1 Kings 11:1-13

Living Bible

11 King Solomon married many other girls besides the Egyptian princess. Many of them came from nations where idols were worshiped^[a]—Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from the Hittites— ² even though the Lord had clearly instructed his people not to marry into those nations, because the women they married would get them started worshiping their gods. Yet Solomon did it anyway. ³ He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines; and sure enough, they turned his heart away from the Lord, ⁴ especially in his old age. They encouraged him to worship their gods instead of trusting completely in the Lord as his father David had done. ⁵ Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the horrible god of the Ammonites. ⁶ Thus Solomon did what was clearly wrong and refused to follow the Lord as his father David did. ⁷ He even built a temple on the Mount of Olives, across the valley from Jerusalem, for Chemosh, the depraved god of Moab, and another for Molech, the unutterably vile god of the Ammonites. ⁸ Solomon built temples for these foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.

^9-10 Jehovah was very angry with Solomon about this, for now Solomon was no longer interested in the Lord God of Israel who had appeared to him twice to warn him specifically against worshiping other gods. But he hadn’t listened, ¹¹ so now the Lord said to him, “Since you have not kept our agreement and have not obeyed my laws, I will tear the kingdom away from you and your family and give it to someone else. ^12-13 However, for the sake of your father David, I won’t do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son. And even so I will let him be king of one tribe, for David’s sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, my chosen city.”