He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
Parallel translations
- WEB So he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
- KJV And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
- NKJV And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
- NASB He also did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
- NLT Solomon built such shrines for all his foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Solomon did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. His accommodation of idolatry was sweeping.
Overview
To please each of his many wives, Solomon provided for their idol worship throughout the land. What may have begun as marital and political concession became wholesale support of false religion. This verse shows the full extent of his apostasy, demonstrating that compromise rarely stays small but tends to spread, until the worship of the one true God is crowded out by the gods of the surrounding nations.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ezek 16:22–29And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.
- 1 Cor 10:20–22No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.
- Hos 4:11–12Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
- 1 Kgs 11:1King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.
- 1 Cor 10:11–12Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 11:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.