1 Kings 11:3

Legacy Standard Bible

And he had 700 wives—princesses—and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred who were concubines, and they turned his heart away.

Hebrew Names Version
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

King James Version
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

English Standard Version
He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

New Century Version
He had seven hundred wives who were from royal families and three hundred slave women who gave birth to his children. His wives caused him to turn away from God.

New English Translation
He had 700 royal wives and 300 concubines; his wives had a powerful influence over him.

Amplified Bible
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away [from God].

New American Standard Bible
He had seven hundred wives, who were princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And he had seuen hundreth wiues, that were princesses, and three hundreth concubines, and his wiues turned away his heart.

Contemporary English Version
Seven hundred of his wives were daughters of kings, but he also married three hundred other women. As Solomon got older, some of his wives led him to worship their gods. He wasn't like his father David, who had worshiped only the Lord God.

Complete Jewish Bible
He had 700 wives, all princesses, and 300 concubines; and his wives turned his heart away.

Darby Translation
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

Easy-to-Read Version
He had 700 wives who were the daughters of leaders from other nations. He also had 300 slave women who were like wives to him. His wives caused him to turn away from God.

George Lamsa Translation
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

Good News Translation
Solomon married seven hundred princesses and also had three hundred concubines. They made him turn away from God,

Lexham English Bible
He had seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart.

Literal Translation
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And he had seuen hundreth wemen to wyues, and thre hundreth concubynes, and his wyues turned his hert asyde.

American Standard Version
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

Bible in Basic English
He had seven hundred wives, daughters of kings, and three hundred other wives; and through his wives his heart was turned away.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he had seuen hundred queenes, and three hundred concubines: and his wyues turned away his heart.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

King James Version (1611)
And he had seuen hundred wiues, Princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wiues turned away his heart.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines.

English Revised Version
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

Berean Standard Bible
He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines-and his wives turned his heart away.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And wyues as queenys weren seuene hundrid to hym, and thre hundrid secundarie wyues; and the wymmen turneden awey his herte.

Young's Literal Translation
And he hath women, princesses, seven hundred, and concubines three hundred; and his wives turn aside his heart.

Update Bible Version
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

World English Bible
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

New King James Version
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

New Living Translation
He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord .

New Life Bible
He had 700 wives, kings' daughters, and 300 women who acted as his wives. And his wives turned his heart away.

New Revised Standard
Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So it came to pass that he had seven hundred wives who were princesses, and three hundred concubines, - and, his wives, turned aside, his heart.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he had seven hundred wives as queens, and three hundred concubines: and the women turned away his heart.

Revised Standard Version
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.

Contextual Overview

¹Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, ²from the nations concerning which Yahweh had said to the sons of Israel, "You shall not go along with them, nor shall they go along with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods." Solomon clung to these in love. ³And he had 700 wives—princesses—and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. ⁴Now it happened at the time that Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father had been. ⁵For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. ⁶And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and did not follow Yahweh fully, as David his father had done. ⁷Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. ⁸Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

seven hundred: Judges 8:30, Judges 8:31, Judges 9:5, 2 Samuel 3:2-5, 2 Samuel 5:13-16, 2 Chronicles 11:21, Ecclesiastes 7:28

Reciprocal: Genesis 16:3 - his Judges 19:1 - a concubine 1 Kings 11:9 - his heart 1 Chronicles 14:3 - took Esther 1:18 - the ladies Jeremiah 3:2 - unto

Cross-References

Genesis 11:4
And they said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

Genesis 11:6
And Yahweh said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have begun to do. So now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.

Genesis 11:7
Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's language."

Genesis 11:18
And Peleg lived 30 years and became the father of Reu;

Genesis 14:10
now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits—and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell into them; but those who remained behind fled to the hill country.

Exodus 1:14
and they made their lives bitter with hard slave labor in mortar and bricks and in all kinds of slave labor in the field, all their slave labor which they brutally compelled them to do.

Exodus 2:3
But she could not hide him any longer. So she took for him an ark of papyrus reeds and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and put it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.

2 Samuel 12:31
He also brought out the people who were in it and set them up with saws, sharp iron instruments, and iron axes, and made them pass through the brickkiln. And thus he used to do to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

Psalms 64:5
They hold fast to themselves an evil purpose;They talk of laying snares secretly;They say, "Who can see them?"

Proverbs 1:11
If they say, "Come with us,Let us lie in wait for blood,Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines,.... In all 1000, a prodigious number; though these might not be all for use, but for state after the manner of the eastern monarchs; these were a far greater number than are alluded to in Song of Solomon 6:8, unless the virgins without number there, were such of these as were not defiled by him; but the number here seems plainly referred to in Ecclesiastes 7:28,

and his wives turned away his heart; both from his duty to his God, and from attendance to his business as a king, especially the former, as follows.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These numbers seem excessive to many critics, and it must be admitted that history furnishes no parallel to them. In Song of Solomon 6:8 the number of Solomon’s legitimate wives is said to be sixty, and that of his concubines eighty. It is, perhaps probable, that the text has in this place suffered corruption. For “700” we should perhaps read “70.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 11:3. He had seven hundred wives, princesses — How he could get so many of the blood royal from the different surrounding nations, is astonishing; but probably the daughters of noblemen, generals, c., may be included.

And three hundred concubines — These were wives of the second rank, who were taken according to the usages of those times but their offspring could not inherit. Sarah was to Abraham what these seven hundred princesses were to Solomon; and the three hundred concubines stood in the same relation to the Israelitish king as Hagar and Keturah did to the patriarch.

Here then are one thousand wives to form this great bad man's harem! Was it possible that such a person could have any piety to God, who was absorbed by such a number of women? We scarcely allow a man to have the fear of God who has a second wife or mistress; in what state then must the man be who has one thousand of them? We may endeavour to excuse all this by saying, "It was a custom in the East to have a multitude of women, and that there were many of those whom Solomon probably never saw," c., c. But was there any of them whom he might not have seen? Was it for reasons of state, or merely court splendour, that he had so many? How then is it said that he loved many strange women? - that he clave to them in love? And did he not give them the utmost proofs of his attachment when he not only tolerated their iniquitous worship in the land, but built temples to their idols, and more, burnt incense to them himself? As we should not condemn what God justifies, so we should not justify what God condemns. He went after Ashtaroth, the impure Venus of the Sidonians after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites after Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites; and after the murderous Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. He seems to have gone as far in iniquity as it was possible.