:4 may have been once used in the worship of the Canaanite pantheon.

At the commencement of his reign, Solomon sincerely attempted to observe the statutes of David, i.e., the laws of God which David had kept (cf. 1 Kings 3:6; 1 Kings 3:14), and which he had commanded Solomon to keep (1 Kings 2:4). The only blemish on the record of Solomon in those early years was that he worshiped God at the high places (1 Kings 3:3). The author of Kings does not say that such worship was sinful; he only is suggesting that it was less than ideal. It was an imperfection that God winked at in the period before the Temple was built.