The Bible In Paintings: SOLOMON’S 700 WIVES! 300 CONCUBINES! AND HIS IDOLATRY!

[Hebrews 11:6]

The Bible In Paintings 2
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR APPRECIATING AND APPLYING GOD'S MESSAGE

1st KINGS
CHAPTER 11

King Solomon loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines.

1
JAMES TISSOT
"Solomon and His Harem"

2
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3
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5
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His wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

6
WILLEM DE POORTER
"The Idolatry of King Solomon"

7
"Solomon and His Wives Worship Foreign Gods"

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Source

9
GIOVANNI BATTISTA VENANZI
"King Solomon with His Wives"

10
JACOB WILLEMSZ. DE WET I
"The Idolatry of Solomon"

11
JACOPO AMIGONI
"The Idolatry of King Solomon"

12
DOMENICO ANTONIO VACCARO
"Solomon Worshiping the Pagan Gods"

13
SEBASTIANO CONCA
"The Idolatry of Solomon"

14
Detail
Source

15
SALOMON KONINCK
"The Idolatry of King Solomon"

16
GERARD HOET
"The Idolatry of King Solomon"

17
LUCAS VAN LEYDEN
"Solomon's Idolatry"

18
LUCAS VAN LEYDEN
"Solomon's Idolatry"

19
LUCAS VAN LEYDEN
"Solomon's Idolatry"

20
LUCAS VAN LEYDEN
"King Solomon’s idolatry"

21
LUCAS VAN LEYDEN
"Solomon Worshiping an Idol"

22
BERRETTINI
"Salomone Adora l'Idolo"

23
JACQUES STELLA
"Solomon Worshipping Idols"

24
SEBASTIANO RICCI
"Solomon’s Idolatry"

25
GEORG PENCZ
"Solomon Worshipping Idols"

26
SÉBASTIEN BOURDON
"Solomon Sacrificing to the Idols"

27
SÉBASTIEN BOURDON
"King Solomon Sacrificing to the Idols"

28
PIETRO DANDINI
"Solomon Worshiping Idols"

29
JAN ERASMUS QUELLINUS
"The Idolatry of Solomon"

30

31
FRANS FRANCKEN II
"The Idolatry of Solomon"

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Source

33
LUCA GIORDANO
"The Idolatry Of Solomon"

34
ADRIAEN VAN STALBEMT
"Idolatry of Solomon"

35
SÉBASTIEN BOURDON
"King Solomon Sacrificing to the Idols"

36
GERBRAND VAN DEN EECKHOUT
"Idolatry of Salomon"

37
PIERRE REYMOND
"Solomon Turning to Idolatry"

38
HANS THOMAN
"Solomon's Idolatry"

→ a n d... f i n a l l y ←

The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command. So the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

New International Version ©1984, Abrdgd, EMPHASES Added
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[high info voter]

It bothers me a lot......the sins that he committed when given so much by God.

[BiglyCommentary]

“It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.”

Wisdom from a man with 700 wives and 300 girlfriends. Lol

[Hebrews 11:6]

Yes, and I am bothered a lot by the same failings in myself.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Luke 12:48

[marron]

Solomon was a disaster for Israel. He was the one who promoted devil worship and took part in it himself.

[Hebrews 11:6]

If anyone would know, he would.

I have been so blessed by the wife our Lord picked for me.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Literally. His legacy was the immediate division between Judah and the ten tribes.

[marron]

I sometimes think one of the subtexts of history is the war against human sacrifice. Adds a nuance to Abraham’s story. And Cortez, for that matter.

Israel was supposed to be a key part of that struggle but succumbed to it to the point that several kings sacrificed their own sons on the altar, and the queen of the devil worshippers wound up queen of Israel.

[NorthMountain]

And Cortez, for that matter. Of the people who condemn Cortez as a genocidal racist (or whatever), I wonder what fraction support abortion.

Cortez put an end to demonic human sacrifice on a massive scale. For this he is condemned by some.

Meanwhile, Americans commit human sacrifice, on a massive scale, to the 'god of convenience'.

[Hebrews 11:6]

the queen of the devil worshippers wound up queen of Israel

Presuming you mean Jezebel. She'll be getting her comeuppance here on Friday, July 1st.

[BiglyCommentary]

But at the end of Ecclesiastes, after much deep reflection and pondering, Solomon did sum things up in this way:

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

[Hebrews 11:6]

Also quoted in reply #17. Although as for everyone I hope to encounter him in heaven, in my view this advice coming at the end of a life notorious for its debauchery and apostasy smacks unavoidably of “Don’t do as I do, do as I say.” I don’t buy it from him any more than I did from my father.

[daniel1212]

However, a concubine is a wife, if usually as a secondary one: (Gn. 25:1; cf. 1Ch. 1:32; Gn. 30:4; cf. Gn. 35:22; 2Sam. 16:21, 22, cf. 2Sam. 20:3)

And to be cut off from sex from their husband is to be a widow.

And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.  2 Sam. 20:3

[daniel1212]

Yet at least the wives were all women.

- https://www.biblia-es.org

[Hebrews 11:6]

Yet at least the wives were all women.

Well, that's the official version, the implication, anyway. But what I've seen among those so dominated by their lust is a greater and greater need to satisfy it in new and ever-more varied ways, with ventures into all the -philias. So, I'm decidedly less sanguine.

Still, I hope you're right.

[Hebrews 11:6]

By the way, I'm quite partial to Tissot's reverse image of that scene, depicting Lot's view, all eyes--except the angel's--on Lot's proffered daughter:

[SouthernClaire]

“I have been so blessed by the wife our Lord picked for me.”

The paintings are great, but your statement is the most beautiful.

[Hebrews 11:6]

The story of exactly how our Lord arranged that is the beautiful part, Claire.

My conviction is that a big part of heaven consists of the saints regaling each other with just such stories of the Lord's benevolence, and I promise to fill you in then.

Dan

[daniel1212]

" Well, that's the official version, the implication, anyway. But what I've seen among those so dominated by their lust is a greater and greater need to satisfy it in new and ever-more varied ways, with ventures into all the -philias. So, I'm decidedly less sanguine."

Yet which observation actually serves to indict the men of Sodom as being intent upon the men, since it was manifest that they wanted to violently sexually "know" the men even when offered "two daughters which have not known man," And in the parallel event of Judges 19 certain sons of Belial demanded to know the Levite sojourner also refused the female substitute, though when given the concubine, they abused her all the night until the morning and then she died. But the Levite was no prize either. Attempts to relegate "know them" in both events to being interrogation are refuted here, by the grace of God.

[daniel1212]

"By the way, I'm quite partial to Tissot's reverse image of that scene, depicting Lot's view, all eyes--except the angel's--on Lot's proffered daughter: "

Yet as said, they would have been on the men.

[Hebrews 11:6]

My point is that it wouldn’t surprise me if Solomon had ventured beyond his female harem into orgies, pedophilia, homosexuality, bestiality, necrophilia....