1. And King Solomon loved many foreign women. These words mark a strong shift in the perception of Solomon. Up to this point, he had been portrayed as an ideally wise and fabulously wealthy king to whom God gave rousing promises and who built God’s house in Jerusalem. The previous mentions of his marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter do not put that alliance in any negative light. (Later prohibitions on intermarriage were not operative in the early centuries of Israelite national existence.) Here, however, the legendary profusion of Solomon’s foreign wives—a full thousand—leads to the sin of idolatry. The Deuteronomistic editor, for all the inherited stories of Solomon’s grandeur, needed an explanation for the splitting of the kingdom after Solomon’s death, and he now provides it in a manner in keeping with Deuteronomy’s conception of historical causation, in which idolatry leads to national disaster.

2. from the nations of which the LORD had said . . . , “You shall not come among them.” The Moabites and the Ammonites in particular were singled out for this ban.

To these did Solomon cling in love. This expression suggests that the wise Solomon was besotted with his foreign wives and hence ready to follow their lead in cultic practice.

3. his wives led his heart astray. One may infer that he initially allowed them freedom of worship and then was drawn into their pagan ways.

7. Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh. The building of “high places”—typically, rural hilltop altars—is a bête noire of the Deuteronomist both because he insists on the exclusivity of the Jerusalem temple and because such altars were vulnerable to pagan influences. Here Solomon is seen taking an active role in the pagan cult, actually promulgating it.

11. give it to your servant. In royal contexts, “servant,” ʿeved, usually means “courtier.” Jeroboam, who will appear later in the story, is a member of the royal bureaucracy and hence Solomon’s “servant.”

13. One tribe I will give to your son. It should be two tribes because the breakaway kingdom in the north will have ten. Either “one” is used hyperbolically, to emphasize how little will be left to Solomon’s line, or it reflects the assimilation of Benjamin into Judah, which became to all intents and purposes the only tribe of the southern kingdom.

14. adversary. The Hebrew satan does not strictly mean “enemy” but something like “troublemaker,” someone who is a stumbling block.

18. from Midian. This kingdom to the southeast of Israel would have been a way station between Edom, farther north, and Egypt.

came to Paran. Paran is in the Sinai desert, south of Midian and on the way to Egypt.

Pharaoh . . . gave him a house . . . food . . . land. The Pharaoh in David’s time, unlike the successor who gave his daughter to Solomon, was hostile to Israel. His providing refuge and sustenance to this Edomite refugee from David’s onslaught is politically motivated, with the calculation that at some future point Hadad might prove useful in the conflict with David.

19. the royal consort. Translations invariably render this as “the queen.” But the Hebrew does not call her queen, malkah, but rather gevirah, a term that elsewhere (including 15:13 in this book) designates the queen mother. Tahpenes could not be the king’s mother because she is his wife, but gevirah seems to be extended to a woman intimately related to the king though lacking the full authority and status of queen.

20. Tahpanes weaned him. This looks odd because as his aunt, she certainly would not have suckled the child. The attachment of this verb to her might suggest that she had a kind of adoptive relationship with the infant, a child fathered by a foreigner, and so in some symbolic or even legal fashion could be said to preside over his weaning.

22. No. Send me off. No continuation of the story is given, so there is no way of knowing whether Hadad was repatriated. If he was, then he would presumably have taken up his role as “adversary” to Solomon, son of the man who had massacred the male population of Edom. Verse 25 suggests that in fact he played this role.

23. who had fled from Hadadezer his master. Rezon is not referred to as being “of the royal seed.” The implication may be that he was a plebeian who may have been part of a conspiracy against the king.

24. they reigned in Damascus. The use of the plural may make sense in this context: Rezon is not of royal stock; he has gathered around him a private militia; and it is this group of fighting men who have seized control of Damascus.

25. together with. The Hebrew preposition looks a little strange but could simply mean that the harm perpetrated by Rezon was in addition to the harm done by Hadad.

26. a servant to Solomon. The precise nature of the service he performs in Solomon’s court is spelled out in verse 28.

28. an able fellow. The Hebrew gibor ḥayil in military contexts means “valiant warrior,” but it can also indicate in pacific contexts either competence or wealth.

the lad. The Hebrew naʿar here might refer not to youth but to subordinate position.

could carry out tasks. More literally, “was a carrier-out of tasks.”

the heavy labor. This activity is linked with the building and the repair of breaches in the wall mentioned in the previous verse. The Hebrew sevel derives from a root that means bearing burdens.

29. the prophet Ahijah. The only prophet who has appeared in this story until now is Nathan, but from this point there will be many. Unlike the so-called literary prophets, they do not deliver extensive poetic messages of rebuke or consolation, but they do pronounce what the future will be.

the two of them alone in the field. By its subversive nature, Ahijah’s communication to Jeroboam has to be in a clandestine setting.

30. tore it into twelve pieces. Turning the torn cloak into a sign picks up Saul’s tearing of Samuel’s cloak, which Samuel immediately turns into a sign that God will tear the kingship away from Saul. The earlier tearing of the garment was inadvertent, whereas this act is deliberately carried out as a symbol of what will happen.

34. prince. God’s words, as quoted by Ahijah, avoid the authoritative title “king” and instead use an ambiguous word that often designates a tribal chieftain. Solomon’s kingship, one sees, is already slipping away.

36. so that there be a lamp for David my servant. The language of the prophecy labors to preserve the notion of a divinely elected Davidic dynasty even as most of the kingdom is about to be shorn from the line of David.

38. if you hearken to all that I charge you. Once again, the language is explicitly Deuteronomistic.

39. because of this. Presumably the reference is to the idolatrous backsliding under the rule of Solomon.

40. And Solomon sought to put Jeroboam to death. No report is given of the actions by Jeroboam that might have provoked the king’s attempt to kill him (the Septuagint supplies details, but these are of doubtful authority), but one must assume that after the encounter with Ahijah, Jeroboam took steps—like Macbeth after the prophecy of the witches—to secure the throne for himself.

Shishak king of Egypt. This is clearly a Pharaoh who has come after the one who gave his daughter to Solomon, and who regards Solomon’s kingdom with suspicion, if not hostility.

41. the Book of the Acts of Solomon. This text would seem to be some sort of court annals. It is quite possible that the writer or writers responsible for Solomon’s story beginning with 1 Kings 3 drew materials from this book, though that remains in the realm of conjecture.

42. forty years. This is, of course, a formulaic number—one frequently used to designate the length of time a leader in the Book of Judges remained in power. In all likelihood, it reflects knowledge that Solomon reigned for a relatively long time, a full generation in biblical terms.