1 Kings 11:5

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh-women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women. ²These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods." Yet Solomon clung to these women in love. ³He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines-and his wives turned his heart away. ⁴For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been. ⁵Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.⁶So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD-and unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely. ⁷At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites. ⁸He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Ashtoreth: 1 Kings 11:33, Judges 2:13, Judges 10:6, 1 Samuel 7:3, 1 Samuel 7:4, 1 Samuel 12:10, 2 Kings 23:13, Jeremiah 2:10-13

Milcom: 1 Kings 11:7, Leviticus 18:21, Leviticus 20:2-5, Molech, Zephaniah 1:5, Malcham

Reciprocal: Exodus 8:26 - the abomination Deuteronomy 13:6 - which thou Deuteronomy 27:15 - an abomination 2 Chronicles 15:8 - abominable idols 2 Chronicles 24:18 - And they left 2 Chronicles 34:33 - the abominations Ezra 9:1 - Ammonites Isaiah 44:19 - an abomination Jeremiah 49:3 - their king Ezekiel 16:15 - and playedst Ezekiel 33:26 - work

Cross-References

Genesis 11:13
And after he had become the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:14
When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber.

Genesis 11:23
And after he had become the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:24
When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah.

Genesis 18:21
I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will find out."

Exodus 3:8
I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey-the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

Exodus 19:11
and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Exodus 19:18
Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.

Exodus 19:20
The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the summit. So Moses went up,

Psalms 11:4
The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians,.... Enticed by the Zidonian women, or woman, he had, 1 Kings 11:1. According to the Phoenician histories i, Solomon married a daughter of Hiram, king of Tyre and Zidon; so Clemens of Alexandria says k, that Hiram gave his daughter to Solomon; Ashtoreth is Astarte, the same with the Venus of the Greeks, so Suidas l; and Lucian m expressly says, the Sidonians had a temple, said by them to belong to Astarte, which he takes to be the moon; and both Venus and Juno signify the same planet; 1 Kings 11:1- :

and after Milcom the abomination of the Amnonites; the same with Molech, 1 Kings 11:7.

1 Kings 11:7- :.

1 Kings 11:7- :. After this he was drawn by his Ammonitish wife, or wives, 1 Kings 11:1, though the Jewish writers think he did not worship these idols, but suffered his wives to do it, and connived at it, which was his sin; so Ben Gersom and Abarbinel.

i Apud Tatian. contr. Graecos, p. 171. k Stromat. l. 1. p. 325. l In voce Ασταρτη. m De Dea Syria.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Went after - This expression is common in the Pentateuch, and always signifies actual idolatry (see Deuteronomy 11:28; Deuteronomy 13:2; Deuteronomy 28:14, etc.).

For Ashtoreth, or Astarte, the goddess of the Zidonians, see Exodus 34:13, note; Deuteronomy 16:21, note. On the tomb of a Phoenician king, discovered in 1855, on the site of Sidon, mention is made of a temple of Astarte there, which the monarch built or restored; and his mother is said to have been a priestess of the goddess.

Milcom or Molech 1 Kings 11:7 are variants of the term ordinarily used for “king” among the Semitic races of Western Asia, which appears in melkarth (Phoenic.), Abimelech (Hebrew), Andrammelek (Assyrian), Abd-ul-malik (Arabic), etc. On the character and worship of Molech, see Leviticus 20:2-5 note.