1 Kings 11:2

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: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

1 Kings 11:2. Concerning which the Lord said — Ye shall not go in unto them — This relates especially to the Hittites and the Zidonians, and consequently the rest of the seven nations of Canaan, with whom they were forbidden to make any marriage, (Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3,) for the weighty reason here mentioned. For though they might marry women of other nations, if these women embraced the true religion, yet of the seven nations of Canaan they might not, although they were converted to their religion; lest the venom should lurk and lie hid, and at last break out and infect them. Great was the foresight wherewith God endowed Moses in giving this precept, as Grotius remarks; and the not observing it was of fatal consequence to the Israelites, and laid the foundation of their utter ruin. Solomon clave unto these in love — Was extravagantly fond of them. He had much knowledge; but to what purpose, when he knew not how to govern his appetites?

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:1-8 There is not a more melancholy and astonishing instance of human depravity in the sacred Scriptures, than that here recorded. Solomon became a public worshipper of abominable idols! Probably he by degrees gave way to pride and luxury, and thus lost his relish for true wisdom. Nothing forms in itself a security against the deceitfulness and depravity of the human heart. Nor will old age cure the heart of any evil propensity. If our sinful passions are not crucified and mortified by the grace of God, they never will die of themselves, but will last even when opportunities to gratify them are taken away. Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. We see how weak we are of ourselves, without the grace of God; let us therefore live in constant dependence on that grace. Let us watch and be sober: ours is a dangerous warfare, and in an enemy's country, while our worst foes are the traitors in our own hearts.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye shall not go in unto them ... - These words are not a quotation from the Pentateuch. They merely give the general meaning of the two passages prohibiting intermarriage with neighboring idolators (marginal references). Strictly speaking, the prohibition in the Law of intermarriage was confined to the Canaanite nations. But the principle of the prohibition applied equally to the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites who all bordered on the holy land; and was so applied by Ezra Ezr 9:1 and Nehemiah Neh 13:23.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 11

1Ki 11:1-8. Solomon's Wives and Concubines in His Old Age.

1, 2. But King Solomon loved many strange women—Solomon's extraordinary gift of wisdom was not sufficient to preserve him from falling into grievous and fatal errors. A fairer promise of true greatness, a more beautiful picture of juvenile piety, never was seen than that which he exhibited at the commencement of his reign. No sadder, more humiliating, or awful spectacle can be imagined than the besotted apostasy of his old age; and to him may be applied the words of Paul (Ga 3:3), of John (Re 3:17), and of Isaiah (Isa 14:21). A love of the world, a ceaseless round of pleasure, had insensibly corrupted his heart, and produced, for a while at least, a state of mental darkness. The grace of God deserted him; and the son of the pious David—the religiously trained child of Bath-sheba (Pr 31:1-3), and pupil of Nathan, instead of showing the stability of sound principle and mature experience became at last an old and foolish king (Ec 4:13). His fall is traced to his "love of many strange women." Polygamy was tolerated among the ancient Hebrews; and, although in most countries of the East, the generality of men, from convenience and economy, confine themselves to one woman, yet a number of wives is reckoned as an indication of wealth and importance, just as a numerous stud of horses and a grand equipage are among us. The sovereign, of course, wishes to have a more numerous harem than any of his subjects; and the female establishments of many Oriental princes have, both in ancient and modern times, equalled or exceeded that of Solomon's. It is probable, therefore, that, in conformity with Oriental notions, he resorted to it as a piece of state magnificence. But in him it was unpardonable, as it was a direct and outrageous violation of the divine law (De 17:17), and the very result which that statute was ordained to prevent was realized in him. His marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh is not censured either here or elsewhere (see on [311]1Ki 3:1). It was only his love for many strange women; for women, though in the East considered inferiors, exert often a silent but powerful seductive influence over their husbands in the harem, as elsewhere, and so it was exemplified in Solomon.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ye shall not go in to them, i.e. marry them. See Poole "Genesis 6:4".

They will turn away your heart after their gods: possibly Solomon might think himself too wise to be drawn to idolatry by his wives, and therefore to be unconcerned in the reason of the law; and consequently free in some measure from the obligation of the law; and so, like our first parents, trusting his own fancy more than God’s word, he fell dreadfully.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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, Deuteronomy 7:1.

for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods; which is the reason given for the making the above law, and was sadly verified in Solomon:

Solomon clave unto these in love; he not only took them, but kept them, and expressed a strong affection for them.

Geneva Study Bible

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: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. of the nations concerning which the Lord said] The prohibition of intermarriage with the nations of Canaan is given in Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3-4. Like so much else in the Law, it was a great ideal toward which neither the people nor their rulers were earnest in advancing, when they once became settled in some portion of the land.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel [Of the nations just enumerated, the law expressly forbade marriage with the Hittites alone (Exodus 34:11-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-4), though the Zidonians are probably to be included, as being Canaanites (Genesis 10:15). But the principle which applied in the case of the seven nations of Canaan applied equally to all other idolaters. "They will turn away thy son from following me," etc. (Deuteronomy 7:4). The spirit of the law, consequently, was as much violated by an Edomite or Ammonite as by a Hittite alliance], Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you [much the same expression Joshua 23:12. The historian does not cite any special Scripture, however, but gives the substance of several warnings], for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods [cf. Exodus 34:16]: Solomon clave [same word Genesis 2:4] unto these [emphatic in Heb. "even to these," instead of cleaving to God (Deuteronomy 4:4; Deuteronomy 10:20; Deuteronomy 30:20, each of which has the same word as here), and despite the prohibitions of the law, etc.] in love. 1 Kings 11:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Solomon's Love of Many Wives and Idolatry. - 1 Kings 11:1, 1 Kings 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 1 Kings 11:25, "and that with, or along with," i.e., actually beside the daughter of Pharaoh. She is thereby distinguished from the foreign wives who turned away Solomon's heart from the Lord, so that the blame pronounced upon those marriages does not apply to his marriage to the Egyptian princess (see at 1 Kings 3:1). All that is blamed is that, in opposition to the command in Deuteronomy 17:17, Solomon loved (1) many foreign wives, and (2) Moabitish, Ammonitish, and other wives, of the nations with whom the Israelites were not to intermarry. All that the law expressly prohibited was marriage with Canaanitish women (Deuteronomy 7:1-3; Exodus 34:16); consequently the words "of the nations," etc., are not to be taken as referring merely to the Sidonian and Hittite women (J. D. Mich.); but this prohibition is extended here to all the tribes enumerated in 1 Kings 11:2, just as in Ezra 9:2., 1 Kings 10:3; Nehemiah 13:23; not from a rigour surpassing the law, but in accordance with the spirit of the law, namely, because the reason appended to the law, ne in idololatriam a superstitiosis mulieribus pellicerentur (Clericus), applied to all these nations. The Moabites and Ammonites, moreover, were not to be received into the congregation at all, not even to the tenth generation, and of the Edomites only the children in the third generation were to be received (Deuteronomy 23:4, Deuteronomy 23:8-9). There was all the less reason, therefore, for permitting marriages with them, that is to say, so long as they retained their nationality or their heathen ways. The words בּכם...לא־תבאוּ are connected in form with Joshua 23:12, but, like the latter, they really rest upon Exodus 34:16 and Deuteronomy 7:1-3. In the last clause בּהם is used with peculiar emphasis: Solomon clave to these nations, of which God had said such things, to love, i.e., to enter into the relation of love or into the marriage relation, with them. דּבק is used of the attachment of a man to his wife (Genesis 2:4) and also to Jehovah (Deuteronomy 4:4; Deuteronomy 10:20, etc.).