Solomon’s Foreign Wives

11 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. 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. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away.

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. 5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom [fn] the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely.

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. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.