Chapter Eleven

1–8. The sins of Solomon. 9–13. God’s wrath on Solomon and the prediction of the division of his kingdom. 14–22. The beginning of the execution of God’s judgment on Solomon and his house; Solomon’s first opponent—Adah the Edomite. 23–25. Solomon’s second enemy—Razon, usurper of royal power in Syria. 26–28. Solomon’s third enemy—Jeroboam the Ephraimite. 29–39. The prophecy of Ahijah to Jeroboam of his future reign over 10 tribes. 40–43. Jeroboam’s flight to Egypt from Solomon’s wrath and the latter’s death.

1 Kings 11:1. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites, 1 Kings 11:2. from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the Israelites: “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods”; Solomon clung to these in love. 1 Kings 11:3. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. The immense wealth of Solomon (1 Kgs 10:14-29) and the dazzling splendor of his reign in general, which placed the Hebrew king on a level with the most renowned kings of the pagan nations of his time, inclined the king to imitate them first in the cultural side of life, and then in religion, contrary to the explicit prohibition of the law. Such prohibited innovations of Solomon (Deut 17:16-17) were the already mentioned multiplication of cavalry and chariots (cf. the note to (1 Kgs 10:23-26)), and even more his unlimited polygamy: Solomon had up to 1000 wives (700 wives of the first rank and 300 concubines (v. 3)). This extraordinary polygamy is explained not so much by Solomon’s excessive love of women (LXX: φιλογύνης, Slavonic: “fond of women”, cf. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews VIII, 7, 5) as by motives of a political nature—a vain desire to enhance the fame of his court by increasing the harem and to surpass in this regard other kings. Having set himself the goal of filling his harem, Solomon made no distinction between nationalities and completely disregarded the law’s prohibition against marriages with Canaanite women (Exod 34:16; Deut 7:1-4). In the Greek-Slavonic texts, besides the nationalities mentioned in the Hebrew-Russian texts (v. 1), the Amorite is also mentioned, which may be a general name for Canaanites (cf. Gen 48:22; Josh 24:15; Deut 1:7). It is quite possible that many of these wives were not actual, serving only to decorate and glorify the court; in the poetic expression of the Song of Solomon (Song 6:8) it is mentioned that Solomon had 60 queens and 80 concubines.

1 Kings 11:4. When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods; and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 1 Kings 11:5. For Solomon went after Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 1 Kings 11:6. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord as David his father had. What the law sought to prevent by prohibiting marriages with Canaanite women—namely, the temptation to serve their gods—became a fact in Solomon’s old age: under the influence of idolatrous wives, due to the enervating effect of comfort, luxury, and loose living, the energy of Solomon’s spirit in serving Yahweh weakened; there was no longer complete devotion to Yahweh in his heart (vv. 4, 6); cf. (Sir 47:22-23). “His infidelity to his own religion consisted in indifference toward it and in a seductive tolerance regarding pagan religions” (Prof. F. Y. Pokrovsky, The Division of the Hebrew Kingdom, p. 285). He not only permitted the existence of idolatry in the theocratic kingdom but also himself built shrines to other gods, perhaps maintained their priests at his own expense, and together with his wives at least outwardly participated in their cults (cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 37). These deities are all Canaanite. Astarte (Heb. ashtoret, plural ashtarot, Greek: Αστάρτη) here (v. 5) is called the goddess of the Sidonians, hence Phoenician; the Philistines worshipped her (1 Sam 31:8-10) and all the Canaanites in general alongside Baal (Judg 2:13). The name Astarte is probably related to that of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, and both goddesses are close in meaning: both were goddesses of life, fertility, love, on the other hand—of hunting, war. The twofold meaning of Astarte corresponded to a double symbol of her: she was depicted, on one hand, as a woman with a crescent-shaped covering on her head (such a symbol of Astarte is indicated by the place name in Palestine: “Ashtaroth-Karnaim”, (Gen 14:5)—“Astarte with horns”; in Carthage Astarte was depicted as a full moon; in Egypt—as a moon in the form of a crescent); hence the name given to Astarte by classical writers: Οὐράνια, Coeletis, which fully agrees with the name given to Astarte in the Bible, “goddess of heaven” (Jer 7:18); on the other hand, as goddess of fertility, Astarte had for her symbols: a cow (sometimes with a calf), a cypress, a palm with fruit, and a poppy. If worship of Baal, god of the sun, took place on high places, then Astarte was worshipped in valleys and groves. The character of the cult, corresponding to the twofold meaning of the goddess, was twofold: partly severe—self-castration in honor of the goddess of war, partly dissolute—shameful depravity. See M. Palmova, Idolatry among the ancient Hebrews, St. Petersburg, 1897, p. 295–308. Classical writers therefore identified Astarte with Aphrodite or Venus (cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 50). Milcom (v. 5) is identical with Moloch. The Hebrew name Molech is of one root with melech (king), but with the vowels of the word boshet—shame, insult (the word boshet was used by faithful Israelites to refer to a deity related to Moloch, namely Baal, as can be seen, for example, from the change of the name Ish-baal, “man of Baal”, to Ish-boshet, “man of shame”); a Phoenician and Ammonite deity, called Kronos or Saturn by classical writers. A deity close in concept to Baal, hence solar, expressing the idea of the sun but only from its destructive side, also the all-devouring time. The statue of Moloch had the head of a bull with a golden crown on it, a spacious body and arms for receiving sacrifices, chiefly children: the horrible service of Moloch consisted chiefly in “causing children to pass through the fire”, and among the Hebrews it raged especially under Ahaz (2 Kgs 16:3); under Solomon this cult probably did not assume such a repulsive form. Later, the southwestern valley near Jerusalem, called the Valley of Hinnom or Gehenna, became the place where this horrible cult of Moloch was practiced and thus became a type and synonym for hell, Gehenna (cf. in Palmova, op. cit. 252–272). Chemosh, Heb. Kemosh, Greek: Χαμώς (v. 7), cf. (2 Kgs 23:13; Jer 48:7; Num 21:29)—the national deity of the Moabites, who are therefore called “the people of Chemosh” (Num 21:29; Jer 48:46); in the well-known inscription of the Moabite king Mesha he calls himself “the son of Chemosh” (1 p.); the Ammonites also worshipped Chemosh (Judg 11:23-24). Together with Baal-Peor (Num 25:5), Chemosh was a manifestation of the same deity; the cult of Chemosh had a dark, cruel character, demanding human sacrifice (2 Kgs 3:27); the cult of Baal-Peor, on the contrary, had a cheerful sensuous character (Num 25:1-3). By idea, Chemosh was a solar deity, god of solar heat and having for its symbol a shining stone disk.

1 Kings 11:7. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 15:30. High places and shrines named for these deities (see in Palmova, 246–252) Solomon built “on the mountain east of Jerusalem”, i.e., on the Mount of Olives (2 Sam. 15:30; Zech 14:4), called in (2 Kgs 23:13) (according to the Hebrew text) the “mountain of corruption” (garbamashchith, Greek-Slavonic: “mosphath”), i.e., because of the idolatry that occurred here. By tradition, the idolatry permitted by Solomon took place on the southern hill of the Mount of Olives, which came to be called the “mountain of offense”. 1 Kings 11:9. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, 1 Kings 11:10. and had commanded him about this very thing, that he should not follow other gods; but Solomon did not keep what the Lord commanded. 1 Kings 11:11. And the Lord said to Solomon, “Because this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant; 1 Kings 11:12. nevertheless for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son; 1 Kings 11:13. and yet I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen. God’s wrath upon Solomon was all the greater the more he had received earlier tokens of God’s mercy, expressed, among other things, in his twofold appearance to him (1 Kgs 3:5), whereby God explicitly confirmed to him the obligations of a theocratic king. Only for the sake of David and the immutability of God’s promises, the dynasty of David would retain one tribe (v. 13), properly two: Judah and Benjamin (1 Kgs 12:23), but the latter for its small number is here (as well as below in vv. 32, 36) not mentioned. This grave warning was probably given through a prophet rather than directly, as the previous revelations: Solomon had now become unworthy of direct divine appearances (cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 36). Until now the untroubled peace of Solomon’s reign had been disturbed by Adah (vv. 14–22), Razon (vv. 23–25) and especially Jeroboam (vv. 26–40).

1 Kings 11:14. And the Lord raised up an adversary to Solomon, Adah the Edomite; he was of the royal house of Edom. 1 Kings 11:15. When David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army went up to bury the dead, he killed every male in Edom, 1 Kings 11:16. for Joab and all Israel remained there six months, until he had eliminated every male in Edom, 1 Kings 11:17. but this Adah fled to Egypt, he and some Edomite men with him, who had belonged to his father; Adah was then a small child. 1 Kings 11:18. They set out from Midian and came to Paran; and they took people with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, appointed him an allowance of food, and gave him land. 1 Kings 11:19. And Adah found favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, the sister of Queen Tahpenes. 1 Kings 11:20. And the sister of Tahpenes bore him a son, Genubath, whom Tahpenes reared in Pharaoh’s house; Genubath was in Pharaoh’s house with the sons of Pharaoh. 1 Kings 11:21. When Adah heard that David had slept with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Adah said to Pharaoh, “Let me depart, that I may go to my own country. 1 Kings 11:22. And Pharaoh said to him, “What do you lack with me that you now seek to go to your own country?” He answered, “No, let me go.” [And Adah returned to his own land.] The rebellion of the Edomite prince Adah (Heb. Hadad, Vulg.: Adad, LXX: Αδέρ), who had earlier fled to Egypt after David’s conquest of Edom (2 Sam 8:13-14); here, vv. 15–17 supplement the brief account in 2 Samuel with new details. Received favorably in Egypt—probably by a predecessor of Solomon’s father-in-law—Adah, despite even the family ties with Egypt’s ruling house, returned to his homeland in Edom shortly after the death of David and Joab (v. 21), cf. (1 Kgs 2:10), i.e., at the beginning of Solomon’s reign; but his hostile actions against Solomon (for which he is called in v. 14, satan—“rebel, insurgent, opponent”, cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 37) occurred in the second half of Solomon’s reign, when the king’s sins had weakened his energy and prolonged peace had enervating effects on his people. The LXX and Slavonic in v. 22 have an addition against the Hebrew: καὶ ἀνέστρεψεν Αδερ εἰς τὴν γῆν αὐτοῦ, “and Adah returned to his own land”—a statement required by the sense of the entire discourse of vv. 14–22 and probably belonging to the original text. From this section it follows that Edom had rebelled against Solomon long before his death, and only Elath with Ezion-Geber remained in his hands.

1 Kings 11:23. God also raised up another adversary to Solomon, Razon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah. 1 Kings 11:24. He gathered followers around him and became leader of a marauding band, after David had defeated Hadadezer; they went to Damascus and settled there, and they made him king in Damascus. 1 Kings 11:25. He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon. In addition to the harm that Adah did, Razon caused trouble, and he was hostile toward Israel; he became king over Aram. Similar opposition met Solomon on the northern, Syrian border, in the province conquered by David (2 Sam 8:3-10), from a certain Razon, who according to Josephus’s supposition acted against Solomon in conjunction with Adah the Edomite (cf. v. 25).

1 Kings 11:26. Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother was a widow named Zeruah, lifted his hand against the king. 1 Kings 11:27. And this was the reason he rebelled against the king. Solomon was building the Millo, and repairing the breaches of the city of David, his father. 1 Kings 11:28. Now Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor. When Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph. But the greatest, and moreover internal danger for Solomon and his entire dynasty arose from the hitherto unknown Jeroboam—an Ephraimite (Heb. Ephrati, v. 26, sometimes means inhabitants of Ephratah or Bethlehem, (Ruth 1:2; 1 Sam 17:12); sometimes, as here, in (Judg 12:5; 1 Sam 1:1): an Ephraimite). The tribe of Ephraim had long resented the rule of a king from the tribe of Judah, and all the other tribes, which unlike the tribe of Judah called themselves Israel, were very reluctant to bear the burden of rule by a king of another tribe (cf. 2 Sam 19:41-43). In this case the Ephraimite Jeroboam was appointed (v. 28) overseer of the laborers from his own “house of Joseph”, i.e., from the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh (Josh 17:17; Judg 1:22), on the work of restoring the fortress and other buildings of Jerusalem (v. 27), and this forced labor (cf. 1 Kgs 9:23) could have been the final drop in the cup of long-accumulated feelings of resentment and grievance of the Ephraimites toward Solomon; Jeroboam by his personal ambition was merely the appropriate spokesman for the discontent of his tribe with the dynasty of David and the desire to separate into an independent kingdom (see in Prof. F. Y. Pokrovsky, The Division of the Hebrew Kingdom, p. 280–281).

1 Kings 11:29. At that time, when Jeroboam left Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Ahijah had dressed himself in a new garment; and the two of them were alone in the field. 1 Kings 11:30. Then Ahijah laid hold of the new garment he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 1 Kings 11:31. And he said to Jeroboam: “Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to you, 1 Kings 11:32. but he shall have one tribe *** for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. 1 Kings 11:33. This is because they have forsaken me, and worshipped Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, as David my father did. 1 Kings 11:34. Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of my servant David whom I chose and who kept my commandments and my statutes; 1 Kings 11:35. but I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and give it to you, and give him one tribe that my servant David may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name. 1 Kings 11:36. And to his son I will give one tribe, so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city in which I have chosen to place my name. 1 Kings 11:37. “I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires; you shall be king over Israel. 1 Kings 11:38. And if you will listen to all that I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my sight by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, then I will be with you, and will build you an enduring house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you; 1 Kings 11:39. and I will punish the offspring of David because of this, but not forever. If the reason for Jeroboam’s uprising against Solomon consisted of the indicated discontent of the entire tribe with him, then the occasion for the manifestation of Jeroboam’s ambitious claims (v. 40) could have been provided by the prophecy given to him by the prophet Ahijah concerning his future reign over 10 tribes; it is least of all possible to see in this prophecy agitation on the part of the prophet Ahijah (as critics of the negative persuasion suppose); equally there is no basis for considering the prophet and Jeroboam as formerly acquainted with one another and even having reached an agreement; it is only known that both were from the tribe of Ephraim (Shiloh, Heb. Shilo, LXX: Σηλώ, Σηλώμ, from which the prophet Ahijah was from, was located in the tribe of Ephraim, north of Bethel, (Judg 21:19); Onomast. 870). The symbolic act of the prophet tearing a new garment had the purpose of more clearly expressing the determination of God’s judgment concerning the Hebrew kingdom and impressing this upon the mind and heart of Jeroboam. The new garment, apparently a symbol of the strength and youthful vigor of the undivided Hebrew kingdom, which had only recently begun its political existence. The 12 parts of the prophet’s garment, according to the prophet’s own explanation, represent the 12 tribes of Israel, of which 10 were to pass under the scepter of Jeroboam, which is also expressed by giving him 10 parts of the prophet’s garment (v. 31). The house of David was to retain one tribe—Judah with the addition of Benjamin, vv. 32, 36 (according to the LXX, Slavonic: δύο σκῆπτρα, “two tribes”)—“so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me” (v. 36), cf. (1 Kgs 15:4; 2 Kgs 8:19)—posterity in general, then its best representatives, finally, the greatest descendant of David—the Messiah (v. 39), cf. (Luke 1:32-33). Jeroboam was to receive the kingdom only on condition of fidelity to the theocratic principles (v. 38), which, as is well known, he subsequently disregarded from the very beginning (1 Kgs 12:26-30).

1 Kings 11:40. Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam; but Jeroboam set out and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and remained in Egypt until the death of Solomon. Probably Jeroboam, filled with the feeling of vanity, did not keep the prophetic prediction in secret and thereby aroused Solomon’s persecution, from which he fled to Egypt to the pharaoh Shishak, Heb. Shishaq. This Egyptian pharaoh (the first appearance in the Bible of the proper name of a pharaoh) was the founder of a new XXII Egyptian dynasty, the so-called Bubastite. His name is found in inscriptions on the columns of the Karnak temple. He was undoubtedly hostile to Solomon’s dynasty (cf. his invasion of Jerusalem under Rehoboam), (1 Kgs 14:25-26), for which reason it must be supposed that he readily gave shelter to the rebellious subject of Solomon until the latter’s death.

1 Kings 11:41. Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, all that he did as well as his wisdom, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of Solomon? 1 Kings 11:42. And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. The “Book of the Acts of Solomon” (v. 41), as well as the subsequently cited “Chronicles of the Kings of Judah” (1 Kgs 14:29 and others) and “Chronicles of the Kings of Israel” (1 Kgs 15:31 and others), were undoubtedly records of contemporaries and, most likely, of prophets: Nathan, Ahijah, Jedo (Joel) (2 Chr 9:29-31). Cf. Prof. P. A. Yungerov, The Origin and Historicity of 3 and 4 Kings, “Orthodox Messenger”, 1905, July-August, pp. 415–419.

1 Kings 11:43. And Solomon slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David his father. Did Solomon turn to God before his death, did he repent of his sins of infidelity to Yahweh and moral depravity? “Unfortunately,” says Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow in words, “Solomon’s repentance is not as certain as his errors. However, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius, and Jerome believe that he anticipated death with repentance... The Book of Ecclesiastes, it appears, is a record of this repentance” (A Survey of Church-Biblical History, 10th ed., p. 230–231). * * * Annotations Examples of numerous harems are found among other kings of the ancient East. It is known of Darius Codomannus that in his march against Alexander the Great he had 300 concubines. King Khosrow of Persia had up to 12,000 wives. Prof. F. Y. Pokrovsky, The Division of the Hebrew Kingdom into the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel, Kiev, 1885, p. 270, note. In the Greek translation: two tribes.