Solomon Turns Away from God

¹Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides the daughter of the king of Egypt he married Hittite women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon.

²He married them even though the Lord had commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with these people, because they would cause the Israelites to give their loyalty to other gods.

³Solomon married seven hundred princesses and also had three hundred concubines. They made him turn away from God,

⁴and by the time he was old they had led him into the worship of foreign gods. He was not faithful to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.

⁵He worshiped Astarte, the goddess of Sidon, and Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon.

⁶He sinned against the Lord and was not true to him as his father David had been.

⁷On the mountain east of Jerusalem he built a place to worship Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, and a place to worship Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon.

⁸He also built places of worship where all his foreign wives could burn incense and offer sacrifices to their own gods.

^9-10Even though the Lord, the God of Israel, had appeared to Solomon twice and had commanded him not to worship foreign gods, Solomon did not obey the Lord but turned away from him. So the Lord was angry with Solomon

¹¹and said to him, “Because you have deliberately broken your covenant with me and disobeyed my commands, I promise that I will take the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your officials.

¹²However, for the sake of your father David I will not do this in your lifetime, but during the reign of your son.

¹³And I will not take the whole kingdom away from him; instead, I will leave him one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have made my own.”

Solomon's Enemies

¹⁴So the Lord caused Hadad, of the royal family of Edom, to turn against Solomon.

^15-16Long before this, when David had conquered Edom, Joab the commander of his army had gone there to bury the dead. He and his men remained in Edom six months, and during that time they killed every male in Edom

¹⁷except Hadad and some of his father's Edomite servants, who escaped to Egypt. (At that time Hadad was just a child.)

¹⁸They left Midian and went to Paran, where some other men joined them. Then they traveled to Egypt and went to the king, who gave Hadad some land and a house and provided him with food.

¹⁹Hadad won the friendship of the king, and the king gave his sister-in-law, the sister of Queen Tahpenes, to Hadad in marriage.

²⁰She bore him a son, Genubath, who was raised by the queen in the palace, where he lived with the king's sons.

²¹When the news reached Hadad in Egypt that David had died and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to the king, “Let me go back to my own country.”

²²“Why?” the king asked. “Have I failed to give you something? Is that why you want to go back home?” “Just let me go,” Hadad answered the king. And he went back to his country. As king of Edom, Hadad was an evil, bitter enemy of Israel.

²³God also caused Rezon son of Eliada to turn against Solomon. Rezon had fled from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah,

²⁴and had become the leader of a gang of outlaws. (This happened after David had defeated Hadadezer and had slaughtered his Syrian allies.) Rezon and his gang went and lived in Damascus, where his followers made him king of Syria.

²⁵He was an enemy of Israel during the lifetime of Solomon.

God's Promise to Jeroboam

²⁶Another man who turned against King Solomon was one of his officials, Jeroboam son of Nebat, from Zeredah in Ephraim. His mother was a widow named Zeruah.

²⁷This is the story of the revolt. Solomon was filling in the land on the east side of Jerusalem and repairing the city walls.

²⁸Jeroboam was an able young man, and when Solomon noticed how hard he worked, he put him in charge of all the forced labor in the territory of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim.

²⁹One day, as Jeroboam was traveling from Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh met him alone on the road in the open country.

³⁰Ahijah took off the new robe he was wearing, tore it into twelve pieces,

³¹and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, because the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, ‘I am going to take the kingdom away from Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes.

³²Solomon will keep one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen to be my own from the whole land of Israel.

³³I am going to do this because Solomon has rejected me and has worshiped foreign gods: Astarte, the goddess of Sidon; Chemosh, the god of Moab; and Molech, the god of Ammon. Solomon has disobeyed me; he has done wrong and has not kept my laws and commands as his father David did.

³⁴But I will not take the whole kingdom away from Solomon, and I will keep him in power as long as he lives. This I will do for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose and who obeyed my laws and commands.

³⁵I will take the kingdom away from Solomon's son and will give you ten tribes,

³⁶but I will let Solomon's son keep one tribe, so that I will always have a descendant of my servant David ruling in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen as the place where I am worshiped.

³⁷Jeroboam, I will make you king of Israel, and you will rule over all the territory that you want.

³⁸If you obey me completely, live by my laws, and win my approval by doing what I command, as my servant David did, I will always be with you. I will make you king of Israel and will make sure that your descendants rule after you, just as I have done for David.

³⁹Because of Solomon's sin I will punish the descendants of David, but not for all time.’”

⁴⁰And so Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but he escaped to King Shishak of Egypt and stayed there until Solomon's death.

The Death of Solomon

⁴¹Everything else that Solomon did, his career, and his wisdom, are all recorded in The History of Solomon.

⁴²He was king in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.

⁴³He died and was buried in David's City, and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.

¹Dead flies can make a whole bottle of perfume stink, and a little stupidity can cancel out the greatest wisdom.

²It is natural for the wise to do the right thing and for fools to do the wrong thing.

³Their stupidity will be evident even to strangers they meet along the way; they let everyone know that they are fools.

⁴If your ruler becomes angry with you, do not hand in your resignation; serious wrongs may be pardoned if you keep calm.

⁵Here is an injustice I have seen in the world—an injustice caused by rulers.

⁶Stupid people are given positions of authority while the rich are ignored.

⁷I have seen slaves on horseback while noblemen go on foot like slaves.

⁸If you dig a pit, you fall in it; if you break through a wall, a snake bites you.

⁹If you work in a stone quarry, you get hurt by stones. If you split wood, you get hurt doing it.

¹⁰If your ax is dull and you don't sharpen it, you have to work harder to use it. It is smarter to plan ahead.

¹¹Knowing how to charm a snake is of no use if you let the snake bite first.

¹²What the wise say brings them honor, but fools are destroyed by their own words.

¹³They start out with silly talk and end up with pure madness.

¹⁴A fool talks on and on. No one knows what is going to happen next, and no one can tell us what will happen after we die.

¹⁵Only someone too stupid to find his way home would wear himself out with work.

¹⁶A country is in trouble when its king is a youth and its leaders feast all night long.

¹⁷But a country is fortunate to have a king who makes his own decisions and leaders who eat at the proper time, who control themselves and don't get drunk.

¹⁸When you are too lazy to repair your roof, it will leak, and the house will fall in.

¹⁹Feasting makes you happy and wine cheers you up, but you can't have either without money.

²⁰Don't criticize the king, even silently, and don't criticize the rich, even in the privacy of your bedroom. A bird might carry the message and tell them what you said.

What a Wise Person Does

¹Invest your money in foreign trade, and one of these days you will make a profit.

²Put your investments in several places—many places even—because you never know what kind of bad luck you are going to have in this world.

³No matter which direction a tree falls, it will lie where it fell. When the clouds are full, it rains.

⁴If you wait until the wind and the weather are just right, you will never plant anything and never harvest anything.

⁵God made everything, and you can no more understand what he does than you understand how new life begins in the womb of a pregnant woman.

⁶Do your planting in the morning and in the evening, too. You never know whether it will all grow well or whether one planting will do better than the other.

⁷It is good to be able to enjoy the pleasant light of day.

⁸Be grateful for every year you live. No matter how long you live, remember that you will be dead much longer. There is nothing at all to look forward to.

Advice to Young People

⁹Young people, enjoy your youth. Be happy while you are still young. Do what you want to do, and follow your heart's desire. But remember that God is going to judge you for whatever you do.

¹⁰Don't let anything worry you or cause you pain. You aren't going to be young very long.

¹So remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, “I don't enjoy life.”

²That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you, and the rain clouds will never pass away.

³Then your arms, that have protected you, will tremble, and your legs, now strong, will grow weak. Your teeth will be too few to chew your food, and your eyes too dim to see clearly.

⁴Your ears will be deaf to the noise of the street. You will barely be able to hear the mill as it grinds or music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from sleep.

⁵You will be afraid of high places, and walking will be dangerous. Your hair will turn white; you will hardly be able to drag yourself along, and all desire will be gone. We are going to our final resting place, and then there will be mourning in the streets.

⁶The silver chain will snap, and the golden lamp will fall and break; the rope at the well will break, and the water jar will be shattered.

⁷Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.

⁸Useless, useless, said the Philosopher. It is all useless.

The Summing Up

⁹But because the Philosopher was wise, he kept on teaching the people what he knew. He studied proverbs and honestly tested their truth.

¹⁰The Philosopher tried to find comforting words, but the words he wrote were honest.

¹¹The sayings of the wise are like the sharp sticks that shepherds use to guide sheep, and collected proverbs are as lasting as firmly driven nails. They have been given by God, the one Shepherd of us all.

¹²My child, there is something else to watch out for. There is no end to the writing of books, and too much study will wear you out.

¹³After all this, there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for.

¹⁴God is going to judge everything we do, whether good or bad, even things done in secret.

Thanksgiving to God for His Justice

¹I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the wonderful things you have done.

²I will sing with joy because of you. I will sing praise to you, Almighty God.

³My enemies turn back when you appear; they fall down and die.

⁴You are fair and honest in your judgments, and you have judged in my favor.

⁵You have condemned the heathen and destroyed the wicked; they will be remembered no more.

⁶Our enemies are finished forever; you have destroyed their cities, and they are completely forgotten.

⁷But the Lord is king forever; he has set up his throne for judgment.

⁸He rules the world with righteousness; he judges the nations with justice.

⁹The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a place of safety in times of trouble.

¹⁰Those who know you, Lord, will trust you; you do not abandon anyone who comes to you.

¹¹Sing praise to the Lord, who rules in Zion! Tell every nation what he has done!

¹²God remembers those who suffer; he does not forget their cry, and he punishes those who wrong them.

¹³Be merciful to me, O Lord! See the sufferings my enemies cause me! Rescue me from death, O Lord,

¹⁴that I may stand before the people of Jerusalem and tell them all the things for which I praise you. I will rejoice because you saved me.

¹⁵The heathen have dug a pit and fallen in; they have been caught in their own trap.

¹⁶The Lord has revealed himself by his righteous judgments, and the wicked are trapped by their own deeds.

¹⁷Death is the destiny of all the wicked, of all those who reject God.

¹⁸The needy will not always be neglected; the hope of the poor will not be crushed forever.

¹⁹Come, Lord! Do not let anyone defy you! Bring the heathen before you and pronounce judgment on them.

²⁰Make them afraid, O Lord; make them know that they are only mortal beings.