Discovery Box1 Kings 11:1-8
Context11:1 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! 1 If you do, they will surely shift your allegiance to their gods.” 2 But Solomon was irresistibly attracted to them. 3
11:3 He had 700 royal wives 4 and 300 concubines; 5 his wives had a powerful influence over him. 6 11:4 When Solomon became old, his wives shifted his allegiance to 7 other gods; he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been. 8 11:5 Solomon worshiped 9 the Sidonian goddess Astarte and the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. 10 11:6 Solomon did evil in the Lord’s sight; 11 he did not remain loyal to 12 the Lord, like his father David had. 11:7 Furthermore, 13 on the hill east of Jerusalem 14 Solomon built a high place 15 for the detestable Moabite god Chemosh 16 and for the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. 17 11:8 He built high places for all his foreign wives so they could burn incense and make sacrifices to their gods. 18
Ecclesiastes 7:26
ContextMore bitter than death is the kind of 20 woman 21 who is like a hunter’s snare; 22
her heart is like a hunter’s net and her hands are like prison chains.
The man who pleases God escapes her,
but the sinner is captured by her.
[11:2] 1 tn Heb “you must not go into them, and they must not go into you.”
[11:2] 2 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] 3 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] 4 tn Heb “wives, princesses.”
[11:3] 5 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] 6 tn Heb “his wives bent his heart.”
[11:4] 7 tn Heb “bent his heart after.”
[11:4] 8 tn Heb “his heart was not complete with the
[11:5] 9 tn Heb “walked after.”
[11:5] 10 tn Heb “Milcom, the detestable thing of the Ammonites.”
[11:6] 11 tn Heb “in the eyes of the
[11:6] 12 tn The idiomatic statement reads in Hebrew, “he did not fill up after.”
[11:7] 14 sn The hill east of Jerusalem refers to the Mount of Olives.
[11:7] 15 sn A high place. The “high places” were places of worship that were naturally or artificially elevated (see 1 Kgs 3:2).
[11:7] 16 tn Heb “Chemosh, the detestable thing of Moab.”
[11:7] 17 tc The MT reads “Molech,” but Milcom must be intended (see vv. 5, 33).
[11:8] 18 tn Heb “and the same thing he did for all his foreign wives, [who] were burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.”
[7:26] 19 tn The word “this” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.
[7:26] 20 tn The phrase “kind of” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity (see the following note on the word “woman”).
[7:26] 21 tn The article on הָאִשָּׁה (ha’ishah) functions in a particularizing sense (“the kind of woman”) rather than in a generic sense (i.e., “women”).
[7:26] 22 tn Heb “is snares.” The plural form מְצוֹדִים (mÿtsodim, from the noun I מָצוֹד, matsod, “snare”) is used to connote either intensity, repeated or habitual action, or moral characteristic. For the function of the Hebrew plural, see IBHS 120-21 §7.4.2. The term II מָצוֹד “snare” is used in a concrete sense in reference to the hunter’s snare or net, but in a figurative sense of being ensnared by someone (Job 19:6; Prov 12:12; Eccl 7:26).
