Solomon's Old Age, the Warning of Division, and His Death
Many foreign wives, alien altars on the hills — and the verdict: the kingdom will be torn away, though not in your lifetime. The prophet Ahijah tears a garment into twelve pieces and gives ten to Jeroboam.
The Torah warned the future king of three dangers: do not multiply horses, silver and gold, or wives, "lest his heart turn away." Solomon had seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines — half of these marriages were diplomacy. And it is written: "When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart after other gods." He did not serve them himself, but he built shrines for his wives east of Jerusalem — for Chemosh of Moab, for Molech of Ammon — and did not stop them.
God told him: because you have not kept My covenant, I will tear the kingdom away and give it to your servant. But not in your days, for the sake of David your father; and one tribe I will leave your son for the sake of Jerusalem. Adversaries appeared — Hadad the Edomite, Rezon in Damascus — and Jeroboam son of Nebat, the official over the labour levy of the house of Joseph. Ahijah the prophet from Shiloh met him in a field, tore his new garment into twelve pieces and said: take ten.
Solomon reigned forty years and died in 2964. His son Rehoboam answered the people's plea for lighter burdens with "my father chastised you with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions." Ten tribes walked away.
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👤People and places
King Solomon · Jeroboam son of Nebat · Proverbs · Ecclesiastes