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I Kings 11:8

1kgs-11-8160 words

1Ki 11:3-8 1Ki 11:3-8 carry out still further what has been already stated. In 1Ki 11:3 the taking of many wives is first explained. He had seven hundred שׂרות נשׁים, women of the first rank, who were exalted into princesses, and three hundred concubines. These are in any case round numbers, that is to say, numbers which simply approximate to the reality, and are not to be understood as affirming that Solomon had all these wives and concubines at the same time, but as including all the women who were received into his harem during the whole of his reign, whereas the sixty queens and eighty concubines mentioned in Sol 6:8 are to be understood as having been present in the court at one time. Even in this respect Solomon sought to equal the rulers of other nations, if not to surpass them.. - These women “inclined his heart,” i.e., determined the inclination of his heart.