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The First Book of Kings 11

11 King Solomon had many foreign wives. First he married the daughter of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Later he married many Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women. 2 He married them even though Yahweh had told the Israelites, “You must not marry people from those groups, because if you do, they will certainly persuade you to worship the gods that they worship!” But Solomon loved these women, and so he married them anyway. 3 Solomon married 700 women who were kings’ daughters. These wives led him to start worshiping foreign gods. He also had 300 secondary wives. 4 By the time Solomon became old, his wives persuaded him to worship the gods their people groups worshiped. He was not completely faithful to Yahweh his God as his father David had been. 5 Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess that the Sidonians worshiped. He also worshiped Milcom, the disgusting god that the Ammonites worshiped. 6 In that way, Solomon did many things that Yahweh had told the Israelites were evil. Solomon’s father David had always devoted himself entirely to Yahweh, but Solomon did not. 7 On the hill that is to the east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a place to worship Chemosh, the disgusting god that the Moabites worshiped. He also built a place to worship Molech, the disgusting god that the Ammonites worshiped. 8 Solomon built similar high places for all of his foreign wives so that they could burn incense and offer sacrifices to the gods that their people groups worshiped. 9 Yahweh, the God whom the Israelites worshiped, had appeared to Solomon twice. Even so, Solomon began to worship gods other than Yahweh. So Yahweh became very angry with him. 10 When he appeared to Solomon the second time, Yahweh had commanded him not to worship foreign gods. But Solomon had disobeyed what Yahweh told him. 11 Yahweh told him, “You have disobeyed the laws that I gave the Israelites for their king when I made my covenant with them. So you can be sure that I am going to make someone else, one of your officials, the king of Israel. 12 But because of what I promised your father David, I will allow you to rule your kingdom while you are still living. But after you die, I will not allow your son to rule the whole kingdom. 13 However, I will allow him to rule some of the kingdom. I will allow him to rule one tribe. I will do that in order to honor my servant David by allowing one of his descendants always to be a king. And because I have chosen Jerusalem as the location for my temple, I will allow your son to rule the tribe of Judah, whose territory includes Jerusalem.”

14 Then Yahweh enabled Hadad, a son of the king of Edom, to become Solomon’s enemy and lead the Edomites to rebel against him. 15 This is what happened. Many years before, David’s army had fought against Edom and conquered it. After the fighting was over, his army commander Joab had gone to Edom to supervise the Israelite soldiers who were burying their fellow soldiers whom the Edomites had killed during the war. While he was there, Joab tried to kill every Edomite man and boy. 16 Joab and his whole army stayed in Edom for six months so that they could kill as many Edomite males as possible. 17 Hadad was a young child at that time. But some of the officials of his father, the king of Edom, carried him away, hoping to bring him to Egypt where he would be safe. 18 First they fled to the region of Midian. From there, they undertook the difficult journey through the desolate area of Paran. They found guides there who traveled with them and helped them make that journey. When they got to Egypt, they asked Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to allow them to live safely in his country. Pharaoh gave Hadad a house with some property and he ordered his servants to provide him with food regularly. 19 The king liked Hadad very much. As a result, he allowed him to marry the sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes. 20 Later, the sister of Tahpenes had a baby boy. The name of this son of Hadad was Genubath. Tahpenes herself nursed him in the royal palace. He grew up there with Pharaoh’s sons. 21 Much later, while Hadad was still in Egypt, he learned that King David and Joab, the commander of David’s army, had both died. So he asked Pharaoh, “Please allow me to return to my own country.” 22 But Pharaoh said to him, “You have everything that you need here with me, so you ought to be content to stay here.” Hadad replied, “I do have everything I need here, but please allow me to leave anyway,” and Pharaoh allowed him to leave, and he led the Edomites to rebel against Solomon.

23 God also enabled another man, Rezon son of Eliada, to become Solomon’s enemy. Rezon had been an official of King Hadadezer, who ruled the area of Zobah. But Rezon had stopped serving him and had run away. 24 This is what happened. David’s army defeated Hadadezer and killed many of his soldiers. Rezon escaped with some other soldiers, and together they formed a group of outlaws with Rezon as their leader. They went to Damascus and settled there, and they took control of the city. 25 Just like Hadad, Rezon was an enemy of Israel for the rest of the time that Solomon was king. Rezon hated the Israelites bitterly. He eventually controlled the whole region of Aram.

26 Another man who rebelled against Solomon was one of his officials. His name was Jeroboam son of Nebat. Nebat had lived in the city of Zeredah within the territory of the tribe of Ephraim. Nebat had died, so that Jereboam’s mother Zeruah was a widow. 27 This is what happened. Solomon had his workers build the Millo and finish building walls all around the City of David. 28 Jeroboam was a very skillful young man. He had worked on these building projects, and Solomon had seen that he was able to accomplish tasks effectively. So Solomon appointed him to supervise all the men from the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim whom he forced to work. 29 One day as Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem for his work in the area north of there, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the road. The two of them were alone, away from any city. Ahijah was wearing a new robe, 30 which he took off and tore into 12 pieces. 31 He told Jeroboam, “Take ten of these pieces for yourself, because Yahweh, the God whom we Israelites worship, says to you, ‘I am going to take the kingdom away from Solomon, and I am going to make you the ruler of ten of the tribes of Israel. 32 However, I will allow Solomon’s descendants to keep ruling one tribe. I will do that in order to honor my servant David. And because I have chosen Jerusalem from all of the Israelite cities to be the location for my temple, I will allow his descendants to rule the tribe of Judah, whose territory includes Jerusalem.” 33 I am going to do this because Solomon has become unfaithful to me and has caused many Israelites to become unfaithful to me as well. He has been worshiping Asherah, the goddess that the Sidonians worship, Chemosh, the god that the Moabites worship, and Molech, the god that the Ammonites worship. He has not conducted his life as I want people to. He has not obeyed my laws the way his father David did. 34 But I will not stop Solomon from ruling the entire kingdom of Israel while he is alive. Instead, I will allow him to remain as king. I will do that in order to honor David, whom I chose to be the king of Israel and who faithfully obeyed my laws. 35 Instead, I will stop his son from ruling the entire kingdom, and I will allow you to become the king of ten of the Israelite tribes. 36 I will allow Solomon’s son to rule one tribe so that I will always see one of David’s descendants ruling in Jerusalem. I chose that city to be the place where the Israelites would worship me. 37 You are now an official, but I will enable you to become the king of Israel, and you will rule all the territory that you want to rule. 38 But you must obey everything that I command you to do. You must conduct your life as I want you to. You must do things that I consider to be right. You must obey my laws as David did. If you do those things, I will help you. I will make sure that your descendants become kings of Israel after you die, as I have done for David. 39 Because of Solomon’s sins, I will punish David’s descendants, but I will not continue to punish them forever.’ ” 40 Solomon found out what Ahijah told Jeroboam, and so he tried to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam escaped and went to Egypt. Shishak, the king of Egypt, protected him. Jeroboam stayed there until after Solomon died.

41 There is a record of other things that Solomon did and many of the wise things that he said in the book that records the events of his reign. 42 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all of Israel for 40 years. 43 Then Solomon died. The Israelites buried him in the part of Jerusalem that people called the City of David. Solomon’s son Rehoboam became the next king.

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UST by section 1 KI 11:1

The First Book of Kings 11

UST by section 1 KI 11:1