1 Kings 11
1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
Solomon loved many foreign women. From the book of Exodus up to the book of first kings, leaders, and the people, are warned against intermarrying with foreign women. Why? Is this the first instance of biblical racism? Not at all.
When the Israelites came into the promised land, they were tasked with clearing out the land to make room for their own people. God declared judgment on the Canaanites, due to over 400 years of opposition to God. When the Israelites inhabited the land, God said that the Canaanites had to be gone completely. Why? Because their very presence would turn the Israelites away from God.
The Israelites, of course, were not able to purge the land. Many of the conquering tribes merely chose to live with the people. Due to that “compromise”, they eventually intermarried and many were driven away to other gods.
God’s edict for the Jews not to intermarry wasn’t a racial profiling or anything racist at all. In fact, it was the plan to preserve the Jewish bloodline and to create a people who were wholly devoted to God. Instead they defiled it and could never recover in order to follow God fully.
This is true of Solomon as well. He marries foreign women, women from bloodlines God strictly forbade the Jews to marry into. In this violation, the exact thing happens to Solomon as predicted: they drive his heart away from God.
We also learn that Solomon has an enormous amount of wives and concubines! This not only speaks to his violation, again, of Deuteronomy 17, but his excess. Another point of interest is that these women were not all collected at the end of his reign, but throughout. Remember the Egyptian princess he married back in chapter 3? Well, that is an indication that he was doing this all along, even as he was doing great things for God (i.e., building the temple).
We see Solomon falling off the edge in a big way. His heart is not only driven away from God, but to the complete other side of the spectrum. He is seen worshipping Chemosh and Molek, two disgusting gods who require child sacrifice and sexual practices during their worship. Exactly what the Canaanites were into when the Israelites were tasked with cleaning them out of the promised land.
This is detestable to God. And God rips the kingdom out of Solomon’s grip. But you’ll notice the mercy as well. In regard to David, God will not tear the kingdom apart until after Solomon’s death. So for the remainder of Solomon’s life, he has to sit with the reality that he ultimately failed to follow God with a pure heart.
14 Then the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom. 15 Earlier when David was fighting with Edom, Joab the commander of the army, who had gone up to bury the dead, had struck down all the men in Edom. 16 Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom. 17 But Hadad, still only a boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his father. 18 They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking people from Paran with them, they went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food.
19 Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage. 20 The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath, whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There Genubath lived with Pharaoh’s own children.
21 While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David rested with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead. Then Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me go, that I may return to my own country.”
22 “What have you lacked here that you want to go back to your own country?” Pharaoh asked.
“Nothing,” Hadad replied, “but do let me go!”
23 And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. 24 When David destroyed Zobah’s army, Rezon gathered a band of men around him and became their leader; they went to Damascus, where they settled and took control. 25 Rezon was Israel’s adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel.
Solomon’s kingdom begins to crumble. Based on the events of the earlier passage, we see that God is bringing cracks into the seemingly perfect veneer of Solomon’s pride. Hadad is the main figure here. He flees to Egypt (a place where Israelites are not supposed to return) and is to become a snare for Solomon, with permission of the Pharaoh.
26 Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon’s officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah.
27 Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the terraces and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. 28 Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the tribes of Joseph.
Jeroboam will become a central figure in the split of the kingdom. He is different from the opposition above, because he is an Israelite, an official, in charge of the labor forces in Israel. We see that he will rebel against the king. The reasons will become more apparent as we continue on.
29 About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, 30 and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes. 32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. 33 I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.
This prophecy foretells the next step in Jeroboam’s journey. Ahijah tears his cloak into 12 pieces (twelve tribes of Israel) and tells him to take 10 for himself (10 northern tribes). God is going to break the kingdom up because Solomon has worshipped other gods. For the sake of David, one tribe will remain in his hands (Judah/Benjamin).
34 “‘But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who obeyed my commands and decrees. 35 I will take the kingdom from his son’s hands and give you ten tribes. 36 I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name. 37 However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. 38 If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. 39 I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not forever.’”
40 Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon’s death.
Solomon will continue his reign for the rest of his life. This is due to David’s faithfulness. But the kingdom will be snatched out of Solomon’s son’s hands (Reheboam). God tells Jeroboam that he will be given all the tribes, and is essentially given the same covenant God made with David. But the covenant is based on Jeroboam’s obedience to the word.
The last part of this gives a clue to where Jeroboam’s heart lies. Solomon tries to kill him (his heart is desperate). But where does Jeroboam flee to? Egypt! Already there is a sense that Jeroboam isn’t finely tuned to God.
Solomon’s Death
41 As for the other events of Solomon’s reign—all he did and the wisdom he displayed—are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon? 42 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
Solomon, who probably began his reign at about age 20, didn’t live a particularly long life. This is fulfillment of 1 Kings 3:14. He ultimately was disobedient to God, and his disobedience begins a very long slide into chaos for the Israelites.
1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
Solomon loved many foreign women. From the book of Exodus up to the book of first kings, leaders, and the people, are warned against intermarrying with foreign women. Why? Is this the first instance of biblical racism? Not at all.
When the Israelites came into the promised land, they were tasked with clearing out the land to make room for their own people. God declared judgment on the Canaanites, due to over 400 years of opposition to God. When the Israelites inhabited the land, God said that the Canaanites had to be gone completely. Why? Because their very presence would turn the Israelites away from God.
The Israelites, of course, were not able to purge the land. Many of the conquering tribes merely chose to live with the people. Due to that “compromise”, they eventually intermarried and many were driven away to other gods.
God’s edict for the Jews not to intermarry wasn’t a racial profiling or anything racist at all. In fact, it was the plan to preserve the Jewish bloodline and to create a people who were wholly devoted to God. Instead they defiled it and could never recover in order to follow God fully.
This is true of Solomon as well. He marries foreign women, women from bloodlines God strictly forbade the Jews to marry into. In this violation, the exact thing happens to Solomon as predicted: they drive his heart away from God.
We also learn that Solomon has an enormous amount of wives and concubines! This not only speaks to his violation, again, of Deuteronomy 17, but his excess. Another point of interest is that these women were not all collected at the end of his reign, but throughout. Remember the Egyptian princess he married back in chapter 3? Well, that is an indication that he was doing this all along, even as he was doing great things for God (i.e., building the temple).
We see Solomon falling off the edge in a big way. His heart is not only driven away from God, but to the complete other side of the spectrum. He is seen worshipping Chemosh and Molek, two disgusting gods who require child sacrifice and sexual practices during their worship. Exactly what the Canaanites were into when the Israelites were tasked with cleaning them out of the promised land.
This is detestable to God. And God rips the kingdom out of Solomon’s grip. But you’ll notice the mercy as well. In regard to David, God will not tear the kingdom apart until after Solomon’s death. So for the remainder of Solomon’s life, he has to sit with the reality that he ultimately failed to follow God with a pure heart.
14 Then the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom. 15 Earlier when David was fighting with Edom, Joab the commander of the army, who had gone up to bury the dead, had struck down all the men in Edom. 16 Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom. 17 But Hadad, still only a boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his father. 18 They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking people from Paran with them, they went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food.
19 Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage. 20 The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath, whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There Genubath lived with Pharaoh’s own children.
21 While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David rested with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead. Then Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me go, that I may return to my own country.”
22 “What have you lacked here that you want to go back to your own country?” Pharaoh asked.
“Nothing,” Hadad replied, “but do let me go!”
23 And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. 24 When David destroyed Zobah’s army, Rezon gathered a band of men around him and became their leader; they went to Damascus, where they settled and took control. 25 Rezon was Israel’s adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel.
Solomon’s kingdom begins to crumble. Based on the events of the earlier passage, we see that God is bringing cracks into the seemingly perfect veneer of Solomon’s pride. Hadad is the main figure here. He flees to Egypt (a place where Israelites are not supposed to return) and is to become a snare for Solomon, with permission of the Pharaoh.
26 Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon’s officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah.
27 Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the terraces and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. 28 Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the tribes of Joseph.
Jeroboam will become a central figure in the split of the kingdom. He is different from the opposition above, because he is an Israelite, an official, in charge of the labor forces in Israel. We see that he will rebel against the king. The reasons will become more apparent as we continue on.
29 About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, 30 and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes. 32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. 33 I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.
This prophecy foretells the next step in Jeroboam’s journey. Ahijah tears his cloak into 12 pieces (twelve tribes of Israel) and tells him to take 10 for himself (10 northern tribes). God is going to break the kingdom up because Solomon has worshipped other gods. For the sake of David, one tribe will remain in his hands (Judah/Benjamin).
34 “‘But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who obeyed my commands and decrees. 35 I will take the kingdom from his son’s hands and give you ten tribes. 36 I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name. 37 However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. 38 If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. 39 I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not forever.’”
40 Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon’s death.
Solomon will continue his reign for the rest of his life. This is due to David’s faithfulness. But the kingdom will be snatched out of Solomon’s son’s hands (Reheboam). God tells Jeroboam that he will be given all the tribes, and is essentially given the same covenant God made with David. But the covenant is based on Jeroboam’s obedience to the word.
The last part of this gives a clue to where Jeroboam’s heart lies. Solomon tries to kill him (his heart is desperate). But where does Jeroboam flee to? Egypt! Already there is a sense that Jeroboam isn’t finely tuned to God.
Solomon’s Death
41 As for the other events of Solomon’s reign—all he did and the wisdom he displayed—are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon? 42 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
Solomon, who probably began his reign at about age 20, didn’t live a particularly long life. This is fulfillment of 1 Kings 3:14. He ultimately was disobedient to God, and his disobedience begins a very long slide into chaos for the Israelites.