1 *Kings 11

₁King Solomon loved many women who came from other lands. He married the daughter of Pharaoh and also Moabite women, women from Ammon, from Edom, from Sidon and from the Hittites. ₂Long before this the Lord had told the Israelites: ‘You must not marry women who are not Israelites and you must not let men who are not Israelites marry your daughters because they will seduce you to serve other gods.’

But Solomon did not stop loving these women. ₃He married 700 women who were daughters of other kings and he had 300 concubines. And his wives did seduce him. ₄When Solomon became old, his wives seduced him to serve other gods. He did not serve the Lord his God with all his heart as his father David had done. ₅Solomon started to worship Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonian people. Solomon also worshipped Molek, the idol of the Ammonites. ₆He sinned_against the Lord, and he did not serve the Lord as his father David had done. ₇On a mountain near Jerusalem he built a place_of_sacrifice to worship Chemosh, the very bad idol of the Moabite people, and Molek, the god of the Ammonites. ₈He did this for his wives who came from other lands so that they could burn incense-offerings and sacrifice to all their gods.

₉The Lord became angry with Solomon because Solomon had stopped serving the Lord. Solomon did not serve the God of Israel any longer. God had appeared to him twice. ₁₀The Lord had told Solomon not to worship other gods, but Solomon did not do what God said. ₁₁The Lord said to Solomon: ‘You have done wrong. You did not obey my covenant, and you did not do what I told you in my laws. Now I will take away your land from you and I will give it to one of your servants. I will do it, that is sure. ₁₂But I loved your father David and that is why I will not do it as long as you live. ₁₃I will take away the land from your son. I will not take away the whole land. I will give your son one tribe because I loved my servant David and because I love Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen.’

₁₄The Lord made something happen so that Hadad became an enemy of Solomon. Hadad was from the royal family from the land of Edom.

₁₅Long before this when David had lived, the Israelites made war_against the people of Edom. Joab was the chief of the army, and he went to bury the men who had died in the war. Joab killed all the men and boys in the land of Edom. ₁₆Joab and the men of Israel stayed there for 6 months and they killed all the men and boys who lived there. ₁₇But Hadad and some of the men of Edom fled to Egypt. The men were officials of Hadad's father. At that time Hadad was a young boy. ₁₈Hadad and his men went from the land of Midian to the land of Paran. They took some men from Paran with them to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The king gave Hadad a house to live in, and land and food. ₁₉Pharaoh liked Hadad and he gave him a wife. She was the sister of Queen Tahpenes, the Pharaoh's wife. ₂₀The sister of Tahpenes had a son. His name was Genubath. Tahpenes let him grow up in Pharaoh's house with his children. ₂₁Then they told Hadad in Egypt that David and Joab, the chief of the army, had died. Hadad said to Pharaoh: ‘Let me go back to my land.’

₂₂Pharaoh asked Hadad: ‘Why do you want to go back to your land? I have given you everything that you want.’ Hadad said: ‘No, I want to go. Please let me go.’

₂₃There was another person who became an enemy of Solomon. His name was Rezon, son of Eliada. The Lord made it happen like this: Before David died, Rezon fled from King Hadadezer of the land of Zobah. ₂₄Rezon became the leader of a group of rebels. When David started to kill the Aramean people, Rezon went to Damascus and he lived there. The people of Damascus asked him to be their king. ₂₅Rezon was the king of Aram and he was an enemy of Israel while Solomon lived and he also did bad things to the people of Israel, like Hadad did.

₂₆Jeroboam, son of Nebat, was an official of King Solomon. Jeroboam came from the town of Zeredah in Ephraim. The name of his mother was Zeruah and she was a widow. Jeroboam rebelled_against the king. ₂₇Solomon made the ground flat, like big steps and he also built the broken wall of the City of David again. ₂₈Jeroboam was an important young man and Solomon saw that he could work well, so Solomon chose him to be the leader of all the people of the Joseph tribes who had to work for the king. ₂₉One day Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem and the prophet Ahijah from the town of Shiloh met him on the road. Ahijah wore a new cloak and the 2 of them were alone in the field. ₃₀Then Ahijah took his cloak and he tore it into 12 pieces ₃₁and he said to Jeroboam: ‘Take 10 pieces for yourself, because the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “I will take away the kingdom from Solomon and I will give you 10 tribes. ₃₂Solomon will keep one tribe because I loved David and because I love Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen from all the towns of the tribes_of_Israel. ₃₃I take away the kingdom from Solomon and his family because they have turned away from Me and worshipped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonian people, and Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and Molek, the god of the Ammonites. Solomon did not live as I wanted, and he did not listen to Me. He has done things that are wrong and has not obeyed my laws as his father David did. ₃₄But I will not take away the whole kingdom from Solomon. He will still be king as long as he lives. I will do it because I chose my servant David and I loved him. He did what I said and obeyed my laws. ₃₅I will take away the kingdom when Solomon's son is king and I will give 10 tribes to you. ₃₆I will give one tribe to his son so that he can still be king, so that the light of my servant David will continue to burn in Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen to belong to Me. ₃₇Jeroboam, I will make you king_of_Israel. ₃₈I will do it for you if you listen to Me and do everything I tell you, and if you live as I want and you do the right things that I like. If you do what I said in my laws, like my servant David did, then I will be with you and I will give you descendants who will be kings, as I did to David, and I will give Israel to you. ₃₉I will humiliate the descendants of David because they did not listen to Me, but I will not always be angry with them.” ’

₄₀Solomon wanted to kill Jeroboam but Jeroboam fled to Egypt. He went to King Shishak of Egypt and he stayed there until Solomon died.

₄₁All the other things that Solomon did, and his wisdom, are written in the book of the history of Solomon. ₄₂Solomon was king in Jerusalem over all the people of Israel for 40 years. ₄₃Solomon died and they buried him with his father in the City of David. Solomon's son Rehoboam became king after Solomon.