Solomon’s wealth grows and his heart turns away
United Kingdom · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 6a763908420cbb0f · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Solomon’s later reign · A divided heart
Solomon accumulates chariots and horses and marries many women. In his old age his heart turns toward other gods, and he establishes places of worship for them. The LORD announces that most of the kingdom will be torn from his son.
The sequence strongly invites comparison with Deuteronomy’s restrictions on horses, wealth and wives. The narrator holds Solomon accountable for his own disobedience; the lesson is about covenant allegiance, not a judgment that foreign people are inherently unworthy.
Primary Scripture
10:26 Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.
10:27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills.
10:28 Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue; the royal merchants purchased them from Kue.
10:29 A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. Likewise, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram.
11:1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.
11:2 These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.
11:3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away.
11:4 For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been.
11:5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
11:6 So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely.
11:7 At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.
11:8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
11:9 Now the LORD grew angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.
11:10 Although He had warned Solomon explicitly not to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command.
11:11 Then the LORD said to Solomon, “Because you have done this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.
11:12 Nevertheless, for the sake of your father David, I will not do it during your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
11:13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
Related Scripture
Deuteronomy 17:14–20 · teaching
Moses warns the king against multiplying horses, wives, silver and gold, and against a heart turned away from the law.
Location evidence
Jerusalem represents the royal setting; 11:7 also names a hill east of the city. The marker does not locate particular shrines or all the chariot cities.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.234167, 31.776667]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Jerusalem: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.234167, 31.776667]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)
OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)
For the class
How do the king’s choices illustrate the dangers Moses warned about?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/united-kingdom.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm