1 Raja-raja 11:5-19

11:5 Solomon worshiped ¹  the Sidonian goddess Astarte and the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. ²  11:6 Solomon did evil in the Lord’s sight; ³  he did not remain loyal to ⁴  the Lord, like his father David had. 11:7 Furthermore, ⁵  on the hill east of Jerusalem ⁶  Solomon built a high place ⁷  for the detestable Moabite god Chemosh ⁸  and for the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. ⁹  11:8 He built high places for all his foreign wives so they could burn incense and make sacrifices to their gods. ¹⁰ 

11:9 The Lord was angry with Solomon because he had shifted his allegiance ¹¹  away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him on two occasions ¹²  11:10 and had warned him about this very thing, so that he would not follow other gods. ¹³  But he did not obey ¹⁴  the Lord’s command. 11:11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you insist on doing these things and have not kept the covenantal rules I gave you, ¹⁵  I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. 11:12 However, for your father David’s sake I will not do this while you are alive. I will tear it away from your son’s hand instead. 11:13 But I will not tear away the entire kingdom; I will leave ¹⁶  your son one tribe for my servant David’s sake and for the sake of my chosen city Jerusalem.”

11:14 The Lord brought ¹⁷  against Solomon an enemy, Hadad the Edomite, a descendant of the Edomite king. 11:15 During David’s campaign against Edom, ¹⁸  Joab, the commander of the army, while on a mission to bury the dead, killed every male in Edom. 11:16 For six months Joab and the entire Israelite army ¹⁹  stayed there until they had exterminated every male in Edom. ²⁰  11:17 Hadad, ²¹  who was only a small boy at the time, escaped with some of his father’s Edomite servants and headed for Egypt. ²²  11:18 They went from Midian to Paran; they took some men from Paran and went to Egypt. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, supplied him with a house and food and even assigned him some land. ²³  11:19 Pharaoh liked Hadad so well ²⁴  he gave him his sister-in-law (Queen Tahpenes’ sister) as a wife. ²⁵ 

1 Raja-raja 12:23-27

12:23 “Say this to King Rehoboam son of Solomon of Judah, and to all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the rest of the people, 12:24 ‘The Lord says this: “Do not attack and make war with your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you go home, for I have caused this to happen.”’” ²⁶  They obeyed the Lord and went home as the Lord had ordered them to do. ²⁷ 

Jeroboam Makes Golden Calves

12:25 ²⁸ Jeroboam built up Shechem in the Ephraimite hill country and lived there. From there he went out and built up Penuel. 12:26 Jeroboam then thought to himself: ²⁹  “Now the Davidic dynasty could regain the kingdom. ³⁰  12:27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, ³¹  their loyalty could shift to their former master, ³²  King Rehoboam of Judah. They might kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.”

[11:5]  ¹ tn Heb “walked after.”

[11:5]  ² tn Heb “Milcom, the detestable thing of the Ammonites.”

[11:6]  ³ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

[11:6]  ⁴ tn The idiomatic statement reads in Hebrew, “he did not fill up after.”

[11:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “then.”

[11:7]  ⁶ sn The hill east of Jerusalem refers to the Mount of Olives.

[11:7]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[11:7]  ⁷ sn A high place. The “high places” were places of worship that were naturally or artificially elevated (see 1 Kgs 3:2).

[11:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “Chemosh, the detestable thing of Moab.”

[11:7]  ⁹ tc The MT reads “Molech,” but Milcom must be intended (see vv. 5, 33).

[11:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the same thing he did for all his foreign wives, [who] were burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.”

[11:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “bent his heart.”

[11:9]  ¹² sn These two occasions are mentioned in 1 Kgs 3:5 and 9:2.

[11:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “and had commanded him concerning this thing not to walk after other gods.”

[11:10]  ¹⁴ tn Or “keep.”

[11:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Because this is with you, and you have not kept my covenant and my rules which I commanded you.”

[11:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “give.”

[11:14]  ¹⁷ tn Or “raised up.”

[11:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “when David was [fighting (?)] with Edom.”

[11:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and all Israel.”

[11:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “until he had cut off every male in Edom.”

[11:17]  ²¹ tn The MT reads “Adad,” an alternate form of the name Hadad.

[11:17]  ²² tn Heb “and Adad fled, he and Edomite men from the servants of his father, to go to Egypt, and Hadad was a small boy.”

[11:18]  ²³ tn Heb “and they arose from Midian and went to Paran and they took men with them from Paran and went to Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and he gave to him a house and food and he said to him, and a land he gave to him.” Something seems to be accidentally omitted after “and he said to him.”

[11:19]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and Hadad found great favor in the eyes of Pharaoh.”

[11:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he gave to him a wife, the sister of his wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.”

[12:24]  ²⁶ tn Heb “for this thing is from me.”

[12:24]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and they heard the word of the Lord and returned to go according to the word of the Lord.”

[12:25]  ²⁸ tc The Old Greek translation has here a lengthy section consisting of twenty-three verses that are not found in the MT.

[12:26]  ²⁹ tn Heb “said in his heart.”

[12:26]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Now the kingdom could return to the house of David.” The imperfect verbal form translated “could return” is understood as having a potential force here. Perhaps this is not strong enough; another option is “will return.”

[12:27]  ³¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[12:27]  ³² tn Heb “the heart of these people could return to their master.”