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.
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.
6
So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely.
7
At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.
8
He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
God’s Anger against Solomon
9 Now the LORD grew angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.
10
Although He had warned Solomon explicitly not to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command.
11
Then the LORD said to Solomon, “Because you have done this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.
12
Nevertheless, for the sake of your father David, I will not do it during your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
13
Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”