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Who was King Solomon? (and why did he have so many wives?)

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Short answer

Solomon was David's son and successor, the king who built the first temple in Jerusalem and became a byword for wisdom and wealth, and whose reign ends badly, with the kingdom splitting apart after his death.

The Bible tells his story as a rise and a decline, and it does not soften the decline.

Question

Who was King Solomon? (and why did he have so many wives?)

Analysis

Why so many wives, the honest answer

The number is given plainly: seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines (1 Kings 11:3). Two things need saying together, because either one alone misleads.

First, the historical explanation. In the ancient Near East, a king's marriages were largely instruments of foreign policy. A treaty with a neighbouring state was commonly sealed by marrying into its royal house, and the size of a royal harem advertised the reach and security of the throne. The text shows this directly: Solomon's alliance with Egypt is marked by marrying Pharaoh's daughter (1 Kings 3:1), and the wives are listed by nationality, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, Hittite (1 Kings 11:1). So these were, in large part, diplomatic marriages rather than a matter of appetite alone.

Second, and more important: the Bible does not present this as acceptable. It is not described as a reward, a sign of blessing, or a privilege of kingship. It is the named cause of his ruin:

  • The law given for a future king had already forbidden exactly this, warning that a king must not multiply wives to himself, or his heart will turn away (Deuteronomy 17:17).
  • 1 Kings 11:2 states that God had told Israel not to intermarry with these nations precisely because they would turn the heart toward other gods, and records that Solomon held to them in love anyway.
  • 1 Kings 11:4 says that when he was old his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted as his father David's had been.

So the answer to why did Solomon have so many wives is: political alliances, in line with the customs of his world, and the biblical narrator treats it as disobedience that cost him the kingdom, not as an endorsement. Readers sometimes cite Solomon to argue that Scripture approves polygamy; on this passage the text runs the other way, and says so explicitly.

What he built, and what it cost

The temple is his monument (1 Kings 6:1 through 1 Kings 8), and alongside it a palace complex, fortified cities, a fleet and extensive trade (1 Kings 9:15; 1 Kings 9:26; 1 Kings 10:22). The building programme was paid for with heavy taxation and forced labour (1 Kings 5:13; 1 Kings 9:21; 1 Kings 12:4), and that burden is what the northern tribes name when they break away under his son (1 Kings 12:4; 1 Kings 12:14; 1 Kings 12:16). The split that defines the rest of Old Testament history begins in Solomon's own policies.

Did he write Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs?

Genuinely debated, and different books stand differently.

BookThe traditional caseThe critical case
ProverbsThe book names him at the outset and again at Proverbs 10:1 and Proverbs 25:1, and 1 Kings 4:32 credits him with three thousand proverbsWidely held to be a collection assembled over time, the book itself names other contributors, including Agur (Proverbs 30:1) and Lemuel (Proverbs 31:1), and Proverbs 25:1 says Hezekiah's men later copied out a section
EcclesiastesOpens as the words of the son of David, king in Jerusalem (Ecclesiastes 1:1; Ecclesiastes 1:12)The most disputed of the three: many scholars date it late on linguistic grounds, reading the royal voice as a literary frame rather than a claim of authorship
Song of SongsTitled as his (Song of Songs 1:1), and he is named within itThe Hebrew title can be read as for or concerning Solomon as easily as by him; authorship and date are unsettled

1 Kings 4:32 and 1 Kings 4:33 credit him with three thousand proverbs and more than a thousand songs, and with speaking about plants and animals, the picture of a patron and practitioner of wisdom literature. How much of the surviving text is his own hand is the part that is not settled. This reference sets the views side by side and endorses none.

How he is remembered

The verdict in the text is mixed on purpose. He is the wisest of kings who did not act on his own wisdom, the builder of the temple whose heart went elsewhere, the peak of Israel's power and the beginning of its division. Jesus twice uses him as a benchmark, the lilies outdress him (Matthew 6:29), and the queen of the South came for his wisdom while something greater stands unheeded (Matthew 12:42).

Sources, trace every one

Every cited verse, in full. Tap any reference to open it in the reader.

  • 2 Samuel 12:24bsb

    Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. So she gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. Now the LORD loved the child

  • 1 Kings 1:39bsb

    Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the ram’s horn, and all the people proclaimed, “Long live King Solomon!”

  • 1 Kings 2:12bsb

    So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was firmly established.

  • 1 Kings 3:5bsb

    One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”

  • 1 Kings 3:9bsb

    Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

  • 1 Kings 3:12bsb

    behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been another like you, nor will there ever be.

  • 1 Kings 3:13bsb

    Moreover, I will give you what you did not request — both riches and honor — so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal.

  • 1 Kings 3:16bsb

    At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

  • 1 Kings 3:25bsb

    and the king declared, “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

  • 1 Kings 3:28bsb

    When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

  • 1 Kings 6:1bsb

    In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD.

  • 1 Kings 6:38bsb

    In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in every detail and according to every specification. So he built the temple in seven years.

  • 1 Kings 8:22bsb

    Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,

  • 1 Kings 8:27bsb

    But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

  • 1 Kings 10:1bsb

    Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with difficult questions.

  • 1 Kings 10:7bsb

    But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told to me. Your wisdom and prosperity have far exceeded the report I heard.

On contested questions we show every major view, attributed and cited, and pick no winner. Answers are synthesized from primary sources, truth you can trace, not opinion.

Who was King Solomon? (and why did he have so many wives?) · Bubble Bible