Solomon’s wives
1 King Solomon loved many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh. There were Mo abite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sido nian and Hittite women
2 from nations about which Yahweh had commanded the Israelites, “You shall not marry them; nor shall they marry you, lest they win over your heart to their gods.” Solomon, however, imitated these peoples because of his love.
3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth, and three hundred concubines, and they won his heart.
4 In Solomon’s old age, his wives led him astray to serve other gods and, unlike his father David, his heart was no longer wholly given to Yahweh his God.
5 For he served Astarte the goddess of the Sido nians, and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites.
6 He did what displeased Yahweh and, unlike his father David, was unfaithful to him.
7 Solomon even built a high place for Chemosh, the idol of Moab, on the mountain east of Jerusalem and also for Molech, the idol of the Ammo nites.
8 He did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
9 Yahweh became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel.
10 Yahweh appeared to him twice and commanded him not to follow other gods. But he did not obey Yahweh’s com mand.
11 There fore, Yahweh said to Solo mon, “Since this has been your choice and you have kept neither my Covenant nor the statutes I commanded you, I will take the kingdom from you and give it to your servant.
12 Neverthe less, I will not do this during your lifetime for the sake of your father David; I will take it from your son.
13 But I will not take it all; I will reserve one tribe for your son for the sake of David my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen.”
Solomon’s enemies
14 And Yahweh raised up an adversary against Solomon. This was Hadad, the Edomite of the royal house in Edom.
15 Indeed, when David had defeated Edom, and Joab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, he slew every male in Edom.
16 Joab and the Israelites remained in the place for six months until he had destroyed every male in Edom.
17 However Hadad, then still only a boy, fled to Egypt together with some Edo mites, his father’s servants.
18 They left Midian for Paran and, taking along with them some of the men from Paran, they went on to Egypt to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house, promised him food and gave him land.
19 Hadad pleased Pharaoh, who gave him as wife the sister of Queen Tahpenes, his own wife.
20 The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son, Genubath, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh’s house, and who lived there together with Pharaoh’s sons.
21 And so when Hadad heard in Egypt that David had slept with his fathers, and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead, he said to Pharaoh, “Let me go back to my own country.”
22 Pharaoh asked him, “What have I not done that you want to leave for your own country?” But he answered him, “Please, let me go.” And he came back to his land. He ruled over Edom and hated Israel.
23 God raised up another adversary in the person of Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah.
24 Rezon gathered men around him and be came the leader of a marauding band. After David fought them and killed some of them, they went to live in Damascus where they made him king.
25 He was an adversary of Israel during Solo mon’s lifetime.
Ahijah foretells the division of the kingdom
26 Jeroboam also rebelled against the king. He was the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah; his mother, Zeruah, had been left a widow. He was one of Solomon’s officials.
27 This was the reason for his rebellion. Solomon was building the Millo and was closing up the breach of the City of David his father;
28 when he noticed that Jero boam was a man of great personal worth and an able worker, he put him in charge of all the forced labor of the tribes of Joseph.
29 Once, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahi jah of Shiloh found him on the road. The two of them were alone in the open country
30 when Ahijah, who had a new gar ment on, clutched and tore it into twelve pieces.
31 He then said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for your self for this is the word of Yahweh, the God of Israel:
‘I am about to tear the kingdom from Solomon’s hands
32 to give you ten tribes. Only one tribe shall be left to him for the sake of my servant David and Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
33 For Solomon has forsaken me and worshiped Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, Che mosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. Unlike his father David, he has not walked in my ways to do what is right before me and to keep my commandments and decisions.
34 Nevertheless, it is not from him that I will take the kingdom. I will let him reign during his lifetime for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who kept my commandments and statutes.
35 But I will take the kingship from his son’s hand and make you king over ten tribes.
36 One tribe will be left for his son so that my servant David may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my Name.
37 I will let you reign over all you wish; you shall be king of Israel.
38 Now, if you obey all that I command you, follow me and do what is right in my eyes, if you keep my commandments and my statutes, as my servant David did, I will be with you and establish your family for a long time, as I did for David. I will entrust Israel to you.
39 In this way I will humble the family of David for a time’.”
40 Solomon wanted to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam took refuge in Egypt with Shishak king of Egypt, where he re mained until the death of Solomon.
41 Now the rest of the events of Solo mon’s reign, his deeds and his wisdom, are written in the book of the acts of Solomon.
42 Solomon reigned over all Is rael in Jerusalem for forty years.
43 Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David; Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.
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Comments 1 Kings, Chapter 11
• 11.1 The Bible is not scandalized at So lomon’s having several wives. At that time, to have many wives was an indication of a man’s wealth. The Bible rebukes him for taking pa gan wives. In this way, Solomon entered into an alliance with these peo ple who did not know God, imitating them in their materialism.
Luxury corrupts wisdom. Solomon makes a show of his manliness, unaware of the fact that his wives are ordering him around. These foreign women arrive with their priests and their pagan cults that will draw Israel into idolatry and materialism.
The people thought that the king blessed by Yahweh had to be surrounded with luxury and honors. Later the prophets would recall that power, wealth and luxury numb the heart of a ruler (Dt 17:14). All peoples in the course of history have had the same experience. Even in the Church, for centuries the faithful thought it fitting that their bishops and popes assume the appearance of nobles, and we are still paying the consequences of that error.
You have kept neither my Covenant nor the statutes (v. 11). Solomon’s real sin consists in directing his life and his nation without seeking God’s will. He lives like any other king and works out his own ambitions, thinking it is enough to ask Yahweh’s blessings.
• 26. Jeroboam also rebelled against the king. In the last years of Solomon, several of his opponents stir up rebellion. Now appears the man who will take most of the country from Solo mon’s son and definitively divide the people.
In the poem about the Tower of Babel (Gen 11), the division of the peoples was presented as the consequence of and punishment for arrogant politics. It will be the same for the Kingdom of Israel.
I am… to give you ten tribes. Israel counts twelve tribes. In reality, one could speak of two. In the south, there is Judah with its neighbor, Simeon, a very small group. In the north, there are the tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin, heading the other tribes of lesser importance. After David united them, Absalom, and others after him, stimulated the desire for autonomy in the north. Solomon’s dictatorship, which weighed more heavily on the northern tribes, prepared for the separation.
The prophet Ahijah says that Yahweh will divide the kingdom to punish Solomon. This is a way of speaking. Everyone prepares his own punishment and the division comes directly from the errors and the sins of the king.