Solomon, life of

Solomon succeeded his father David as king and secured Israel's stability through treaties with foreign powers.

Solomon's birth

1 Chronicles 3:1–9 See also 2 Samuel 12:24–25

Solomon's accession

Adonijah's rivalry

1 Kings 1:5 See also 1 Kings 1:11–14, 1 Kings 1:24–25, 1 Kings 2:13–25

At that time Adonijah, David’s son by Haggith, began to exalt himself, saying, “I will be king!” And he acquired chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run ahead of him.

David's approval

1 Kings 1:30 parallel 1 Chronicles 29:23 See also 1 Kings 1:32–35, 1 Kings 2:1–4

I will carry out this very day exactly what I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel: Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place.”

The coronation

1 Kings 1:38–40 parallel 1 Chronicles 29:21–22 See also 1 Kings 2:12

Then Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, along with the Cherethites and Pelethites, went down and set Solomon on King David’s mule, and they escorted him to Gihon. Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the ram’s horn, and all the people proclaimed, “Long live King Solomon!” All the people followed him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the earth was split by the sound.

Solomon's administration of Israel

1 Kings 4:7 See also 1 Kings 4:20–25, 1 Kings 4:27, 1 Kings 10:25–27

Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel to provide food for the king and his household. Each one would arrange provisions for one month of the year,

Solomon's building projects

The temple

2 Chronicles 3:1 parallel 1 Kings 6:1 See also 1 Kings 5:5–6, 1 Kings 5:10–11, 1 Kings 6:14, 1 Kings 6:37–38, 1 Kings 8:63

Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

The palace

1 Kings 7:1–3

Solomon, however, took thirteen years to complete the construction of his entire palace. He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, with four rows of cedar pillars supporting the cedar beams. The house was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the pillars — forty-five beams, fifteen per row.

Other building projects

See also 1 Kings 9:15–19; 2 Chronicles 9:20; Ecclesiastes 2:6 Solomon's Pools1 Kings 7:7–8; John 10:23; Acts 3:11

Solomon's many wives

1 Kings 11:1–5 See also 1 Kings 3:1

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh — women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women. 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. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines — and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been. Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

Solomon's death

1 Kings 11:42–43 parallel 2 Chronicles 9:30–31

Thus the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.