Reading for August 19th

 Read 1 Kings 11.1-25. In 11.143: Solomon's troubles. The writer has divided the account of Solomon's reign into two parts for theological reasons. The first part (chs. 1-10) told of his successes, the greatest of which was the building of the Temple. But the division of the kingdom after Solomon required an explanation, which the writer furnishes in the account of Solomon's religious failures in ch. 11. In verse 1: Solomon's many foreign wives were partly the result of treaties with other nations. In verse 2: See Deut 7.1-4for the law prohibiting foreign marriages. In verse 3: A large harem was also a symbol of royal grandeur. The princesses were not all of royal birth but had gained royal status through marriage. Concubines, on the other hand, had no royal status but were female slaves used for sexual purposes. In verse 4: The statement that Solomon's heart was not true is a pun on his name. The word "true" in Hebrew is "shalem," which sounds like 'Shelomoh," Solomon in Hebrew. In verse 5: Astate was a prominent Phoenician and Canaanite goddess. The Hebrew text deliberately distorts her name to "Ashroreth" to rhyme with the word "bosheth," meaning "abomination/" Milcom was the chief god of the Ammonites who lived in the area of modern northern Jordan. In verse 7:Chemosh was the chief god of the Moabites in central Jordan. Molech is a distortion of the name Milcom. In verses 11-13: The announcement of Solomon's punishment anticipates the story of the division of the kingdom, under Rehoboam in the next chapter. In verses 14-25: Solomon's first two adversaries are foreign. The word adversary is "stan," which does not imply any supernatural force in this case. The fact that both Hadad the Edomite and Rezon began their careers during David's reign indicates that they caused trouble for Solomon early in his reign. However, the writer has paced their stories here because of the positioning of the account of Solomon into 'positive" and "negative sections. Comments or Questions..