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

But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; But king Solomon loved many strange women , [

1 KINGS CHAPTER 11 Solomon’ s wives and concubines, which in his old age seduce him to idolatry, . God threateneth him, . His adversaries are, Hadad, who fleeth into Egypt, and is entertained there, ; Rezon, who reigned in Damascus, ; Jeroboam, to whom Ahijah foretelleth that he shall be king: Solomon seeketh his life, . His acts, reign, and death. Rehoboam succeedeth him, . He loved them inordinately and lustfully, and he sinned against God’ s known law, both in their number, , and in their quality.

1 Kings 11:1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, [and] Hittites;Ver. 1. But king Solomon loved many strange women.] Praeceps ruit in libidinem, as if he had been born pro l’ amore delle donne, - as Boccace saith of himself, - merely for love of fair ladies, to putrify and perish daily under a tabes of impure lusts, as Tiberius did at Caprea - though a good prince at first, as was also Alexander the Great, Nero, and some others. This was a bitterness beyond that of death. And surely it had been better for Solomon to have been buried alive, than thus to have miscarried in his old age, to the great dishonour of God, and offence of his people Israel, the beginning of whose sins, causing the destruction of Solomon’ s temple, and ruin of that commonwealth, is reckoned from the seven and twentieth year of Solomon’ s reign; about which began this his foul revolt here related, as Junius observeth. Together with the daughter of Pharaoh.] Or, Besides her; by a monstrous kind of polygamy and γυναικομανια, such as hath hardly been heard of in any other. His father, David, cannot be excused for his many wives and concubines, but himself much less; who could not but know that it was a direct violation of the law, and that in the kingdom of pleasure, virtue could not consist. Quotidie perire me sentio.

(1-8) The defection of Solomon is distinctly traced to his polygamy, contracting numerous marriages with “strange women.” Polygamy is also attributed to David (see 2 Samuel 3:2-5; 2 Samuel 15:16), marking perhaps the characteristic temperament of voluptuousness, which seduced him into his great sin; but it was carried out by Solomon on a scale corresponding to the magnificence of his kingdom, and probably had in his case the political object of alliance with neighbouring or tributary kings. We find it inherited by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:18-21), and it probably became in different degrees the practice of succeeding kings. Hitherto, while polygamy, as everywhere in the East, had to some degree existed in Israel from patriarchal times, yet it must have been checked by the marriage regulations of the Law. Nor had there yet been the royal magnificence and wealth, under which alone it attains to full development. We have some traces of it in the households of some of the Judges: Gideon (Judges 8:30), Jair (Judges 10:4), Ibzan and Abdon (Judges 12:9; Judges 12:14). Now, however, it became, in spite of the prohibition of the Law (Deuteronomy 17:17), a recognised element of royal self-indulgence—such as is described in Ecclesiastes 2:7-8, and is perhaps traceable even through the beauty of the Song of Solomon. In itself, even without any incidental consequences, it must necessarily be a demoralising power, as sinning against the primeval ordinance of God, and robbing natural relations of their true purity and sacredness. But in actual fact it sinned still more by involving forbidden marriages with idolatrous races, with the often-predicted effect of declension into idolatry.

CHAPTER XI Solomon's attachment to strange women, and consequent idolatry, 1, 2. Number of his wives and concubines, 3. In his old age they turn away his heart from God, 4. He builds temples to idols, burns incense and sacrifices to them, 5-8. The Lord is angry with him, and threatens to deprive him of the kingdom, but will leave one tribe for David's sake, 9-13. The Lord stirs up Hadad, the Edomite, to be his enemy; the history of this man, 14-22. He stirs another adversary against him, Rezon the son of Eliadah. He and Hadad plague Israel, 23-25. Jeroboam also becomes his enemy, and the reason why, 26-28. Ahijah the prophet meets Jeroboam, and promises, in the name of the Lord, that God will rend Israel from the family of Solomon, and give him ten tribes, 29-39. Solomon, hearing of this, seeks to put Jeroboam to death, who escapes to Egypt, where he continues till the death of Solomon, 40. Solomon dies, after having reigned over Israel forty years; and his son Rehoboam reigns in his stead, 41-43. NOTES ON CHAP. XI Verse 1. Many strange women] That is, idolaters; together with the daughter of Pharaoh: she was also one of those strange women and an idolater. But many think she became a proselyte to the Jewish religion; of this there is no evidence.

Chap. 1 Kings 11:1-8. Strange wives turn away Solomon’s heart (Not in Chronicles) 1. Solomon loved many strange women] Where polygamy was common there would be a great temptation to a powerful king to connect himself by marriage with all the nations about him. At the same time a large harem was an element in Oriental pomp. Most of these women were heathen, and their worship would be practised in the harem. In all the nations of antiquity women had special religious observances which they practised without the assistance of the priests. But Solomon built temples for foreign worship. It seems from 1 Kings 11:8 that these were for the women. If this were so they must have come, under attendance no doubt, from the harem to the Temple. In taking Pharaoh’s daughter Solomon had joined to him a mighty but somewhat distant monarch. The other nations mentioned in this verse were close at hand. Edom bordered on the south of Palestine, Moab and Ammon were on the east, and Sidon and the Hittite kingdom on the north. The LXX. (Vat.) adds Syrian and Amorite wives to the number, and incorporates part of 1 Kings 11:3 with this verse. Of this part of Solomon’s conduct and character no mention is made in the books of the Chronicles.

In noticing successively Solomon’s excessive accumulation of silver and gold 1 Kings 10:14-25, his multiplication of horses 1 Kings 10:26-29, and his multiplication of wives, the writer has in mind

1. Loved many strange women — Chiefly princesses, (1 Kings 11:3,) the daughters of the many vassal kings who were tributary to Solomon.