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Christian Standard Bible ®

1 Kings 11:3

He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines, and they turned his heart away from the Lord .

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Concubinage;   Fellowship;   Influence;   Instability;   Lasciviousness;   Molech;   Polygamy;   Rulers;   Solomon;   Women;   Thompson Chain Reference - Concubinage;   Foes of the Home;   Home;   Polygamy;   Solomon;   The Topic Concordance - Marriage;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Alliance and Society with the Enemies of God;   Ammonites, the;   Backsliding;   Marriage;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Concubine;   King;   Marriage;   Solomon;   Song of songs;   Treaty;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Gods and Goddesses, Pagan;   Government;   Idol, Idolatry;   Leadership;   Woman;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Concubinage;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Solomon;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Ashtoreth;   Giants;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ammonites;   Concubine;   High Place;   Kings, 1 and 2;   Moab and the Moabite Stone;   Princess;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Israel;   Molech, Moloch;   Prince;   Solomon;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Concubines;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Mount olivet;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Concubine;   Kings;   Solomon;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Sol'omon;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Kingdom of Israel;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Deuteronomy;   Princess;   Temple;   Woman;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Alliances;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Polygamy;  

Parallel Translations

Legacy Standard Bible
And he had 700 wives—princesses—and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he had seuen hundred queenes, and three hundred concubines: and his wyues turned away his heart.
Literal Translation
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
Easy-to-Read Version
He had 700 wives who were the daughters of leaders from other nations. He also had 300 slave women who were like wives to him. His wives caused him to turn away from God.
Revised Standard Version
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
World English Bible
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
King James Version (1611)
And he had seuen hundred wiues, Princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wiues turned away his heart.
King James Version
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And he had seuen hundreth wemen to wyues, and thre hundreth concubynes, and his wyues turned his hert asyde.
American Standard Version
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
Bible in Basic English
He had seven hundred wives, daughters of kings, and three hundred other wives; and through his wives his heart was turned away.
Update Bible Version
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
Webster's Bible Translation
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
New English Translation
He had 700 royal wives and 300 concubines; his wives had a powerful influence over him.
New King James Version
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
Contemporary English Version
Seven hundred of his wives were daughters of kings, but he also married three hundred other women. As Solomon got older, some of his wives led him to worship their gods. He wasn't like his father David, who had worshiped only the Lord God.
Complete Jewish Bible
He had 700 wives, all princesses, and 300 concubines; and his wives turned his heart away.
Darby Translation
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And he had seuen hundreth wiues, that were princesses, and three hundreth concubines, and his wiues turned away his heart.
George Lamsa Translation
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
Amplified Bible
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away [from God].
Hebrew Names Version
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
New Living Translation
He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord .
New Life Bible
He had 700 wives, kings' daughters, and 300 women who acted as his wives. And his wives turned his heart away.
New Revised Standard
Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines.
English Revised Version
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
Berean Standard Bible
He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines-and his wives turned his heart away.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So it came to pass that he had seven hundred wives who were princesses, and three hundred concubines, - and, his wives, turned aside, his heart.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And he had seven hundred wives as queens, and three hundred concubines: and the women turned away his heart.
Lexham English Bible
He had seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart.
English Standard Version
He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
New American Standard Bible
He had seven hundred wives, who were princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away.
New Century Version
He had seven hundred wives who were from royal families and three hundred slave women who gave birth to his children. His wives caused him to turn away from God.
Good News Translation
Solomon married seven hundred princesses and also had three hundred concubines. They made him turn away from God,
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And wyues as queenys weren seuene hundrid to hym, and thre hundrid secundarie wyues; and the wymmen turneden awey his herte.
Young's Literal Translation
And he hath women, princesses, seven hundred, and concubines three hundred; and his wives turn aside his heart.

Contextual Overview

1 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh's daughter: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women 2 from the nations that the Lord had told the Israelites about, "Do not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn you away from Me to their gods." Solomon was deeply attached to these women and loved them. 3 He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines, and they turned his heart away from the Lord . 4 When Solomon was old, his wives seduced him to follow other gods. He was not completely devoted to Yahweh his God, as his father David had been. 5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did what was evil in the Lord 's sight, and unlike his father David, he did not completely follow Yahweh. 7 At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab, and for Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites, on the hill across from Jerusalem. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

seven hundred: Judges 8:30, Judges 8:31, Judges 9:5, 2 Samuel 3:2-5, 2 Samuel 5:13-16, 2 Chronicles 11:21, Ecclesiastes 7:28

Reciprocal: Genesis 16:3 - his Judges 19:1 - a concubine 1 Kings 11:9 - his heart 1 Chronicles 14:3 - took Esther 1:18 - the ladies Jeremiah 3:2 - unto

Cross-References

Genesis 11:4
And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
Genesis 11:6
The Lord said, "If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
Genesis 11:7
Come, let Us go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech."
Genesis 11:18
Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu.
Genesis 14:10
Now the Valley of Siddim contained many asphalt pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, but the rest fled to the mountains.
Exodus 1:14
and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.
Exodus 2:3
But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.
2 Samuel 12:31
He removed the people who were in the city and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, and to labor at brickmaking. He did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then he and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.
Psalms 64:5
They encourage each other in an evil plan; they talk about hiding traps and say, "Who will see them?"
Proverbs 1:11
If they say—"Come with us! Let's set an ambush and kill someone. Let's attack some innocent person just for fun!

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines,.... In all 1000, a prodigious number; though these might not be all for use, but for state after the manner of the eastern monarchs; these were a far greater number than are alluded to in Song of Solomon 6:8, unless the virgins without number there, were such of these as were not defiled by him; but the number here seems plainly referred to in Ecclesiastes 7:28,

and his wives turned away his heart; both from his duty to his God, and from attendance to his business as a king, especially the former, as follows.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These numbers seem excessive to many critics, and it must be admitted that history furnishes no parallel to them. In Song of Solomon 6:8 the number of Solomon’s legitimate wives is said to be sixty, and that of his concubines eighty. It is, perhaps probable, that the text has in this place suffered corruption. For “700” we should perhaps read “70.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 11:3. He had seven hundred wives, princesses — How he could get so many of the blood royal from the different surrounding nations, is astonishing; but probably the daughters of noblemen, generals, c., may be included.

And three hundred concubines — These were wives of the second rank, who were taken according to the usages of those times but their offspring could not inherit. Sarah was to Abraham what these seven hundred princesses were to Solomon; and the three hundred concubines stood in the same relation to the Israelitish king as Hagar and Keturah did to the patriarch.

Here then are one thousand wives to form this great bad man's harem! Was it possible that such a person could have any piety to God, who was absorbed by such a number of women? We scarcely allow a man to have the fear of God who has a second wife or mistress; in what state then must the man be who has one thousand of them? We may endeavour to excuse all this by saying, "It was a custom in the East to have a multitude of women, and that there were many of those whom Solomon probably never saw," c., c. But was there any of them whom he might not have seen? Was it for reasons of state, or merely court splendour, that he had so many? How then is it said that he loved many strange women? - that he clave to them in love? And did he not give them the utmost proofs of his attachment when he not only tolerated their iniquitous worship in the land, but built temples to their idols, and more, burnt incense to them himself? As we should not condemn what God justifies, so we should not justify what God condemns. He went after Ashtaroth, the impure Venus of the Sidonians after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites after Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites; and after the murderous Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. He seems to have gone as far in iniquity as it was possible.


 
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