1 Kings 11:1-8

The Voice

11 King Solomon loved countless women from other countries—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites—as well as Pharaoh’s daughter.

² All the countries of the king’s lovers were heathen countries that the Eternal One had warned the Israelites about: “Do not mingle with them, and do not allow them to mingle with you. They will corrupt you and lead you away from Me. They will seduce your hearts to follow their own gods.”^[a] But Solomon clung to these lovers. ³ He had 700 royal wives, as well as 300 mistresses. And his wives and mistresses seduced his heart away from God.

⁴ Solomon followed the Lord during youth and middle age, but when Solomon was an old man, these women seduced him into following other gods. His heart was led astray and no longer completely belonged to the Eternal One, his True God, as his father David’s heart did. ⁵ Solomon pursued Ashtoreth (the Sidonian goddess) and Milcom (the abomination of the Ammonites). ⁶ Solomon abandoned his lifelong integrity and committed evil in the eyes of the Eternal. He did not follow Him completely, as his father David had. ⁷ Instead Solomon constructed a high place on the mountain east of Jerusalem for Chemosh (Moab’s horrific idol) and for Molech (the Ammonites’ abhorrence). ⁸ He constructed such sites for all his wives from other countries, so that they would have a place to burn incense and offer sacrifices to their many gods.