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1 Kings 11:2

in 1 Kings 11

These 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.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

of the nations concerning which Jehovah said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go among them, neither shall they come among you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

KJV

Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

This verse in 1 Kings 11

Commentary

9 notes on this verse

A commentator

Ephrem the Syrian

ON THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS 11:1 · Written before 373.

In the previous chapters the Scripture related the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh and did not rebuke him because she was the one wife only who did not secretly practice the religion of her homeland and was no reason of offense for …

This site's exposition

loved many strange women

on 1 Kings 11:1-3

Deut 17:17 forbade the king multiplying wives, lest his heart turn away, and the chapter opens by naming the exact three nations of judgment history, Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites, among the seven listed. Seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines complete the reversal of the glory chapters: horses out of Egypt at 10:28-29, silver and gold beyond counting at 10:14, and now wives beyond number, the king's own law broken clause by clause. The narrator states the count and lets it stand against the law without citing the law by name.

This site's exposition

Yet Solomon clung to these women in love

Albert Barnes reads the quoted warning as the sense of the laws at Exodus 34:16 and Deuteronomy 7:3 to 4, which named the Canaanite nations. Ezra and Nehemiah applied it to Moab, Ammon and Edom, and Nehemiah 13:26 names Solomon as the warning. Matthew Henry recalls the women of Moab at Peor.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

Augustine of Hippo

EXPOSITION 2 OF PSALM 88.6-7 · Written in the 5th century.

proposed

[God] promised that something everlasting would spring from David's seed. Then Solomon was born, and he became a man of such profound wisdom that everyone supposed God's promise concerning David's offspring had been fulfilled in him. But no, Solomon fell and so made room for people to stretch their hope toward Christ. God can neither be deceived nor deceive us, so we can be certain that he did not ground his promise in Solomon, for he knew Solomon would fall. The divine purpose was that after Solomon's fall you would look to God and earnestly press him for what he had promised.Did you lie, then, Lord? Do you go back on your promises? Do you fail to deliver what you swore to give? Perhaps God will counter you by saying, "I did swear, and I did promise, but that man did not persevere." But how can that be the answer? Did you not foresee, O Lord God, that he would not persevere? Of course you foresaw it. Why, then, did you promise me something that would last forever and attach that promise to someone who would not persevere? You said to me, " 'If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my ordinances, if they break my commandments and violate my covenant,' nevertheless my promise shall endure, and my oath shall be fulfilled. 'Once I have sworn in my holiness,'4 within myself." In that most secret place you swore it, in the fountain from which the prophets drank, those prophets who belched out for us the words, "Once have I sworn in my holiness, and I will not lie to David." Make good your oath then, and deliver what you promised. I was stripped away from David of old, lest in that David we should hope for its fulfillment, and so that you can say to us, "Keep hoping for what I promised." Even David himself was aware of this. Consider what he says: "Yet you, you yourself, have rejected him to nothing." So what has become of your promise? […]

A commentator

Augustine of Hippo

CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION 3.21.31 · Written in the 5th century.

proposed

However, in [David's] son Solomon libido was not a passing guest; it reigned as a king. Scripture does not pass this over in silence but blames him as a lover of women. His beginnings were redolent with the desire for wisdom; when he had obtained it through spiritual love, he lost it through carnal love.

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Solomon was master of a great deal of knowledge, but to what purpose, when he had no better a government of his appetites? He was drawn by them to the worship of strange gods, as Israel to Baal-peor by the daughters of Moab. This was the bad consequence of his multiplying wives.
Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Some think it was in policy that he married these foreigners, by them to get intelligence of the state of those countries. I rather fear it was because the daughters of Israel were too grave and modest for him, and those foreigners pleased him with the looseness and wantonness of their dress, and air, and conversation.
1 more voice on this verse

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

Ye shall not go in unto them ... - These words are not a quotation from the Pentateuch. They merely give the general meaning of the two passages prohibiting intermarriage with neighboring idolators (marginal references). Strictly speaking, the prohibition in the Law of intermarriage was confined to the Canaanite nations. But the principle of the prohibition applied equally to the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites who all bordered on the holy land; and was so applied by Ezra Ezr 9:1 and Nehemiah Neh 13:23.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

And [especially] the daughter of Pharaoh. She too was one of the foreign women, but because she was beloved by him more than all of them, she was counted separately.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on I Kings 11:1:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

25 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • מִן־from

    min-H44801188 times

  • הַגּוֹיִ֗םthe nations

    hagoyimH1471561 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֣רwhich

    ʾasherH8345497 times

  • אָֽמַר־he had said

    ʾamar-H5595305 times

  • יְהוָה֩Yahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H4135510 times

  • בְּנֵ֨י[the] people of

    beneiH11214930 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֜לIsrael

    yisraelH34782507 times

  • לֹֽא־not

    lo'-H38085168 times

  • תָבֹ֣אוּyou must go

    tavouH9352568 times

  • בָהֶ֗םamong them

    vahem

  • וְהֵם֙and they

    vehemH1992553 times

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H38085168 times

  • יָבֹ֣אוּthey will go

    yavouH9352568 times

  • בָכֶ֔םamong you

    vakhem

  • אָכֵן֙truly

    ʾakhenH403

  • יַטּ֣וּthey will turn aside

    yatuH5186214 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • לְבַבְכֶ֔םheart your

    levavkhemH3824252 times

  • אַחֲרֵ֖יafter

    ʾachareiH310715 times

  • אֱלֹהֵיהֶ֑םgods their

    ʾeloheihemH4302601 times

  • בָּהֶ֛םto them

    bahem

  • דָּבַ֥קhe cleaved

    davakH1692

  • שְׁלֹמֹ֖הSolomon

    shelomohH8010291 times

  • לְאַהֲבָֽה׃to love [them]

    leahavahH160

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Exodus 34:16

    And 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.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 7:3–4

      Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

    • 1 Kings 11:2–4

      These 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…

    • Ezra 9:2

      Indeed, the Israelites have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the people of the land. And the leaders and…

    • Nehemiah 13:25

      I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not…

    • Numbers 25:1–2

      While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About 1 Kings

King Solomon in Old Age — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
King Solomon in Old Age — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, EXPOSITION 2 OF PSALM 88.6-7; Augustine of Hippo, CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION 3.21.31; Ephrem the Syrian, ON THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS 11:1; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.