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 about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods.”^(C) To these women Solomon was deeply attached^[a] in love. ³ He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred who were concubines,^(D) and they turned his heart away.^(E)

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

⁷ At that time, Solomon built a high place^(J) for Chemosh,^(K) the abhorrent idol of Moab, and for Milcom,^[b](L) the abhorrent 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.