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Easy-to-Read Version

1 Kings 11:3

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.

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

Christian Standard Bible®
He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred who were concubines, and they turned his heart away.
Hebrew Names Version
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives 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.
English Standard Version
He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
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.
New English Translation
He had 700 royal wives and 300 concubines; his wives had a powerful influence over him.
Amplified Bible
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away [from God].
New American Standard Bible
He had seven hundred wives, who were princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And he had seuen hundreth wiues, that were princesses, and three hundreth concubines, and his wiues turned away his heart.
Legacy Standard Bible
And he had 700 wives—princesses—and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
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.
George Lamsa Translation
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
Good News Translation
Solomon married seven hundred princesses and also had three hundred concubines. They made him turn away from God,
Lexham English Bible
He had seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart.
Literal Translation
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.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he had seuen hundred queenes, and three hundred concubines: and his wyues 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.
King James Version (1611)
And he had seuen hundred wiues, Princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wiues 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.
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.
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.
World English Bible
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
New King James Version
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.
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.
Revised Standard Version
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.

Contextual Overview

1 King Solomon loved many foreign women, including the daughter of Pharaoh and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and the Hittites. 2 In the past the Lord had said to the Israelites, "You must not marry people from other nations. If you do, they will cause you to follow their gods." But Solomon fell in love with these women. 3 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. 4 When Solomon was old, his wives caused him to follow other gods, so he did not follow the Lord completely as his father David did. 5 Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of Sidon, and Milcom, the horrible god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what the Lord said was wrong. He did not follow the Lord completely as his father David did. 7 On the mountain next to Jerusalem, Solomon built a place for worshiping Chemosh, that horrible idol of the Moabites. On the same mountain, Solomon built a place for worshiping Molech, that horrible idol of the Ammonites. 8 Solomon did the same thing for all of his other foreign wives who burned incense and gave 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
Then the people said, "Let's build ourselves a city and a tower that will reach to the sky. Then we will be famous. This will keep us together so that we will not be scattered all over the earth."
Genesis 11:6
The Lord said, "These people all speak the same language. And I see that they are joined together to do this work. This is only the beginning of what they can do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want.
Genesis 11:7
Let's go down and confuse their language. Then they will not understand each other."
Genesis 11:18
After Peleg was 30 years old, his son Reu was born.
Genesis 14:10
There were many holes filled with tar in the Valley of Siddim. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their armies ran away, some of the soldiers fell into these holes, but the others ran away to the mountains.
Exodus 1:14
They made life hard for the Israelites. They forced the Israelites to work hard at making bricks and mortar and to work hard in the fields. The Egyptians showed no mercy in all the hard work they made the Israelites do!
Exodus 2:3
She hid him for as long as she could. After three months she made a basket and covered it with tar so that it would float. Then she put the baby in the basket and put the basket in the river in the tall grass.
2 Samuel 12:31
David also brought out the people of the city of Rabbah and made them work with saws, iron picks, and axes. He also forced them to build things with bricks. He did the same thing to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and the army went back to Jerusalem.
Psalms 64:5
They encourage each other to do wrong. They talk about setting traps and say, "No one will see them here!
Proverbs 1:11
They will say, "Come with us. Let's hide and beat to death anyone who happens to walk by.

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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