1 Kings 11

And king Solomon was a lover of women. He had seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines. And he took foreign wives, and the daughter of Pharao: Moabite women, Ammanite women, Syrian women and Idumean women, Chettite women and Amorite women,

from the nations concerning which the Lord had forbidden the sons of Israel: You shall not go in to them, and they shall not go in to you, lest they turn away your hearts after their idols. To these Solomon clung in love.

And it came to pass in the time of Solomon's old age that his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father; and the foreign women turned aside his heart after their gods.

Then Solomon built a high place for Chamos, the idol of Moab, and for their king, the idol of the sons of Ammon,

and for Astarte, the abomination of the Sidonians.

And so he did for all his foreign wives; they burned incense and sacrificed to their idols.

And Solomon did what was evil before the Lord; he did not follow after the Lord as David his father had.

And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because he had turned his heart away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,

and had commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not go at all after other gods, and should take care to do what the Lord God commanded him.

And the Lord said to Solomon: Because these things have come to pass with you, and you have not kept my commandments and my ordinances which I commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom out of your hand and give it to your servant.

Nevertheless in your days I will not do it, for the sake of David your father; I will take it out of the hand of your son.

Yet I will not take the whole kingdom; I will give one sceptre to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I chose.

And the Lord raised up a satan against Solomon: Ader the Idumean; and Esrom son of Eliadae, who was in Raemmath — Adrazar king of Souba was his lord. And men gathered themselves to him, and he became the leader of a band, and he seized Damasek. And they were satans to Israel all the days of Solomon. And Ader the Idumean was of the royal seed in Idumea.

And it came to pass, when David was destroying Edom, when Ioab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, that they cut down every male in Idumea.

For Ioab and all Israel remained there six months in Idumea, until he had destroyed every male out of Idumea.

But Ader fled, he and all the Idumean men of his father's servants with him, and they went into Egypt; and Ader was a little boy.

And men rose up from the city of Madiam and came to Pharan, and took men with them, and came to Pharao king of Egypt. And Ader went in to Pharao, and he gave him a house and appointed him bread.

And Ader found very great favour before Pharao, and he gave him as wife the sister of his own wife, the elder sister of Thekemina.

And the sister of Thekemina bore to Ader her son Ganebath; and Thekemina brought him up among the sons of Pharao, and Ganebath was among the sons of Pharao.

And Ader heard in Egypt that David had slept with his fathers, and that Ioab the commander of the army was dead; and Ader said to Pharao: Send me away, and I will return to my own land.

And Pharao said to Ader: In what do you lack with me, that behold, you seek to go away to your own land? And Ader said to him: Only by all means send me away. And Ader returned to his own land.

This is the evil which Ader did: he bore bitter anger against Israel, and he reigned in the land of Edom.

And Jeroboam son of Nabat, the Ephrathite from Sarira, son of a widow woman, a servant of Solomon.

And this is the matter concerning which he lifted up hands against king Solomon: he built the citadel; he closed up the breach of the city of David his father.

And the man Jeroboam was mighty in strength. And Solomon saw that the young man was a man of works, and he set him over the burdens of the house of Joseph.

And it came to pass at that time that Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, and Achias the Selonite, the prophet, found him on the road and turned him aside from the road. And Achias was clothed in a new garment, and the two of them were in the field.

And Achia took hold of his new garment that was upon him and tore it into twelve pieces.

And he said to Jeroboam: Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am tearing the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten sceptres.

But two sceptres shall be his, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I chose in it out of all the tribes of Israel.

Because he forsook me and acted for Astarte the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chamos and the idols of Moab, and for their king the detestable thing of the sons of Ammon, and did not walk in my ways to do what is right before me, as David his father did.

Yet I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, for I will surely set myself against him all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose.

And I will take the kingdom out of the hand of his son and give you the ten sceptres.

But to his son I will give the two sceptres, so that there may be a place for my servant David all the days before me in Jerusalem, the city which I chose for myself to put my name there.

And I will take you, and you shall reign over whatever your soul desires; and you shall be king over Israel.

And it shall be, if you keep all that I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right before me, keeping my commandments and my ordinances, as David my servant did, then I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David.

And Solomon sought to put Jeroboam to death; but he arose and fled to Egypt, to Sousakim king of Egypt, and he was in Egypt until Solomon died.

And the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and all his wisdom — behold, are these not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?

And the days that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem were forty years.

And Solomon slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David his father. And it came to pass, when Jeroboam son of Nabat heard of it — he being still in Egypt, as he had fled from the face of Solomon and was dwelling in Egypt — he set out straight and came to his own city, to the land of Sarira in the hill country of Ephraim. And king Solomon slept with his fathers, and Roboam his son reigned in his place.