Atlas Biblica

    1 Kings · 43 verses

    1 Kings 11

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    Hadad had a house, land, food, and a royal marriage in Egypt, yet when Pharaoh asked what he lacked, he answered, “Nothing,” and begged to go home.

    A divided heartvv. 1–13

    Solomon’s household is introduced with the sort of arithmetic that makes a palace sound less like a home than a small metropolis: seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines. The women’s gods follow them in, and Solomon builds high places on the hill east of Jerusalem, where the household burns incense and sacrifices. The curious turn is that the man with the enormous household is said to have had his heart turned away by the very wives he accumulated. The LORD’s answer is correspondingly royal and severe: the kingdom will be torn away, though not in Solomon’s lifetime, and not altogether from his son, for David and Jerusalem still stand in the account.

    The adversaries arrivevv. 14–25

    The threatened trouble acquires two faces. Hadad, an Edomite prince, had escaped the slaughter in Edom as a boy and found a remarkably comfortable refuge in Egypt: Pharaoh supplied a house, land, food, and the sister of Queen Tahpenes in marriage. Even after Genubath was born and raised in Pharaoh’s palace, Hadad waited for David and Joab to die, then asked to return home. Pharaoh’s question—what was missing?—receives the wonderfully unhelpful answer, “Nothing.” Rezon supplies the second face: a fugitive who gathered raiders, settled in Damascus, and ruled Aram with hostility toward Israel. The chapter calls both men adversaries, as though Solomon’s troubles had decided to travel in pairs.

    The cloak and the kingdomvv. 26–43

    Jeroboam begins as Solomon’s servant, an industrious young man placed over the whole labor force of the house of Joseph, and ends the passage fleeing for his life. On the road out of Jerusalem, Ahijah meets him alone in an open field, wearing a new cloak. The prophet tears it into twelve pieces, gives Jeroboam ten, and speaks of ten tribes being taken from Solomon’s son. The chapter does not say what happens to the twelfth piece. Solomon then seeks to kill Jeroboam, who flees to Egypt and remains there until Solomon dies. After forty years in Jerusalem, Solomon rests with his fathers, and Rehoboam reigns in his place.

    The text

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. 1 Kgs 11:1King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

    2. 1 Kgs 11:2These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

    3. 1 Kgs 11:3He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away.

    4. 1 Kgs 11:4For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been.

    5. 1 Kgs 11:5Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

    6. 1 Kgs 11:6So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely.

    7. 1 Kgs 11:7At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.

    8. 1 Kgs 11:8He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

    9. 1 Kgs 11:9Now the LORD grew angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.

    10. 1 Kgs 11:10Although He had warned Solomon explicitly not to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command.

    11. 1 Kgs 11:11Then the LORD said to Solomon, “Because you have done this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.

    12. 1 Kgs 11:12Nevertheless, for the sake of your father David, I will not do it during your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

    13. 1 Kgs 11:13Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

    14. 1 Kgs 11:14Then the LORD raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom.

    15. 1 Kgs 11:15Earlier, when David was in Edom, Joab the commander of the army had gone to bury the dead and had struck down every male in Edom.

    16. 1 Kgs 11:16Joab and all Israel had stayed there six months, until he had killed every male in Edom.

    17. 1 Kgs 11:17But Hadad, still just a young boy, had fled to Egypt, along with some Edomites who were servants of his father.

    18. 1 Kgs 11:18Hadad and his men set out from Midian and went to Paran. They took men from Paran with them and went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food.

    19. 1 Kgs 11:19There Hadad found such great favor in the sight of Pharaoh that he gave to him in marriage the sister of Queen Tahpenes, his own wife.

    20. 1 Kgs 11:20And the sister of Tahpenes bore Hadad a son named Genubath. Tahpenes herself weaned him in Pharaoh’s palace, and Genubath lived there among the sons of Pharaoh.

    21. 1 Kgs 11:21When Hadad heard in Egypt that David had rested with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, he said to Pharaoh, “Let me go, that I may return to my own country.”

    22. 1 Kgs 11:22But Pharaoh asked him, “What have you lacked here with me that you suddenly want to go back to your own country?” “Nothing,” Hadad replied, “but please let me go.”

    23. 1 Kgs 11:23And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah,

    24. 1 Kgs 11:24and had gathered men to himself. When David killed the Zobaites, Rezon captained a band of raiders and went to Damascus, where they settled and gained control.

    25. 1 Kgs 11:25Rezon was Israel’s enemy throughout the days of Solomon, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled over Aram with hostility toward Israel.

    26. 1 Kgs 11:26Now Jeroboam son of Nebat was an Ephraimite from Zeredah whose mother was a widow named Zeruah. Jeroboam was a servant of Solomon, but he rebelled against the king,

    27. 1 Kgs 11:27and this is the account of his rebellion against the king. Solomon had built the supporting terraces and repaired the gap in the wall of the city of his father David.

    28. 1 Kgs 11:28Now Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor. So when Solomon noticed that the young man was industrious, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph.

    29. 1 Kgs 11:29During that time, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met Jeroboam on the road as he was going out of Jerusalem. Now Ahijah had wrapped himself in a new cloak, and the two of them were alone in the open field.

    30. 1 Kgs 11:30And Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing, tore it into twelve pieces,

    31. 1 Kgs 11:31and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes.

    32. 1 Kgs 11:32But one tribe will remain 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. 1 Kgs 11:33For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.

    34. 1 Kgs 11:34Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand, because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David My servant, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and statutes.

    35. 1 Kgs 11:35But I will take ten tribes of the kingdom from the hand of his son and give them to you.

    36. 1 Kgs 11:36I will give one tribe to his son, so that My servant David will always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put My Name.

    37. 1 Kgs 11:37But as for you, I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your heart desires, and you will be king over Israel.

    38. 1 Kgs 11:38If you listen to all that I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight in order to keep My statutes and commandments as My servant David did, then I will be with you. I will build you a lasting dynasty just as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.

    39. 1 Kgs 11:39Because of this, I will humble David’s descendants—but not forever.’”

    40. 1 Kgs 11:40Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, where he remained until the death of Solomon.

    41. 1 Kgs 11:41As for the rest of the acts of Solomon—all that he did, as well as his wisdom—are they not written in the Book of the Acts of Solomon?

    42. 1 Kgs 11:42Thus the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.

    43. 1 Kgs 11:43And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 403 passages were voted onto 42 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 2Exodus 34:16And when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.
    • 2Deuteronomy 7:3–4Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
    • 1Deuteronomy 17:17He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.
    • 2Joshua 23:12–13For if you turn away and cling to the rest of these nations that remain among you, and if you intermarry and associate with them,
    • 91 Kings 9:2the LORD appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.
    • 91 Kings 3:5One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”
    • 152 Samuel 8:14He placed garrisons throughout Edom, and all the Edomites were subject to David. So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went.
    • 2Numbers 25:1–3While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,
    • 21 Corinthians 15:33Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
    • 22 Corinthians 6:14–16Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
    • 2Exodus 23:32–33You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.
    • 41 Kings 9:4And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,
    • 131 Kings 12:20When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.
    • 2Romans 12:9Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.
    • 41 Kings 8:61So let your heart be fully devoted to the LORD our God, as it is this day, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments.”
    • 151 Chronicles 18:12–13Moreover, Abishai son of Zeruiah struck down eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.

    Onward

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