1 Kings 11:1

Solomon’s Foreign Wives

1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

1 Kings 11:1 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 11:1

But King Solomon loved many strange women
His love was a lustful and not a lawful one, and of women who were not only of foreign countries, but not his lawful wives, and these many:

together with the daughter of Pharaoh;
besides her, or as he loved her, and perhaps more; his sin was not that he loved her who was his lawful wife, but others with her; it is very probable she was a proselytess, and had no hand in turning him to idolatry, since we read not of any high place built for an Egyptian idol:

women of the Moabites, Anmonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;
all of the neighbouring nations. Some think he did this with political views, to get intelligence of the state of those countries, or to abate and extinguish their enmity; but it rather seems to be the fruit of lust or pride.

1 Kings 11:1 In-Context

1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

2 These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away.

4 For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been.

5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.