1 Kings 7:1,2,9-11; Ecclesiastes 2:4-11
Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon….Solomon made also an house for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had taken to wife…All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court. And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits. And above were costly stones, after the measures of hewed stones, and cedars.
I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): Solomon surrounded himself with every kind of luxury, gathered large possessions, gave himself over to music and to women, allowing full reign to all his desires.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He gave himself much to building, both in the city and in the country; and, having been at such vast expense in the beginning of his reign to build a house for God, he was the more excusable if afterwards he pleased his own fancy in building for himself; he began his work at the right end, Matthew 6:33; not as the people that “ceiled their own houses” while God’s house lay waste, Haggai 1:4; and it prospered accordingly. In building, he had the pleasure of employing the poor and doing good to posterity. We read of Solomon’s buildings, and they were all great works, such as became his purse, and spirit, and great dignity.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “I made me great works.”—magnificent works for my honour and delight.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “I builded me houses”—palace after palace; the house of the forest of Lebanon; a house for the queen; the temple, besides many other buildings.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Houses and offices for his stores, for his servants, his horsemen, and chariots, I Kings 7:1; and in fine chariots and spacious buildings men take a great deal of pleasure, and promise themselves much happiness in dwelling in them, and in perpetuating their names to posterity by them, Psalm 49:11.
MATTHEW POOLE: “I made me gardens.”—“paradises” in Hebrew, gardens of pleasure.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): And herein perhaps he gratified Pharaoh’s daughter—the Egyptians took great pleasure in gardens—like as that king of Assyria did his wife with a garden that hung in the air, to his incredible cost.
MATTHEW HENRY: See his mistake: he enquired after the good works he should do, Ecclesiastes 2:3, and, in pursuit of the enquiry, applied himself to great works. Good works indeed are truly great, but many are reputed great works which are far from being good, wondrous works which are not gracious, Matthew 7:22.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Other evils of his which gradually crept in, were, the multiplying of gold and silver for himself; the multiplying of horses also, and that “from Egypt;” and, above all, the multiplying of wives. All of these things were forbidden in as plain and express a manner as could be conceived, Deuteronomy 17:16,17.
MATTHEW HENRY: Solomon took many women, so many that, at last, they amounted to 700 wives and 300 concubines…But this was not all: They were strange women, Moabites, Ammonites, etc., of the nations which God had particularly forbidden them to intermarry with, 1 Kings 11:2 and he tolerated and maintained his wives in their idolatry and made no scruple of joining with them in it—he built chapels for their gods.
CHARLES SIMEON: “God was angry with him,”—as well He might be; and He declared to Solomon that the kingdom of which he had rendered himself so unworthy, should be taken from him, and given to a servant of his.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): In mercy God deferred the execution of His sentence till his son’s reign, but left Solomon to lament the approaching desolations, when all the glory that he hoped to transmit to his posterity would be so eclipsed.
JOHN TRAPP: “I got me servants.” Too many by one—Jeroboam.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Jeroboam, while a young man, was employed by Solomon to superintend the improvements and buildings at Millo, 1 Kings 11:27; and had so distinguished himself there by his industry and good conduct as to attract general notice, and to induce Solomon to set him over all the labourers employed in that work, belonging to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
ADAM CLARKE: Jeroboam becomes his enemy, and the reason why, 1 Kings 11:26-28. Ahijah the prophet meets Jeroboam, and promises, in the name of the Lord, that God will rend Israel from the family of Solomon, and give him ten tribes. Solomon, hearing of this, seeks to put Jeroboam to death, who escapes to Egypt, where he continues till the death of Solomon.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Then comes Solomon’s son Rehoboam on the scene.
MATTHEW HENRY: The people desired a treaty with Rehoboam at Shechem, and he condescended to meet them there…The meeting being appointed, they sent for Jeroboam to come out of Egypt and be their speaker. “And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee,” 1 Kings 12:4,5.
ADAM CLARKE: They seem here to complain of two things—excessively laborious service, and a heavy taxation.
MATTHEW HENRY: Yet the complaint was groundless and unjust. Never did people live more at ease than they did, nor in great plenty. Did they pay taxes? It was to advance the strength and magnificence of their kingdom…Were many servile hands employed about them? They were not the hands of the Israelites…I know nothing in Solomon’s administration that could make the people’s yoke grievous, unless perhaps the women whom in his latter days he doted on, connived at oppressing them.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: No doubt, the luxury and splendour of Solomon’s brilliant reign had an underside of oppression. Probably the severity was exaggerated in these complaints—but there was enough truth in the complaint to make it plausible and effective for catching the people. At first it appears that Solomon employed none of the Israelites in any drudgery; but it is likely that, as he grew profane, he grew tyrannical and oppressive: and at the works of Millo he changed his conduct; and there, in all probability, were the seeds of disaffection sown…The oppression of forced labour and heavy taxation no doubt was the reason for the readiness with which the ten tribes rallied to Jeroboam’s flag.
MATTHEW POOLE: Heavy taxes and impositions—not only for the temple and his magnificent buildings, but for the expenses of his numerous court, and of so many wives and concubines, whose luxury and idolatry must needs be very costly.
JOHN TRAPP: Rehoboam, with one churlish breath, lost ten tribes. “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger,” Proverbs 15:1.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Rehoboam’s disregard of the people’s terms was ‘a thing brought about of the Lord,’ but it was Rehoboam’s sin none the less: “And the king answered the people roughly…My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions,” 1 Kings 12:13,14.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Jeroboam withdrew the ten tribes from their allegiance to Rehoboam.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Notice also, that God is in events which are produced by the sin and the stupidity of men. This breaking up of the kingdom of Solomon into two parts was the result of Solomon’s sin and Rehoboam’s folly, yet God was in it—“This thing is from Me,” says the Lord, 1 Kings 12:24…Every sin has one twig in God’s rod appropriated to itself. Suffice it to say, that in God’s hand there are punishments for each particular transgression; and it is very singular to notice how in Bible history almost every saint has been chastened for the sin he has committed by the sin itself falling upon his own head.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): And the sins of the fathers will be recompensed upon the children, if they walk in their fathers’ steps.
