1 Kings 11

Solomon’s Unfaithfulness to God

1King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter: # 1Kg 3:1; 7:8 Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women # Neh 13:23-27 2from 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.” # Dt 7:3-4 Solomon was deeply attached to these women and loved them. 3He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines, # 2Sm 5:13; Est 2:14-15; Sg 6:8 and they turned his heart away from the Lord. # Dt 17:17

4When Solomon was old, his wives seduced him to follow other gods. He was not completely devoted to Yahweh his God, as his father David had been. # 1Kg 8:61; 9:4; 15:3,14; 1Ch 29:19 5Solomon followed Ashtoreth, # Jdg 2:13; 10:6; 1Kg 11:33 the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, # Lv 18:21 the detestable idol of the Ammonites. # Jdg 2:13; 1Sm 7:3-4 6Solomon did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, and unlike his father David, he did not completely follow Yahweh.

7At that time, Solomon built a high place # Nm 33:52; 1Kg 3:2-3 for Chemosh, # Nm 21:29 the detestable idol of Moab, and for Milcom, # Lit Molech # 1Kg 11:33 the detestable idol of the Ammonites, on the hill across from Jerusalem. # 2Kg 23:13 8He did the same for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.

9The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. # 1Kg 3:5; 9:2 10He had commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon did not do what the Lord had commanded. # 1Kg 6:12; 9:6-7

11Then the Lord said to Solomon, “Since you have done this # Lit Since this was with you and did not keep My covenant and My statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. # 1Kg 11:29-31 12However, I will not do it during your lifetime because of your father David; # 2Sm 7:12-16; 2Kg 19:34; 20:6 I will tear it out of your son’s hand. 13Yet I will not tear the entire kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son # 1Kg 11:31-32 because of my servant David and because of Jerusalem that I chose.”

Solomon’s Enemies

14So the Lord raised up # 1Kg 5:4; 1Ch 5:26 Hadad the Edomite as an enemy against Solomon. He was of the royal family in Edom. 15Earlier, when David was in Edom, Joab, the commander of the army, had gone to bury the dead and had struck down every male in Edom. 16For Joab and all Israel had remained there six months, until he had killed every male in Edom. # 2Sm 8:13-14; 1Ch 18:12-13 17Hadad fled to Egypt, along with some Edomites from his father’s servants. At the time Hadad was a small boy. 18Hadad and his men set out from Midian and went to Paran. # Nm 10:12; Dt 1:1 They took men with them from Paran and went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, # 1Kg 3:1 who gave Hadad a house, ordered that he be given food, and gave him land. 19Pharaoh liked Hadad so much that he gave him a wife, the sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes. 20Tahpenes’ sister gave birth to Hadad’s son Genubath. Tahpenes herself weaned him in Pharaoh’s palace, and Genubath lived there along with Pharaoh’s sons.

21When Hadad heard in Egypt that David rested with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me leave, so I can go to my own country.”

22But Pharaoh asked him, “What do you lack here with me for you to want to go back to your own country? ”

“Nothing,” he replied, “but please let me leave.”

23God raised up Rezon son of Eliada as an enemy # 1Kg 5:4 against Solomon. Rezon had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah # 2Sm 8:3 24and gathered men to himself. He became captain of a raiding party when David killed the Zobaites. He # LXX; Hb reads They went to Damascus, # 2Sm 8:5 lived there, and became king in Damascus. 25Rezon was Israel’s enemy throughout Solomon’s reign, adding to the trouble Hadad had caused. He ruled over Aram, # Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr read Edom # Gn 10:22; 2Sm 10:19 but he loathed Israel.

26Now Solomon’s servant, # 1Kg 11:11 Jeroboam son of Nebat, was an Ephraimite from Zeredah. His widowed mother’s name was Zeruah. Jeroboam rebelled # 1Kg 11:40; 2Ch 13:6 against Solomon, 27and this is the reason he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the supporting terraces # 1Kg 9:15,24 and repaired the opening in the wall of the city of his father David. 28Now the man Jeroboam was capable, and Solomon noticed the young man because he was getting things done. So he appointed him over the entire labor force of the house of Joseph. # 1Kg 5:13-16; 12:4

29During that time, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite # 1Kg 12:15; 14:2 met Jeroboam on the road as Jeroboam came out of Jerusalem. Now Ahijah had wrapped himself with a new cloak, and the two of them were alone in the open field. 30Then Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he had on, tore it into 12 pieces, # 1Sm 15:27-28; 1Kg 11:11-13 31and said to Jeroboam, “Take 10 pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand. I will give you 10 tribes, 32but one tribe will remain his because of my servant David # 2Sm 7:15-16 and because of Jerusalem, the city I chose out of all the tribes of Israel. # 1Kg 11:11-13 33For they have abandoned Me; they have bowed the knee to Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of Moab, and to Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. # 1Kg 11:5,7 They have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and to carry out My statutes and My judgments as his father David did. # 1Kg 3:14; 11:9-11

34“ ‘However, I will not take the whole kingdom from his hand but will let him be ruler all the days of his life because of My servant David, whom I chose and who kept My commands and My statutes. 35I will take 10 tribes of the kingdom from his son’s hand and give them to you. 36I will give one tribe # 1Kg 12:16-17 to his son, # 1Kg 3:14; 11:12-13 so that My servant David will always have a lamp before Me # 2Sm 21:17; 1Kg 15:4; 2Kg 8:19 in Jerusalem, the city I chose for Myself to put My name there. # 1Kg 8:29; 11:13 37I will appoint you, # 1Kg 11:11 and you will reign as king # 1Kg 14:7 over all you want, # 2Sm 3:21 and you will be king over Israel.

38“ ‘After that, if you obey all I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight in order to keep My statutes and My commands as My servant David did, I will be with you. # Jos 1:5; 1Kg 3:14; 11:11 I will build you a lasting dynasty just as I built for David, # 2Sm 7:11,27 and I will give you Israel. 39I will humble David’s descendants, because of their unfaithfulness, but not forever.’ ” # LXX omits and I will give . . . but not forever # Ezk 37:15-28; Am 9:11-12

40Therefore, Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, # 1Kg 11:26-28 but he fled to Egypt, # 1Kg 12:2 to Shishak king of Egypt, # 1Kg 14:25-26; 2Ch 12:2-9 where he remained until Solomon’s death.

Solomon’s Death

41The rest of the events of Solomon’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and his wisdom, are written in the Book of Solomon’s Events. # 1Kg 15:7,23; 2Ch 9:29 42The length of Solomon’s reign in Jerusalem over all Israel totaled 40 years. # 2Sm 5:5 43Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam # 1Kg 12:1 became king in his place. # 2Ch 9:30-31

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1 Kings 11: HCSB

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