Solomon's marriage and the religious state of the kingdom. - 1 Kings 3:1. When Solomon had well secured his possession of the throne (1 Kings 2:46), he entered into alliance with Pharaoh, by taking his daughter as his wife. This Pharaoh of Egypt is supposed by Winer, Ewald, and others to have been Psusennes, the last king of the twenty-first (Tanitic) dynasty, who reigned thirty-five years; since the first king of the twenty-second (Bubastic) dynasty, Sesonchis or Sheshonk, was certainly the Shishak who conquered Jerusalem in the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign (1 Kings 14:25-26). The alliance by marriage with the royal family of Egypt presupposes that Egypt was desirous of cultivating friendly relations with the kingdom of Israel, which had grown into a power to be dreaded; although, as we know nothing more of the history of Egypt at that time than the mere names of the kings (as given by Manetho), it is impossible to determine what may have been the more precise grounds which led the reigning king of Egypt to seek the friendship of Israel. There is, at any rate, greater probability in this supposition than in that of Thenius, who conjectures that Solomon contracted this marriage because he saw the necessity of entering into a closer relationship with this powerful neighbour, who had a perfectly free access to Palestine. The conclusion of this marriage took place in the first year of Solomon's reign, though probably not at the very beginning of the reign, but not till after his buildings had been begun, as we may infer from the expression לבנות כּלּתו עד (until he had made an end of building). Moreover, Solomon had already married Naamah the Ammonitess before ascending the throne, and had had a son by her (compare 1 Kings 14:21 with 1 Kings 11:42-43). - Marriage with an Egyptian princess was not a transgression of the law, as it was only marriages with Canaanitish women that were expressly prohibited (Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3), whereas it was allowable to marry even foreign women taken in war (Deuteronomy 21:10.). At the same time, it was only when the foreign wives renounced idolatry and confessed their faith in Jehovah, that such marriages were in accordance with the spirit of the law. And we may assume that this was the case even with Pharaoh's daughter; because Solomon adhered so faithfully to the Lord during the first years of his reign, that he would not have tolerated any idolatry in his neighbourhood, and we cannot find any trace of Egyptian idolatry in Israel in the time of Solomon, and, lastly, the daughter of Pharaoh is expressly distinguished in 1 Kings 11:1 from the foreign wives who tempted Solomon to idolatry in his old age. The assertion of Seb. Schmidt and Thenius to the contrary rests upon a false interpretation of 1 Kings 11:1. - "And he brought her into the city of David, till he had finished the building of his palace," etc. Into the city of David: i.e., not into the palace in which his father had dwelt, as Thenius arbitrarily interprets it in opposition to 2 Chronicles 8:11, but into a house in the city of David or Jerusalem, from which he brought her up into the house appointed for her after the building of his own palace was finished (1 Kings 9:24). The building of the house of Jehovah is mentioned as well, because the sacred tent for the ark of the covenant was set up in the palace of David until the temple was finished, and the temple was not consecrated till after the completion of the building of the palace (see at 1 Kings 8:1). By the building of "the wall of Jerusalem" we are to understand a stronger fortification, and possibly also the extension of the city wall (see at 1 Kings 11:27).

1 Kings 3:7 Parallel Commentaries

thou hast

Daniel 2:21 And he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom to the wise...

Daniel 4:25,32 That they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you to eat grass as oxen...

Daniel 5:18,21 O you king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor...

a little

1 Chronicles 29:1 Furthermore David the king said to all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen, is yet young and tender...

Job 32:6-8 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and you are very old; why I was afraid...

Ecclesiastes 10:16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes eat in the morning!

Jeremiah 1:6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

Matthew 18:3,4 And said, Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven...

to go

Numbers 27:17 Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in...

Deuteronomy 31:2 And he said to them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD has said to me...

1 Samuel 18:16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

2 Samuel 5:2 Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, you were he that led out and brought in Israel: and the LORD said to you...

Psalm 121:8 The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even for ever more.

John 10:3,4,9 To him the porter opens; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out...