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loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter—women from the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. 2 They were from the nations of which the Lord had said to the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will certainly turn your hearts away to follow their gods.” Yet even so, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives who were princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 Solomon followed after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not follow the Lord completely, unlike his father David.
7 At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, on a hill to the east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He also did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
9 The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although the Lord had commanded Solomon about this, so he would not follow after other gods, Solomon did not do as the Lord had commanded him. 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I commanded you, I will certainly tear the kingdom from you and give it to one of your servants. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of your father David, I will not do it in your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give your son one tribe for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
14 Then the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, who was of the royal line of Edom. 15 Earlier, when David was in Edom, Joab the commander of the army, who had gone up to bury the slain, had struck down all the men in Edom. 16 For six months Joab and all the Israelites had remained there, until he had killed every man in Edom. 17 But Hadad fled to Egypt, along with some Edomite men who were servants of his father. Hadad was still a young boy at the time. 18 They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then they took men with them from Paran and went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt. Pharaoh gave Hadad a house and land, and provided him with food.
19 Hadad found great favour with Pharaoh, and he gave Hadad a sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage. 20 The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath. Tahpenes weaned him herself in the palace of Pharaoh, and Genubath lived there with Pharaoh’s own sons.
21 When Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me go, so I can return to my own country.”
22 But Pharaoh said to him, “What have you lacked here with me that you want to go back to your own country?”
“Nothing,” Hadad replied, but please, let me leave anyway.”
23 God also raised up another adversary against Solomon, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. 24 So he gathered men to himself and became the leader of a band of rebels, after David killed the Zobahites. The rebels moved to Damascus and settled there, and they made Rezon king. 25 Rezon was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled over Aram, but he despised Israel.
26 Jeroboam son of Nebat also rebelled against the king. He was a servant of Solomon, an Ephraimite from Zerebah. His mother’s name was Zeruah, and she was a widow.
27 This is the reason why he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the Millo, and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father. 28 Now the man Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw that the young man was a very capable worker, he put him in charge of the whole labour force of the house of Joseph.
29 About that time, as Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him along the way. Now Ahijah was wearing a new cloak, and as the two of them were alone in the open country, 30 Ahijah took hold of the cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and I will give you ten tribes. 32 But one tribe will remain his, for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I chose out of all the tribes of Israel. 33 This I will do because they have forsaken Me and worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, doing what is right in My eyes, and keeping My statutes and My ordinances as David, Solomon’s father did.
34 ‘However, I will not take the whole kingdom from Solomon’s hand, for I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of My servant David, whom I chose and who kept My commandments and My statutes. 35 But I will take the kingdom from his son’s hand and give it to you—ten tribes. 36 I will give one tribe to his son, so that David My servant will always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put My Name. 37 However, I will take you, and you will reign over all that your heart desires, and you will be king over Israel. 38 If you will heed all I command you, walk in my ways, and do what is right in My sight by keeping My statutes and My commandments as My servant David did, I will be with you, I will build for you a lasting dynasty as I did for David, and I will give Israel to you. 39 I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not forever’.”
40 Solomon tried to put Jeroboam to death, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and remained there until the death of Solomon.
41 Now the rest of the events of Solomon’s reign, all his actions and achievements and his wisdom, are they not recorded in the book of the Acts of Solomon? 42 The length of Solomon’s reign in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. 43 Then Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of his father David. Then his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.