Discovery Box1 Kings 10:26--11:8
Context10:26 Solomon accumulated 1 chariots and horses. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He kept them in assigned cities and in Jerusalem. 2 10:27 The king made silver as plentiful 3 in Jerusalem as stones; cedar was 4 as plentiful as sycamore fig trees are in the lowlands. 5 10:28 Solomon acquired his horses from Egypt 6 and from Que; the king’s traders purchased them from Que. 10:29 They paid 600 silver pieces for each chariot from Egypt and 150 silver pieces for each horse. They also sold chariots and horses to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria. 7
11:1 King Solomon fell in love with many foreign women (besides Pharaoh’s daughter), including Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. 11:2 They came from nations about which the Lord had warned the Israelites, “You must not establish friendly relations with them! 8 If you do, they will surely shift your allegiance to their gods.” 9 But Solomon was irresistibly attracted to them. 10
11:3 He had 700 royal wives 11 and 300 concubines; 12 his wives had a powerful influence over him. 13 11:4 When Solomon became old, his wives shifted his allegiance to 14 other gods; he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been. 15 11:5 Solomon worshiped 16 the Sidonian goddess Astarte and the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. 17 11:6 Solomon did evil in the Lord’s sight; 18 he did not remain loyal to 19 the Lord, like his father David had. 11:7 Furthermore, 20 on the hill east of Jerusalem 21 Solomon built a high place 22 for the detestable Moabite god Chemosh 23 and for the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. 24 11:8 He built high places for all his foreign wives so they could burn incense and make sacrifices to their gods. 25
[10:26] 2 tn Heb “he placed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.”
[10:27] 3 tn The words “as plentiful” are added for clarification.
[10:27] 5 tn Heb “as the sycamore fig trees which are in the Shephelah.”
[10:28] 6 sn From Egypt. Because Que is also mentioned, some prefer to see in vv. 28-29 a reference to Mutsur. Que and Mutsur were located in Cilicia/Cappadocia (in modern southern Turkey). See HALOT 625 s.v. מִצְרַיִם.
[10:29] 7 tn Heb “and a chariot went up and came out of Egypt for six hundred silver [pieces], and a horse for one hundred fifty, and in the same way to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram by their hand they brought out.”
[11:2] 8 tn Heb “you must not go into them, and they must not go into you.”
[11:2] 9 tn Heb “Surely they will bend your heart after their gods.” The words “if you do” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[11:2] 10 tn Heb “Solomon clung to them for love.” The pronominal suffix, translated “them,” is masculine here, even though it appears the foreign women are in view. Perhaps this is due to attraction to the masculine forms used of the nations earlier in the verse.
[11:3] 11 tn Heb “wives, princesses.”
[11:3] 12 sn Concubines were slave women in ancient Near Eastern societies who were the legal property of their master, but who could have legitimate sexual relations with their master. A concubine’s status was more elevated than a mere servant, but she was not free and did not have the legal rights of a free wife. The children of a concubine could, in some instances, become equal heirs with the children of the free wife. The usage in the present passage suggests that after the period of the Judges concubines may have become more of a royal prerogative (cf. also 2 Sam 21:10-14).
[11:3] 13 tn Heb “his wives bent his heart.”
[11:4] 14 tn Heb “bent his heart after.”
[11:4] 15 tn Heb “his heart was not complete with the
[11:5] 16 tn Heb “walked after.”
[11:5] 17 tn Heb “Milcom, the detestable thing of the Ammonites.”
[11:6] 18 tn Heb “in the eyes of the
[11:6] 19 tn The idiomatic statement reads in Hebrew, “he did not fill up after.”
[11:7] 21 sn The hill east of Jerusalem refers to the Mount of Olives.
[11:7] 22 sn A high place. The “high places” were places of worship that were naturally or artificially elevated (see 1 Kgs 3:2).
[11:7] 23 tn Heb “Chemosh, the detestable thing of Moab.”
[11:7] 24 tc The MT reads “Molech,” but Milcom must be intended (see vv. 5, 33).
[11:8] 25 tn Heb “and the same thing he did for all his foreign wives, [who] were burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.”
