1 Kings 11:1-13
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
11 But King Solomon [defiantly] loved many foreign women—the [a]daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites.
2 They were of the very nations of whom the Lord said to the Israelites, You shall not mingle with them, neither shall they mingle with you, for surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Yet Solomon clung to these in love.(A)
3 He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart from God.
4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect (complete and whole) with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abominable idol of the Ammonites!(B)
6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as David his father did.
7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abominable idol of Moab, on the hill opposite Jerusalem, and for Molech the abominable idol of the Ammonites.
8 And he did so [b]for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
9 And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord, the God of Israel, Who had appeared to him twice,
10 And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he did not do what the Lord commanded.
11 Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you are doing this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely rend the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant!
12 However, in your days I will not do it, for David your father’s sake. But I will rend it out of the hand of your son!
13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to your son for David My servant’s sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Kings 11:1 “Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh out of the City of David into the house he had built for her, for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy to which the ark of the Lord has come” (II Chron. 8:11). God had given Solomon the name “Jedidiah [beloved of the Lord]” (II Sam. 12:25), yet he chose to be the beloved of heathen women instead, in defiance of God’s covenant with him.
- 1 Kings 11:8 What all this did to Solomon’s sweet fellowship with God is to be seen in Ecclesiastes. Take the sun out of the sky, and all earth’s beauty and fruitfulness will go also. Take God out of your sky, and life’s joys will be turned to dregs, bitterness, and futility. Solomon had deliberately chosen to live “under the sun” instead of under God. In the awareness of his own unquestionable greatness, he had become indifferent to the fact that “here is more than Solomon” (Luke 11:31) and that to scorn or ignore God is fatal. With all his wisdom he failed to recognize that “God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions or by His precepts being set aside)... For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap” (Gal. 6:7).
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