Solomon’s fall into sin and God’s message to him
11
📚But King Solomon loved many foreign women 📖 along with the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, 2 📚of the nations concerning which the LORD said to the children of Israel, “You must not go in to them and they must not come in to you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods”. Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 📚And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart 📖. 11:3 Of what value is the greatest wisdom if we are unable to govern our own desires?⚜
4 📚For it came about, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of his father David 📖 had been. 5 📚For Solomon went after Ashtoreth 📖, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom 📖, the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 📚And Solomon did 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 east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. 8 📚And he did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
11:8 The gods mentioned above were only a few among many which Solomon allowed to be brought into God’s land and God’s city. And with them, we have good reason to think, came a whole host of demons. When Solomon lost the fear of God he lost much of his wisdom, at least in spiritual matters – Ps 111:10; Prov 1:7.⚜
9 📚And the LORD was angry 📖 with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared 📖 to him twice, 10 📚and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not follow other gods. But he did not observe what the LORD commanded. 11 📚Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since you have done this, and have not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you, and give it to your servant.
12 📚However, I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
11:12 Because of God’s promise to David in 2 Sam 7:14-16.⚜
13 📚However, I will not tear away the whole kingdom, but will give one tribe 📖 to your son for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem 📖 which I have chosen”.
Solomon’s enemies Hadad, Rezon, Jeroboam
14 📚And the LORD stirred up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite. He was of the royal house of Edom. 15 📚For it so happened, when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army had gone up to bury the slain, after he had struck down every male in Edom 16 (for six months Joab remained there with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom), 17 📚that Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites among his father’s servants with him, to go to Egypt; Hadad being still a little child. 18 📚And they arose out of Midian and came to Paran, and they took men with them out of Paran and they came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, and ordered that food be provided for him, and gave him land.
19 📚And Hadad found great favour in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen, as his wife. 20 📚And the sister of Tahpenes bore him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh’s house. And Genubath was in Pharaoh’s household among the sons of Pharaoh.
21 📚And when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his ancestors, and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me depart, so that I may go to my own country”.
22 📚Then Pharaoh said to him, “But what have you lacked with me, that, lo and behold, you seek to go to your own country?” And he answered, “Nothing. But let me go in any case”.
23 📚And God stirred up another adversary against Solomon, Rezon the son of Eliadah, who fled from his lord Hadadezer, king of Zobah 📖. 24 📚And he gathered men around him, and became captain over a band, when David killed those of Zobah. And they went to Damascus, and lived there and reigned in Damascus. 25 📚And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, besides the mischief that Hadad did. And he hated Israel, and reigned over Syria.
11:14-25 God raised up two adversaries against Solomon – Hadad of Edom and Rezon of Syria, one in the southeast, the other in the northeast. Raising up enemies to oppose His people was frequently a way God expressed His anger against them because of their sins (Deut 28:15, 49, 50; Jud 2:10-23; 2 Sam 12:10; 2 Chron 36:15-17; Isa 10:5-6; Jer 1:15-16). There is reason to think God still acts in a similar way among the nations.⚜
26 📚And Jeroboam 📖 the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon’s servant, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow woman, also lifted up his hand against the king.
27 📚And this was the reason that he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo, and closed the breaches of the city of David his father. 28 📚And the man Jeroboam was a strong and brave man. And Solomon, seeing that the young man was industrious, put him in charge of the whole labour force 📖 of the house of Joseph 📖.
29 📚And it came about at that time, as Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah, the Shilonite, met him in the road. And he was wearing a new cloak; and the two of them were alone in the field.
11:29 1 Kings 12:15; 1 Kings 14:2. There were many prophets in Bible times about whom we know almost nothing. Ahijah was one of these.⚜
30 📚And Ahijah took hold of the new garment he was wearing and tore it in twelve pieces, 31 📚and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces. For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Look, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to you
11:31 Verses 11-13. These ten tribes were the whole of the nation except Judah, Simeon, and Levi. Originally Simeon had no separate territory but had been allotted land inside Judah’s boundaries (Josh 19:1-9). Levi had no territory of its own but lived in cities scattered throughout the land (Josh 13:14; 21:41). The division of the northern tribes from Judah had its roots in Solomon’s sin. But previously there had been trouble between these two sections of the country. See 2 Sam 2; 19:40-43; 20:1-2.⚜
32 📚(but he will have one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel), 33 📚because they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in my eyes and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as his father David did.
34 📚“‘However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes. 35 📚But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it to you, ten tribes. 36 📚And I will give one tribe to his son, so that my servant David will always have a light 📖 before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there. 37 📚And I will take you, and you will reign in all ways just as your soul desires and will be king over Israel. 38 📚And if you will listen to all that I command you, and walk in my ways and do what is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as my servant David did, this will happen: I will be with you and build you an enduring house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.
11:38 God gave the same promises to Jeroboam that He gave to Solomon (1 Kings 2:3-4; 3:14; 6:12-13). God’s covenant applied to Jeroboam and northern tribes just as it did to the kingdom of Judah and its rulers.⚜
39 📚And I will afflict David’s descendants because of this, but not forever.’ ”
40 📚Therefore Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak, king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
Solomon’s death
41 📚And the rest of the acts of Solomon and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of The Acts of Solomon 📖? 42 📚And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. 43 📚And Solomon slept 📖 with his ancestors, and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.