These 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.
This is a sad story, and very surprising, of Solomon's defection and degeneracy. I. Let us enquire into the occasions and particulars of it. Shall Solomon fall, that was the beauty of Israel, and so great a blessing of his generation? Yes, it is too true, and the scripture is faithful in relating it, and repeating it, and referring to it long after, Neh 13:26.
Commenting on 1 Kings 11:1-8
Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you,.... That is, they should not intermarry with one another; this is to be understood of the last mentioned, the Hittites, who were one of the seven nations this law respected, Deu 7:1.
- 1Ki 11:1, 1Ki 11:2. “Solomon loved many foreign wives, and that along with the daughter of Pharaoh.” ואת־בּת פ, standing as it does between נכריּות ר נשׁים and מואביּות, cannot mean “and especially the daughter of P.,” as Thenius follows the earlier commentators in supposing, but must mean, as in 1Ki 11:25, “and that with, or along with,” i.e., actually beside the daughter of Pharaoh.
Commenting on 1 Kings 11:1-2