Solomon had been given great gifts and great wisdom. He had had visions from God. It’s clear that he intended to be faithful to the Lord in everything he did. Yet he would end up failing badly in this intention: he would build altars to other gods, in response to the requests of his harem (11:6-8).

That harem was, famously, a thousand women, 700 wives and 300 concubines (11:3). The text tells us that “Solomon clung to these women in love” (11:2), though it’s hard to imagine he would even be able to keep track of their names, let alone have some sense of who all these individual women might be. Perhaps we are to understand that he “clung” to the idea of having a harem of a thousand women, as a sign of his power or virility, rather than supposing that he felt personal affection for each of these individuals.

Yet for some of them – girls from foreign lands that had presumably been given in marriage to him to establish alliances – his affection was strong enough that he fulfilled their request for altars to their various gods. This will become part of the refrain of a later generation: we turn aside from steadfast faithfulness to the Lord when men marry foreign wives who lead them astray: “you shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow other gods” (11:2).

As it would turn out, Solomon not only built altars for his wives to worship their ancestral gods (11:8), but it appears that he himself became a worshiper of Chemosh and Molech (11:7). Because of Solomon’s unfaithfulness, the Lord revealed to him that the kingdom would be divided, after Solomon’s death (11:11-13, 29-38). And so “the everlasting reign of David and his descendants over Israel” lasted just through the lifetime of his son; David’s grandson Rehoboam had only just been crowned when the kingdom fell apart (12:12-16).

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It is our desire, O Lord, that through the generations we will live in faithfulness to your covenant forever: but we only manage to do this for brief moments of time. We cannot make it true for our children and grandchildren. All we can do is pray for your grace, that somehow you will reach them and move in their hearts, as you have in ours.

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