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Solomon's
Apostasy
The Bible preserves memories of a time when many gods were worshiped
in Israel. There is strong archaeological as well as textual evidence
that at the outset of its history, Israel was culturally and religiously
much like the other nations of Canaan. Israel's commitment to YHWH
appears to have evolved over the centuries.
Writing many years later, from a more purely monotheistic perspective,
the compilers of this biblical history condemned the worship of
"foreign" gods. They usually blamed the common people
for back sliding, but in this passage they hold Solomon responsible.
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King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter
of Pharaoh: Moabite,
Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from
the nations concerning which YHWH
had said to the Israelites, "You shall not enter into marriage
with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely
incline your heart to follow their gods." Among his wives
were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines;
and his heart was not true to YHWH his God, as was the heart
of his father David. For Solomon followed Astarte
the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom
the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was
evil in the sight of YHWH, and did not completely follow
YHWH, as his father David had done. Then Solomon built a
high
place for Chemosh
the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination
of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. He
did the same for his foreign wives, who offered incense
and sacrificed to their gods.
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