1 Kings 11:3-8

11:3 He had 700 royal wives ¹  and 300 concubines; ²  his wives had a powerful influence over him. ³  11:4 When Solomon became old, his wives shifted his allegiance to ⁴  other gods; he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been. ⁵  11:5 Solomon worshiped ⁶  the Sidonian goddess Astarte and the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. ⁷  11:6 Solomon did evil in the Lord’s sight; ⁸  he did not remain loyal to ⁹  the Lord, like his father David had. 11:7 Furthermore, ¹⁰  on the hill east of Jerusalem ¹¹  Solomon built a high place ¹²  for the detestable Moabite god Chemosh ¹³  and for the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. ¹⁴  11:8 He built high places for all his foreign wives so they could burn incense and make sacrifices to their gods. ¹⁵ 

[11:3]  ¹ tn Heb “wives, princesses.”

[11:3]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “his wives bent his heart.”

[11:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “bent his heart after.”

[11:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “his heart was not complete with the Lord his God, like the heart of David his father.”

[11:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “walked after.”

[11:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “Milcom, the detestable thing of the Ammonites.”

[11:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

[11:6]  ¹¹ tn The idiomatic statement reads in Hebrew, “he did not fill up after.”

[11:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “then.”

[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]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and the same thing he did for all his foreign wives, [who] were burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.”