We gave you the main points on Solomon above. He was Israel’s third king; the son of David; loved by God; given power, wealth and wisdom; reigned during the “Golden Age†of Israel; built Jerusalem’s first Temple; yadda yadda, yadda. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for King Solomon. He had 700 wives and princesses and 300 mistresses. That’s 1,000 women he loved (no wonder the ‘Song of Song’s’ was written either for him or by him). As God suspected would happen, many of Solomon’s foreign wives and concubines influenced him with the ways of their own pagan religious beliefs. Eventually, Solomon turned away from God, but because God loved Solomon’s father David so much, He let Solomon finish his 40 year reign and die honorably without punishment. Still, some of Solomon’s political policies had some not-so-great consequences. He alienated the Northern Tribes through forced labor and heavy taxation; he diminished some of their religious influence; and he sells some of their towns to the Phoenician king. This all would set the stage for the subsequent division of Israel when the northern tribes secede from the union.
