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From: 1 Kings 11:4-13

The King’s Sins (Continuation)

[4] For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods,
and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of Da-
vid his father. [5] For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians,
and after Milcom the abomination of the Aminonites. [6] So Solomon did what
was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David
his father had done. [7] Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abo-
mination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the
mountain east of Jerusalem. [8] And so he did for all his foreign wives, who
burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

[9] And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away
from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, [10] and had
commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods;
but he did not keep what the LORD commanded.

The Division of the Kingdom Foretold

[11] Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your mind and
you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you,
I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. [12] Yet
for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out
of the hand of your son. [13] However I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I
will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake
of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”

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Commentary:

11:1-43 The sacred Writer deals briefly with some negative aspects of Solomon,
and in them we can see the cause of the split in the kingdom that occurred after
his death. Applying the teaching of the book of Deuteronomy he allows us to see
that when Solomon was true to the Lord, peace and prosperity reigned; but when
he moved away from God (vv. 1-10) he was visited with divine punishment (vv.
11-13) in the form of Israel’s external enemies (vv. 14-25) and internal division (vv.
26-40). Yet the split will not happen in Solomon’s lifetime: by the mercy of God
he will see out his reign in peace (vv. 41-43).

11:1-10. Conscious of the effects of Solomon’s marriages with foreign women,
the writer retrospectively applies a law (v. 2) which was not in fact made until
later (Deut 7:3-4; 17:17).

The real cause of Solomon’s sin was that “his wives turned away his heart” (v.
3), not just by getting his permission to worship idols but by involving him in that
practice. This meant that Solomon ceased to worship the God of Israel with all
his heart. “Idolatry refers not only to false pagan worship. It remains a constant
temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits
idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this
be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors,
the state, money, etc. Jesus says, ‘You cannot serve God and mammon (Mt 6:
24). Many martyrs died for not adoring ‘The Beast’ (cf. Rev 13-14) refusing even
to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is there-
fore incompatible with communion with God (cf. Gal 5:20; Eph 5:5)” (”Catechism
of the Catholic Church”, 2113).

11:11-13. These words of the Lord to Solomon provide the key to understanding
what is going to happen after the king dies. Although Solomon’s sin would have
justified the kingdom’s being taken away from the house of David, God is faithful
to his promises to David (cf. 2 Sam 7:12-15) and to Solomon himself (cf. 1 Kings
9:3): he leaves the tribe of Judah with the city of Jerusalem under a king of Solo-
mon’s and, therefore, of David’s line. This shows that if Judah and its capital sur-
vive it is only because of God’s fidelity to his promise.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.