First Book of Kings 11

¹ King Solomon loved many foreign women: not only Pharaoh’s daughter but Moabites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites,

² from those peoples of whom Yahweh had said to the Israelites, ‘You are not to go to them nor they to you, or they will surely sway your hearts to their own gods’. But Solomon was deeply attached to them.

³ He had seven hundred wives of royal rank, and three hundred concubines.

⁴ When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with Yahweh his God as his father David’s had been.

⁵ Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom, the Ammonite abomination.

⁶ He did what was displeasing to Yahweh, and was not a wholehearted follower of Yahweh, as his father David had been.

⁷ Then it was that Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the god of Moab on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom the god of the Ammonites.

⁸ He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifice to their gods.

⁹ Yahweh was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from Yahweh the God of Israel who had twice appeared to him

¹⁰ and who had then forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry out Yahweh’s order.

¹¹ Yahweh therefore said to Solomon, ‘Since you behave like this and do not keep my covenant or the laws I laid down for you, I will most surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants.’

¹² For your father David’s sake, however, I will not do this during your lifetime, but will tear it out of your son’s hands.

¹³ Even so, I will not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I will leave your son one tribe.'[*a]

¹⁴ Yahweh raised an enemy against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, of the kingly stock of Edom.

¹⁵ After David had crushed Edom, Joab, the commander of the army, had gone to bury the dead and he had slaughtered the entire male population of Edom

¹⁶ (Joab stayed there with all Israel for six months until he had exterminated the entire male population of Edom),

¹⁷ but Hadad with a number of Edomites in his father’s service had fled to Egypt. Hadad had been only a boy at the time.

¹⁸ They set out from Midian, and on reaching Paran, took a number of men from Paran with them and went on to Egypt, to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who provided him with a house, undertook to maintain him, and assigned him an estate.

¹⁹ Hadad became a great favourite of Pharaoh who gave him his own wife’s sister in marriage, the sister of the Great Lady Tahpenes.

²⁰ The sister of Tahpenes bore him Genubath his son whom Tahpenes brought up in Pharaoh’s palace, Genubath living with Pharaoh’s children.

²¹ But when news reached Hadad in Egypt that David slept with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, he said to Pharaoh, ‘Give me leave to return to my own country’.

²² ‘Do you want for anything here with me’ said Pharaoh ‘that you now ask to return to your own country?’ ‘No,’ he replied ‘but please let me go.’

²³ God raised a second enemy against Solomon, Rezon son of Eliada. He had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah.

²⁴ A number of men having rallied to him, he had become leader of a marauding band (which was then massacred by David). Rezon captured Damascus and settled there and became king of Damascus.

²⁶ Jeroboam was the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah; the name of his mother, a widow, was Zeruah; he was in Solomon’s service but revolted against the king.

²⁷ This is the account of his revolt. Solomon was building the Millo and closing the breach in the Citadel of David his father.

²⁸ Now this Jeroboam was a man of rank; Solomon, noticing how the young man set about his work, put him in charge of all the forced labour of the House of Joseph.

²⁹ One day when Jeroboam had gone out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh accosted him on the road. Ahijah was wearing a new cloak; the two of them were in the open country by themselves.

³⁰ Ahijah took the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve strips,

³¹ saying to Jeroboam, ‘Take ten strips for yourself, for thus Yahweh speaks, the God of Israel, “I am going to tear the kingdom from Solomon’s hand and give ten tribes to you.

³² He shall keep one tribe[*b] for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel;

³³ for he has forsaken me to worship Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, Milcom the god of the Ammonites; he has not followed my ways by doing what is right in my eyes or keeping my laws and ordinances as his father David did.

³⁴ But I will not take the kingdom out of his own hands, since I have made him a prince for as long as he lives, for the sake of my servant David who kept my commandments and laws.

³⁵ I will, however, take the kingdom from the hand of his son, giving the ten tribes to you.

³⁶ I will keep one tribe to give to his son, so that my servant David may always have a lamp in my presence in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen as a dwelling place for my name.

³⁷ You nonetheless I will take to rule over as much as you wish, and you shall be king of Israel.

³⁸ If you listen to all my orders and follow my ways, by doing what is right in my eyes and keeping my laws and commandments as my servant David did, then I will be with you and will build you as enduring a House as the one I built for David. I will give Israel to you,

³⁹ thus humbling the descendants of David; but not for ever.”‘

⁴⁰ Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam but he made off and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and he remained in Egypt until Solomon’s death.

⁴¹ The rest of the history of Solomon, his entire career, his wisdom, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Acts of Solomon?

⁴² Solomon’s reign in Jerusalem over all Israel lasted forty years.

⁴³ Then Solomon slept with his ancestors and was buried in the Citadel of David his father; Rehoboam his son succeeded him.