²³ All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.^(A)

²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?^(A)

Solomon’s Errors

11 King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,^{(A) 2} from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the Israelites, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.^{(B) 3} Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. ⁴ For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.^{(C) 5} For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.^{(D) 6} So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not completely follow the Lord, as his father David had done. ⁷ Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites on the mountain east of Jerusalem.^{(E) 8} He did the same for all his foreign wives who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.

¹¹ God said to him, “Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or for the life of your enemies but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,^{(A) 12} I now do according to your word. Indeed, I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you, and no one like you shall arise after you.^(B)

⁵ for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,^[a] knowing good and evil.”