1 Kings 11:3

3 He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines, and they turned his heart away [from the Lord].^[a]

1 Kings 11:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 11:3

And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred
concubines
In all 1000, a prodigious number; though these might not be all for use, but for state after the manner of the eastern monarchs; these were a far greater number than are alluded to in ( Song of Solomon 6:8 ) , unless the virgins without number there, were such of these as were not defiled by him; but the number here seems plainly referred to in ( Ecclesiastes 7:28 ) ,

and his wives turned away his heart;
both from his duty to his God, and from attendance to his business as a king, especially the former, as follows.

1 Kings 11:3 In-Context

1 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh's daughter: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women

2 from the nations that the Lord had told the Israelites about, "Do not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn you away [from Me] to their gods." Solomon was deeply attached to these women and loved [them].

3 He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines, and they turned his heart away [from the Lord].

4 When Solomon was old, his wives seduced him [to follow] other gods. His heart was not completely with the Lord his God, as his father David's heart had been.

5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites.

Footnotes

• [a]. Dt 17:17