The kings of Israel and Judah

King Solomon

The united kingdom · Reigned forty years (1 Kings 11:42) · A mixed reign · 1 Kings 1 to 11; 2 Chronicles 1 to 9

Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba, was the third king of the united kingdom and the builder of the temple in Jerusalem. God gave him wisdom greater than anyone before him, and under him Israel reached the height of its wealth, peace, and glory. Yet his many foreign wives turned his heart to other gods in his old age, and God announced that the kingdom would be torn in two after his death. His full life is told at /bible-people/solomon; here the focus is his reign.

For 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 the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.1 Kings 11:4 (KJV)

The gift of wisdom

Solomon came to the throne while David still lived, anointed to secure the succession against his brother Adonijah. Early in his reign God appeared to him at Gibeon and offered him whatever he would ask. Solomon asked not for long life or riches or the death of his enemies, but for an understanding heart to judge God's people and discern between good and evil. It pleased God, who gave him a wise and understanding heart such as none had before or after, and added the riches and honor he had not asked for.

His wisdom became famous, shown first when two women claimed the same child and he ordered it divided, revealing the true mother by her mercy. He spoke thousands of proverbs and songs, and rulers came from far away, the queen of Sheba among them, to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.

The temple and the golden age

Solomon's crowning work was the temple in Jerusalem, which David had longed to build. For seven years he raised it, a house for the name of the LORD, and when the ark was brought in, the glory of the LORD filled the house so that the priests could not stand to minister. Solomon knelt and prayed one of the great prayers of Scripture, asking that God would hear his people whenever they turned toward this house, even from exile.

Under Solomon the kingdom reached its peak: peace on every side, wealth beyond counting, and a people who dwelt safely every man under his vine and fig tree. It was a foretaste of what the reign of God's true King would one day be, and the nations came to see the glory God had given Israel.

The turning of his heart

But the glory did not last, and the seed of ruin was in the king himself. Solomon loved many foreign women, taking hundreds of wives and concubines against God's clear command not to intermarry with the nations that would turn Israel's heart to their gods. And so it happened: when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God as the heart of David his father had been. He built high places for Chemosh and Molech on the hills around Jerusalem.

God, who had appeared to him twice, was angry, and told Solomon that because he had not kept the covenant, the kingdom would be torn from his son, though for David's sake and Jerusalem's the tearing would be delayed and one tribe left to David's line. The wisest man became a warning that wisdom without a faithful heart cannot save.

The verdict and the cost

The Bible's judgment on Solomon is mixed and sober. He did much that was good, above all the temple, and God blessed him richly, yet he ended in idolatry and heavy taxation and forced labor that left the northern tribes bitter. Ecclesiastes, traditionally linked to Solomon, reads like the reflection of a man who had everything under the sun and found it vanity apart from God, ending with the charge to fear God and keep his commandments.

When Solomon died, the split he had made inevitable came at once. His son Rehoboam refused to lighten the people's burden, and ten tribes broke away under Jeroboam. The united kingdom of Saul, David, and Solomon was over, and the long, divided story of Judah and Israel began.

Where Solomon points to Christ

Solomon, in his glory, is a picture of the peace and wisdom of the promised King, the son of David who would build the true house of God. Jesus said that a greater than Solomon is here, and pointed to himself. Where Solomon's temple was later destroyed, Jesus spoke of the temple of his body, raised in three days, and the church is built as a living temple in him.

But Solomon is also a warning that even the wisest and most blessed man falls when his heart divides. The true King never turns aside; his wisdom and his faithfulness are perfect. Solomon's failure, and the ruin of the kingdom that followed, only deepened Israel's longing for the King who would not fail, and that King is Christ.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Solomon's full life · King David · Rehoboam · Jeroboam I · All the kings of Israel and Judah