The Lord punishes King Solomon
1 Solomon loved Pharaoh's daughter and many other foreign women. Those women were Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 The Lord had warned the Israelites about these nations. He said, ‘You must not marry people from these nations. If you do, they will cause you to worship their own gods.’ But Solomon did love these foreign women and he married them.
3 Solomon had 700 royal wives. He also had 300 slave wives. His wives caused him to turn away from the Lord. 4 When Solomon became old, his wives caused him to serve other gods. Solomon no longer completely loved the Lord his God as his father David had done.
11:3The royal wives were daughters of kings or important people in foreign nations.
5 Solomon worshipped Ashtoreth, the female god of the Sidonian people. He also worshipped Molech, the wicked god of the Ammonite people. 6 As a result, Solomon did things that the Lord said were evil. He did not serve the Lord faithfully as his father David had done. 7 On a hill east of Jerusalem Solomon built a place to worship false gods. He worshipped Chemosh, the wicked god of the Moabite people, and Molech, the wicked god of the Ammonite people. 8 Solomon also built places where his foreign wives could worship their gods. They burned incense and they offered sacrifices to their own gods in these places.
9 So the Lord became angry with Solomon. Solomon had turned away from the Lord, Israel's God, who had appeared to Solomon twice. 10 He had warned Solomon that he must not serve other gods. But Solomon did not obey the Lord's command. 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, ‘I see the things that you have chosen to do. You have not obeyed my covenant and the laws that I commanded you to obey. So I will take the kingdom away from you. One of your servants will rule the kingdom instead of you. 12 But I will not do this while you are alive, because your father David was faithful to me. Instead, I will take the kingdom away from your son. 13 But I will not take away the whole kingdom from him. I will leave one tribe for him to rule as king. I will do this because King David served me faithfully, and because I have chosen Jerusalem as my special city.’
11:13Solomon's son ruled the tribe called Judah. He may also have ruled Benjamin's tribe. Jerusalem was in Judah.
