And it came to pass when Solomon was old, [that] his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Jehovah his God, as the heart of David his father.
Solomon was famous for his wisdom, yet he ended his life building shrines for foreign gods. The verse does not say he lost his mind or his throne. It says his heart was no longer whole toward the Lord — and it dates that failure to his old age.
Solomon's mistake was not a failure of intelligence. One writer notes that his wisdom should have kept him far away from the risk in the first place:
Did Solomon think his superior wisdom would keep bad company from harming him? In fact, his wisdom ought to have warned him to stay far from the temptation. There is a lesson here for us: it takes more than wisdom to keep us from evil. It takes the grace of God, learned only in communion with Him.
If wisdom is not the safeguard, something else must be. Another writer names it, and ties Solomon's fall to a command God had already given him:
We find Solomon importing horses for war from Egypt, and multiplying wives. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and "his wives turned away his heart" (1 Kings 10:28 – 11:3). He did this despite the prohibition in Deuteronomy 17:16, which forbade the king to multiply horses and wives for himself. Wisdom did not keep Solomon, and it will not keep any one of us, but clinging to the Lord will.
The phrase "when Solomon was old" is not the start of the story. The marriages came first, and the harvest came later:
In his younger days and in middle life he may have had the strength of mind to resist the pull. But "when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods" (1 Kings 11:4). Sowing to the flesh in earlier days, he reaped corruption when he was old.
The heart moved before the idols appeared. One commentator draws out why a heart emptied of God never stays empty:
His heart was first turned away from the Lord, so that when he became old he gave in to the seduction of idols. Our hearts are not vacuums. If we displace the Lord from our hearts, they will soon embrace some false substitute. These wives had many substitutes, and they could persuade Solomon that they were attractive.
The verse judges Solomon by David. That comparison became the yardstick for the kings who followed:
This great thing is said of David, that he followed the Lord with all his heart. There was power in the Lord to engage the hearts of His people completely. This became the standard for judging later unfaithful kings: "his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father."
David was no stranger to serious sin, so the difference is not a clean record. It is what each man did after being confronted:
When David sinned against the Lord and the Lord reproved him, David repented deeply. God reproved Solomon too, but there is no sign that he repented.
Solomon had received more from God than anyone else, and idol shrines rose within sight of the Lord's temple:
He failed to keep his own heart. The Lord lost the place He had once had. So Solomon sinned terribly, after all he had known and enjoyed of the things of God. Idols were set up in the very sight of the holy temple of the Lord. God was dishonoured by the very man who, of all others, had received the most from Him. What a warning to everyone who is a subject of His grace!
One writer applies this to marriage today. He is blunt about which way the influence runs:
In the latter part of his life Solomon did not fully follow the Lord. His wives turned away his heart after other gods. He built high places for them, where they burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Marriage between believers and unbelievers today will have similar disastrous results. The believer seldom pulls the unbeliever upward. The normal pattern is the reverse: the unbeliever drags the believer down, with terrible results for that person, for the family, and even wider.
- Heart — Solomon's problem was never his intellect. The verse faults his heart, not his mind, and wisdom proved to be no protection.
- Drift — The idolatry showed up in old age. It grew from choices made years earlier: he reaped in age what he sowed in his strength.
- Vacuum — A heart turned away from God does not stay neutral. Displace Him, and something else moves in.
- Contrast — David sinned too, but his heart stayed whole toward God and he repented under reproof. That is the standard Solomon fell short of.
- Guard — The greater the privilege, the greater the dishonour when the heart shifts. Clinging to the Lord keeps a person; wisdom and gifts do not. Close ties with those who serve other gods pull downward, never up.
And Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
One sentence records Solomon's fall. The king who built the temple for the Lord now follows two foreign gods. How did a man of such wisdom get here, did he worship these idols himself, and what does his old age warn us about?
Ashtoreth belonged to the peoples along Israel's northern coast, and her worship long predated Solomon.
She was the goddess of the Phoenicians and Sidonians. Israel worshipped her after the death of Joshua, and Solomon did too. Ashtoreth was the chief female goddess and Baal the chief male god, and the two are often named together. Josiah destroyed the objects used in her worship, which Solomon had brought in.
The second god, Milcom, is also called Molech. This is what his worship involved.
This is the Fire-god, "the abomination of Ammon." Late in Solomon's life, the foreign women he had married turned his heart after other gods. He then built a high place for Molech on the hill east of Jerusalem. The Israelites sacrificed their children to this idol.
Writers trace this verse back to a smaller act of disobedience: Solomon's marriages to foreign women.
We may well wonder how a man like Solomon could ever be led to "build high places for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites." But the path is easy to see. He first disobeyed the Word of his Lord by going to those nations for wives. After that he fell easily into the deeper error of taking up their worship.
One writer draws the line from the marriages to the altars as a rule, not an accident.
Marriage with the world will always lead us to the religion of the world. This is a serious word, and every godly soul today should weigh it. If we avoid such a union, our religion takes on a heavenly character. If we cultivate it, our religion takes on an earthly one.
The text places this in Solomon's old age, and that timing is itself part of the lesson.
These things did not arise suddenly in the life of this man of faith. At least their consequences did not develop all at once. For "when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods." Time was needed for this sowing to the flesh to bear its fruit. Who would have believed it? The Solomon of the temple once knelt and spread out his hands toward God in front of all the people — and he became an idolater.
Some have argued that Solomon only provided for his wives and did not worship the idols himself. Two writers answer that the provision was itself the sin.
Some have said that Solomon himself was not really guilty of idolatry. But if he built the places of idolatrous worship only for his many wives, he was guilty of the sin of idolatry. The abominations came in after that. Luxury, wealth, self-indulgence, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life led into idolatry. It is the same in the closing days of the present age. People worshipped Ashtoreth, a Phoenician goddess, with impure rites. Milcom (Molech) was the idol-god of the Ammonites.
Another writer weighs the same act against what Solomon already knew.
It was not indifference, bad enough in itself, to build these high places for his wives. It was joining himself to their worship and becoming one with them. He himself is regarded as an idol-worshipper. And yet the Lord had appeared to him twice. God had warned him about idol worship and shown him its terrible consequences for the people — and he had not kept His commandment!
The order of the chapter matters. His wives turned his heart away before the text named any idol.
Verse 3 says "his wives turned away his heart," and verse 4, "when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods." His heart was turned away from the Lord first. Then, when he grew old, he gave in to the pull of idols. Our hearts are not empty spaces. If we push the Lord out of our hearts, they will soon take hold of some false substitute. These wives had many substitutes, and they could persuade Solomon that they were attractive.
So what does keep a person, if wisdom does not?
Wisdom did not keep Solomon, and it will not keep any one of us. Holding fast to the Lord will.
- Displace — the heart is not a vacuum; when the Lord is moved out of it, a substitute moves in, and here the substitutes were Ashtoreth and Milcom.
- Drift — the displacement came through disobedience in marriage, and marriage with the world leads on to the religion of the world.
- Delay — nothing happened overnight. What he sowed needed time, and the harvest came when Solomon was old.
- Deeper — building shrines "only for his wives" was not neutral ground. By that act Solomon was guilty of idolatry himself.
- Defence — wisdom did not keep Solomon and will not keep us. Only holding fast to the Lord will.
And Solomon did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and followed not fully Jehovah, as David his father.
Solomon had unmatched wisdom, vast wealth, and a temple he built for God. Yet this verse is the verdict Scripture leaves on his life, and it raises two questions: what was the evil, and why is David the measure?
Solomon did not simply allow his foreign wives their own gods. One writer asks what human opinion on such a thing is worth:
The Solomon of the temple once knelt and spread out his hands toward God in front of all the people. Who would have believed that this man would become an idol-worshipper? Perhaps today some might say he had a large heart and respected other people's freedom of conscience. Some would dress this idolatry up with a lovely humanitarian or social label. But what is human opinion worth? The question is what God thinks of it. God was dishonoured. "Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD." To build these high places for his wives was not mere indifference, hateful as that would be. He joined himself to their worship and became one with them. He "did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done" — that is, he did not follow to the end.
Another writer weighs the temple against the high places:
Solomon's faith built the temple; his unbelief built these high places. What a shameful contradiction! In building the temple he emphasised the supreme authority of the living God. But in building the high places, he was guilty of challenging God's authority! So in this his wisdom failed him tragically.
Nothing here happened overnight. One writer traces the collapse back to earlier, forbidden choices:
Here is the old lesson again: no position, however favoured, can keep a man faithful and true. Solomon's idolatry in his old age is simply the outcome of earlier failure. He had horses from Egypt, he had Gentile wives; both were forbidden. His wives seduced him into idolatry.
One writer draws a general rule from Solomon's fall — failure comes at the point where we feel safest:
You will always find that you fail most in the very point where you pride yourself most. In the area where it would seem least possible, the moment your eye is off the Lord, that is where you will break down.
The same writer names the root problem — Solomon kept the gifts and let go of the Giver:
Scripture records this for our wisdom, for our learning, for our warning. We should beware of slipping in the very thing God has marked us out for. There is no strength in wisdom or in anything else. Our strength is only in the Lord, and the only way to make it good is by depending on Him. It was not so with Solomon. He rested in the fruits God had given him. He enjoyed what came from God, but turned aside from the living source.
David sinned badly too, so holding him up as the pattern seems strange. The difference is not the size of the sin but the direction of the heart:
David's trouble also began with polygamy. Yet through all his sin and failure he had always clung to the LORD. In this sense David's heart was perfect with the LORD his God. He did not turn away from the LORD, and David did not go after strange gods. Solomon's guilt was great. The LORD had appeared twice to him; He never appeared to David.
A second difference shows up after God confronts each man:
When David sinned against the Lord, he repented deeply after the Lord reproved him. But though God reproved Solomon, there is no sign that he repented.
God dealt with Solomon while he was still alive. One writer calls that the one hopeful note in the whole account:
This is almost the only comfort we have in the history given to us of king Solomon — that God chastised him. He did not merely let the fruit of his evil show up in his family. He chastised the man himself during his own lifetime. This is His way with His own people. Sometimes this is almost the only hope you have that a person is a child of God. God does not let the evil pass. He deals with it now in this world.
- Root. Solomon's wisdom stayed intact while his heart moved elsewhere. There is no strength in wisdom, only in depending on the Lord.
- Growth. His idolatry in old age grew out of earlier disobedience — forbidden horses, forbidden wives.
- Act. He did not merely permit his wives' religion. He joined it, and God called it what it was: evil.
- Verdict. "Not wholly." David sinned too, yet he never chased other gods, and he repented when God reproved him. Solomon heard reproof and gave no sign of turning back.
- Mercy. God disciplined Solomon in his own lifetime, and that discipline is the mark of a Father dealing with His own.
Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, on the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon.
Solomon built the temple for the Lord. Now the same king raises shrines to the gods of Moab and Ammon on the hill facing Jerusalem, and two questions press: how did he get here, and what did he leave behind?
The same hands raised the temple and these shrines. One writer suggests how Solomon may have justified it:
Very likely he took the attitude of open-minded people today. He thought it right to be tolerant of every religion, and even to support evil religions because his wives preferred them. But his unbelief in building these high places was a shameful contradiction to his faith in building the temple! In building the temple he emphasized the supreme authority of the living God. In building the high places he was guilty of challenging God's authority! So in this his wisdom failed him tragically.
The building was not the first step. The chapter gives the order:
Verse 3 says, "his wives turned away his heart." Verse 4 says that when Solomon was old, "his wives turned his heart after other gods." His heart was first turned away from the Lord. So when he became old, he gave in to the seduction of idols. Our hearts are not vacuums. If we displace the Lord from our hearts, they will soon embrace some false substitute. These wives had many substitutes, and they could persuade Solomon that each one was attractive.
The pull works in two directions, and it works slowly. One writer describes both:
We are in danger of going out to the world, or of letting it come in to us. Perhaps the second danger is even greater than the first. Little by little the world works its way into our homes and into our lives, and often, when we open our eyes to the danger, it is already too late. Marriage with the world will certainly lead us to the religion of the world.
Someone might say Solomon only supplied the buildings and kept his own faith. God's verdict says otherwise:
Perhaps today some might say that he had a large heart, respecting the freedom of conscience of others. Some would dress this idolatry up with a lovely humanitarian or social label. But what is human opinion worth? The question is what God thinks of it. God was dishonoured. "Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD." Building these high places for his wives was not mere indifference, hateful as that would be in itself. He joined himself to their worship and became one with them.
The verse names two gods. One writer explains the names, and what worship of them demanded:
Then we move from wives to children. We come to that most inhuman rite in which parents were so blinded by Satan that they devoted their own children as sacrifices to Molech or Moloch, probably also called Malcham or Milcom. It was the guardian god of the Ammonites. Chemosh, the deity of the Moabites, differed little from it. Fürst takes the name Chemosh to mean "fire," as Molech and similar names mean "King." … The greatest science and learning, the highest civilization and luxury, can in no way stop this, if they do not help it along.
Solomon had already been warned in person. One writer sets that beside the way the requests likely came:
God had not only given warnings and clear instructions in the Law. He had also appeared to Solomon in person twice, and had commanded him not to go after other gods. Wife after wife seems to have persuaded him to build a high place for her idol. We can hear them in our minds: "Oh, Solomon, honey, you built such a gorgeous temple for your God. Can't you build just a little high place where we can worship mine?" Before long these high places defiled "the mountain east of Jerusalem," the Mount of Olives. They stayed there 350 years, until the reign of Josiah.
Solomon's shrines outlived him by centuries. One writer notes who left them standing, and why:
King Josiah defiled "the high places that were before Jerusalem, on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the King of Israel had built" for Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Milcom, the abominations of the Zidonians, the Moabites and the Ammonites. Yet godly Kings such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah had left all this untouched! Neglect of the Word of God is the only possible explanation of this.
- Heart first. The shrines came last, not first. His wives turned his heart before he laid a single stone.
- Then the building. What the heart welcomes, the hands build. Solomon's shrines denied what his own temple declared.
- Then the man. He did not just fund his wives' religion. He joined it, and God's verdict was that Solomon did evil.
- Then the hill. The mountain east of Jerusalem carried those high places for 350 years, and Scripture calls it the "mount of corruption."
- Then the silence. Even kings who feared God left the high places standing. One writer names the cause: neglect of God's Word.
And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, and then built shrines where his foreign wives could go on making offerings and sacrificing to their own gods. How does the man who built the house of God end up paying for the worship of Chemosh and Molech?
The fall did not begin with idols. One writer traces it back to earlier choices that looked harmless — wealth, horses, and then many wives.
God had promised Solomon riches and glory. He did not need to send for horses from Egypt or gold from Ophir. By doing this he enriched himself, but he departs from God and from His word. He gave himself up to his desires for riches and glory. He multiplied the number of his wives, and in his old age they turned away his heart. This neglect of the word seemed at first to do no harm. He grew rich, as though it were only the fulfilment of God's promise. But it soon led to a departure more serious in itself and in its consequences... and at last to open disobedience of the word's plainest and most essential commands. The path of sin is slippery, and people always walk it with quickening steps. The first sin weakens in the soul the authority and power of the one thing that can keep us from committing still greater sins — that is, the word of God.
The idols were not the first step. One writer explains what fills a heart that the Lord no longer holds.
His heart was first turned away from the Lord, so that when he became old he gave in to the seduction of idols. Our hearts are not vacuums. If we displace the Lord from our hearts, they will soon embrace some false substitute. And these wives had many substitutes that they could persuade Solomon were attractive.
The verse says these wives sacrificed. One writer says what sacrifice to such gods could mean.
Then we move from wives to children, and to that most inhuman rite. Parents were so blinded by Satan that they gave their own children as sacrifices to Molech or Moloch, and probably Malcham or Milcom... The greatest science and learning, the highest civilization and luxury, can in no way hinder this, and may even help it on.
The same hands raised the temple and these shrines.
Very likely he took the attitude of broad-minded people today. He thought it right to be tolerant of every religion, and even to support evil religions because his wives preferred them. But what a shameful contradiction! His faith built the temple; his unbelief built these high places. In building the temple he emphasized the supreme authority of the living God. In building the high places he was guilty of challenging God's authority! So in this his wisdom failed him tragically.
Did the man who only supplied the altars share the guilt of those who used them? And who were these gods?
It has been stated that Solomon himself was not actually guilty of idolatry. If he built the places of idolatrous worship for his many wives only, he was still guilty of the sin of idolatry. The abominations were then introduced. Luxuries, wealth, self-indulgence, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life led into idolatry... Ashtoreth was a Phoenician goddess, worshipped with impure rites. Milcom (Molech) was the idol-god of the Ammonites. Chemosh was the sun-god and war-god of the Moabites.
How does a man get from tolerating an idol to paying for its altar?
It began possibly with Solomon's weak desire to please his idolatrous wives, who like Rachel brought their images with their household goods. The desire was weak, but it was sinful and foolish where obedience and faithfulness to the Lord were at stake. As a wise man he perhaps looked with contempt on his wives' folly, but he did not forbid it. And, beginning with winking at it, he ended by being a willing supporter. A dreadful end it was to a small beginning.
The damage did not stay inside Solomon's household.
The man who prayed so humbly to the Lord at the dedication of the Temple became a worshipper of Ashtaroth, Milcom, and other pagan abominations... The Lord's beloved Zion was ringed round with everything that was hateful in His sight. In 1 Kings 10 Jerusalem was the centre of spiritual light. In chapter 11 it was a breeding ground of the grossest idolatries!
- Neglect — Small departures from God's word came first. The word loses its hold, and each step down comes faster.
- Vacancy — A heart emptied of the Lord does not stay empty. It takes the nearest substitute on offer.
- Tolerance — Building for other gods looked broad-minded. It challenged the very authority his own temple proclaimed.
- Supply — He began by overlooking his wives' worship and ended by paying for it. Winking at evil turns into funding it.
- Reach — Zion, the centre of light, ended up ringed with altars. One man's private compromise became his city's public shame.
And Jehovah was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from Jehovah the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
The king who built the temple has ended up worshipping the gods of his foreign wives. Two questions follow: how does a man who saw God twice end here, and what does God's anger mean for someone He has blessed?
The chapter repeats one phrase: his wives turned away his heart. One writer shows what that describes, and how long it took.
"His wives turned away his heart" — the word is repeated in verse 4. It is a terrible thing when what belongs to the world lodges in the heart and takes control of it. It turns the affections away from their only object toward vile, shameful, guilty objects... It took time for this sowing to the flesh to bear its fruit. Who would have believed that the Solomon of the temple would become an idolater? He once knelt and spread out his hands toward God in the sight of the people.
The idolatry was not the first move away from God. It grew out of earlier choices that at the time looked harmless, even successful.
At first this neglect of the word appeared to have no bad effect. He grew rich, as though it were only the fulfilment of God's promise. But it soon led to a departure more serious in its nature and its consequences... It ended in open disobedience of the clearest and most essential requirements of God's word. The path of sin is slippery, and it is always walked with quickening steps. The reason is that the first sin tends to weaken in the soul the authority and power of the one thing that can keep us from committing still greater sins. That one thing is the word of God, along with the sense of His presence, which gives the word all its practical power over us.
The verse gives the reason God's anger burned: this man had heard from God twice, and on this very subject. Comfort was part of the trap.
The Lord's anger burned against this famous king. He turned against God, even though the Lord had appeared to him twice and had given him a clear command not to follow other gods. It seems unthinkable that a believer would sink to such a level as Solomon did, but wealth and ease can be a terrible snare even to one who is born of God.
Another writer turns the failure on the reader: watch the very thing God has singled out in you.
The greater the privilege and the higher the honour, the deeper the shame... It is written for our wisdom, for our learning, for our warning, that we should beware of slipping in the very thing which God singles out in us. ... Solomon rested in the fruits God had given him. He enjoyed what came from God, but turned aside from the living source.
Long before Solomon, the law had named two things a king must not pile up. His famous wisdom did not stop him from doing both.
We find Solomon importing war horses from Egypt and multiplying wives. He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. This went against the prohibition in Deuteronomy 17:16: "Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses... And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away." Wisdom did not keep Solomon, and it will not keep any one of us. But clinging to the Lord will.
God deals with His people under a holy government. Grace does not lift anyone out from under it.
Grace known by us in Christ does not deliver us from this holy government of God. Instead, it gives us a higher place of favour than faith had ever known before. So we have greater responsibility, and we come more directly under the action of such divine principles... David used the sword to carry out his own sinful will, and the sword never left his house. Solomon mixed with foreigners, and his heart was led astray. Enemies then rose up from the very places he had drawn on to please himself.
Solomon's fall is not the end of the kingdom's story. Another King will hold the throne.
As far as man is concerned, this is the end of the kingdom. But what a prospect for the future! ... The kingdom of the Divine Solomon will reappear like the sun shining in its strength. It will never again depend on the fallible obedience of man. It will rest on the unfailing responsibility of the King whom God will anoint on Zion, the mountain of His holiness.
- Heart first. The chapter repeats it: his wives turned his heart. The idols came later, once the affections had moved.
- Step by step. The ruin grew from an earlier neglect of God's word that seemed to cost him nothing. Each step made the next easier.
- Twice. God measures the fall by the light given: two appearances, a plain command on this very point, and honour that deepens the shame.
- Wisdom fails. The wisest man alive fell where he was strongest. Only dependence on the Lord keeps anyone.
- Government stands. Grace does not lift a believer out of God's government. But the kingdom's future rests on a King who cannot fail.