1 Kings 11:1-8

Solomon Turns from God

¹Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, ²from the nations of which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you; they will certainly turn your heart away to follow their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. ³He had seven hundred wives, who were princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. ⁴For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of his father David had been. ⁵For Solomon became a follower of Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites. ⁶So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as his father David had done. ⁷Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abhorrent idol of Moab, on the mountain that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abhorrent idol of the sons of Ammon. ⁸He also did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.