1 Kings - Chapter 11

The Amazing Bible. Book Club

It is interesting that the write of Solomon's life uses nine and a half chapters to mainly tell the great things about Solomon and his reign with just a few glimpses of what is coming, and then bang, he uses the last chapter, chapter 11 to tell all the bad stuff.
Solomon had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines, and he loved foreign women, all the ones the Lord said to not intermarry with. They drew his heart away from the Lord, and he served their foreign gods. This brought the Lord's anger, and he told Solomon that he would rip the kingdom out of his son's hand, but because of David's faithfulness, he would not tear all the kingdom, and Judah would keep Jerusalem. Then the Lord raised up three adversaries against Solomon. Hadad the Edomite from the southern part of Israel, Rezon son of Eliada, who led a band of rebels that took Damascus from Solomon in the north, and the third came from within Israel, Jeroboam son of Nebat. Jeroboam was from the tribe of Ephraim. He was a great worker for king Solomon, and after he was promoted, the prophet of Shiloh, Ahijah, met him, took off his new cloak and ripped it into 12 pieces, and told Jeroboam to take 10 of the pieces. He learned he would be king of 10 tribes of Israel, but not all because of the Lord's faithfulness to David and his faithfulness. The Lord also told Jeroboam that if he was faithful, the Lord would bless him. Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam after that, and so he escaped to Egypt, to king Shishak. Solomon died and was buried in the city of David, his father. He reigned for forty years, and then his son, Rehoboam succeeded him as king.