1 Kings 11

1 Kings 11:3

1 Kin. 11:3. “And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines.” Solomon could not but know the law of Moses, in which it is prescribed concerning the king, Deuteronomy 17:16. “But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses, forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way, neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.” But without doubt Solomon either put some wrong interpretation upon this law, or, on some account or other, thought himself exempt from the obligation of it: possibly because when God had appeared to him, and asked him what he should give him, and he requested a wise and understanding heart, and did not ask that earthly glory that other kings set their hearts upon; God told him that he would give him riches and honor, so that there should not be any among the living like unto him all his days, i.e. that God would give him outward state and glory above all that other kings valued themselves upon; but in those days it was looked upon among the kings of the earth as great part of the state and grandeur of a king to have a great number of wives and concubines, and horses, as well as to have a great deal of silver and gold. Solomon might look on this promise of God to him, as a dispensation from the obligation of the whole law of Moses, which was given to restrain the ambition, and set bounds to the earthly grandeur, of the king of Israel.

1 Kin. 11:5-7

1 Kings 11:5-7

1 Kin. 11:5-7. It does not appear that Solomon did himself worship these strange gods. But what his wives persuaded him to, was to build high places for them to worship their gods in: he probably went after other gods only as he honored them so far as to build places for their public worship in the land of Israel, wherein his wives and their attendants might worship them. For it is said in verse 8 he did this “for his wives,” etc. He might possibly think it but reasonable that his wives should be allowed the exercise of their own religion and the worship of their own gods, and might think it hard, seeing he had brought them out of their own country, to deny them high places and altars at which they might worship them in his country.

1 Kin. 13:31-32