1 Kings 11:1-8

Modern English Version

Solomon’s Apostasy

11 But King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, ² from the nations which the Lord warned the children of Israel about, saying, “You shall not go in to them, nor shall they come in to you, for they will surely turn your heart away toward their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. ³ He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. ⁴ For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been. ⁵ For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Molek, the abomination of the Ammonites. ⁶ Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not fully follow the Lord as his father David had done.

⁷ Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is close to Jerusalem, and for Molek, the abomination of the children of Ammon. ⁸ He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.