1 Kings 11:1-23

Holman Christian Standard Bible

Solomon’s Unfaithfulness to God

11 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter:^(A) Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women^{(B) 2} from the nations that the Lord had told the Israelites about, “Do not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn you away from Me to their gods.”^(C) Solomon was deeply attached to these women and loved them. ³ He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines,^(D) and they turned his heart away from the Lord.^(E)

⁴ When Solomon was old, his wives seduced him to follow other gods. He was not completely devoted to Yahweh his God, as his father David had been.^{(F) 5} Solomon followed Ashtoreth,^(G) the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom,^(H) the detestable idol of the Ammonites.^{(I) 6} Solomon did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, and unlike his father David, he did not completely follow Yahweh.

⁷ At that time, Solomon built a high place^(J) for Chemosh,^(K) the detestable idol of Moab, and for Milcom,^[a](L) the detestable idol of the Ammonites, on the hill across from Jerusalem.^{(M) 8} He did the same for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.

⁹ The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.^{(N) 10} He had commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon did not do what the Lord had commanded.^(O)

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Solomon, “Since you have done this^[b] and did not keep My covenant and My statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.^{(P) 12} However, I will not do it during your lifetime because of your father David;^(Q) I will tear it out of your son’s hand. ¹³ Yet I will not tear the entire kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son^(R) because of my servant David and because of Jerusalem that I chose.”

Solomon’s Enemies

¹⁴ So the Lord raised up^(S) Hadad the Edomite as an enemy against Solomon. He was of the royal family in Edom. ¹⁵ Earlier, when David was in Edom, Joab, the commander of the army, had gone to bury the dead and had struck down every male in Edom. ¹⁶ For Joab and all Israel had remained there six months, until he had killed every male in Edom.^{(T) 17} Hadad fled to Egypt, along with some Edomites from his father’s servants. At the time Hadad was a small boy. ¹⁸ Hadad and his men set out from Midian and went to Paran.^(U) They took men with them from Paran and went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt,^(V) who gave Hadad a house, ordered that he be given food, and gave him land. ¹⁹ Pharaoh liked Hadad so much that he gave him a wife, the sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes. ²⁰ Tahpenes’ sister gave birth to Hadad’s son Genubath. Tahpenes herself weaned him in Pharaoh’s palace, and Genubath lived there along with Pharaoh’s sons.

²¹ When Hadad heard in Egypt that David rested with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me leave, so I can go to my own country.”

²² But Pharaoh asked him, “What do you lack here with me for you to want to go back to your own country?”

“Nothing,” he replied, “but please let me leave.”

²³ God raised up Rezon son of Eliada as an enemy^(W) against Solomon. Rezon had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah^(X)