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Course 6 · Lesson 3.3

Solomon, the temple and the divided kingdom

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 6 outline

Module 1: Israel in the Ancient Near East

  1. Egypt, Mesopotamia and Canaan: the world of the Old Testament
  2. What archaeology and ancient texts can and cannot show
  3. Genesis 1 to 3 beside other ancient creation accounts
  4. Ancient cosmology and how Christians and Jews read Genesis

Module 2: Covenant: Abraham and Moses

  1. What a covenant is, and covenant forms in the ancient world
  2. The covenants with Noah and Abraham
  3. The exodus and the covenant at Sinai
  4. The Torah: law, worship and the tabernacle
  5. Covenant in Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox and Reformed thought

Module 3: Kingship in Israel

  1. From the judges to the first kings
  2. David, Jerusalem and the promise of a lasting house
  3. Solomon, the temple and the divided kingdom
  4. How Samuel and Kings tell the story: sources and purpose

Module 4: The Prophets, Exile and Restoration

  1. What a prophet was in Israel and in the ancient world
  2. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah: justice, loyalty and judgment
  3. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the fall of Jerusalem
  4. The return, Ezra, Nehemiah and the rebuilt temple
  5. How the prophetic books were formed: the debate over Isaiah and others

Module 5: Wisdom and Apocalyptic Writing

  1. Proverbs and the way of the wise
  2. Job and Ecclesiastes: wisdom that questions
  3. What apocalyptic writing is: Daniel and its setting
  4. Reading apocalyptic images responsibly

Module 6: Second Temple Judaism and the Development of Jewish Thought

  1. Persian, Greek and Maccabean periods
  2. Temple, synagogue and the main groups in Jewish life
  3. Development in Jewish thought: angels, resurrection, wisdom and law
  4. Sources: the Dead Sea Scrolls, the deuterocanonical books and Josephus

Module 7: Messianic Expectation and the Shape of the Covenants

  1. Anointed ones in the Old Testament: king, priest, prophet
  2. Messianic texts in the prophets and psalms
  3. How Jews and Christians read the messianic texts
  4. The promise of a new covenant
  5. Mapping the development of covenant across the Old Testament

All courses

Program / Course 6: Old Testament Theology and History / Lesson 3.3

What you will learn

  • Describe Solomon’s reign, including the building of the temple and the criticisms the text makes of him.
  • Explain how and why the kingdom divided after Solomon.
  • Outline the history of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah to their falls.
  • Identify what is firmly dated and what is debated in this period.

The big idea

Solomon, David’s son, builds the temple in Jerusalem and is remembered for wisdom and wealth. The same books tell of heavy taxes, forced labor and foreign gods. After his death, the kingdom splits into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Israel falls to Assyria in 722 BC and Judah to Babylon in 586 BC. The books of Kings tell this history as a story of covenant faithfulness and its failure, and outside records confirm much of the outline.

Key terms

Temple
The house for God built by Solomon in Jerusalem, replacing the tent of the tabernacle as the center of Israel’s worship.
Divided kingdom
The period after about 930 BC when Israel and Judah were separate states.
Samaria
The capital of the northern kingdom from the time of Omri, about 880 BC.
Corvée
Forced labor demanded by a ruler. 1 Kings 5 describes it under Solomon.
High places
Local shrines on hills. The books of Kings criticize kings who allowed worship there after the temple was built.
Syncretism
Mixing the worship of the Lord with the worship of other gods.
Assyrian captivity
The deportation of the people of the northern kingdom after 722 BC.

Background

Solomon becomes king after a struggle with his brother Adonijah (1 Kings 1 and 2). The text portrays him as a gifted ruler who asks God for an understanding heart and receives wisdom, wealth and honor (1 Kings 3). He builds the temple, a royal palace, and cities, and trades widely. Proverbs and the Song of Songs are linked to his name, and Ecclesiastes is traditionally attributed to him, though the text does not name him directly.

The accounts of the temple are detailed, and no remains have been found, since the site is under the later Temple Mount and cannot be excavated. Outside Jerusalem, large gates at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer were once credited to Solomon, but their date is now disputed. As with David, scholars disagree on how large and powerful his kingdom was.

After him, the one kingdom becomes two. The books of Kings follow the two lines of kings in parallel, noting for each king whether he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The summary judgment of the books is that the northern kings all failed and that the southern kings were mixed, with a few good ones.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The temple

The temple is built on a hill in Jerusalem, with the help of craftsmen and timber from Hiram, king of Tyre. It follows the plan of the tabernacle on a larger scale, with a porch, a main hall and an inner sanctuary holding the ark (1 Kings 6 to 8). At the dedication, a cloud fills the house, and Solomon prays that God would hear the prayers of Israel and of the foreigner who prays toward it.

The temple becomes the center of Israel’s worship, and the focus of the psalms of pilgrimage. It also carries a danger. The prophets will later warn that the temple does not guarantee safety, as in Jeremiah 7.

Step 2: Solomon’s failures

The writer notes the cost of Solomon’s glory. He draws forced labor from Israel (1 Kings 5:13 and 11:28), and his taxes are heavy. He marries many foreign wives, and 1 Kings 11 says that in his old age they turned his heart after other gods, and that he built high places for them. Because of this, God tells him that the kingdom will be torn away, though a tribe will remain for David’s sake and Jerusalem’s.

This judgment echoes the warnings of Deuteronomy 17 about a king who multiplies wives and horses. Readers see Solomon as a figure of great gifts who fell into the pattern the law had foreseen.

Step 3: The division

When Solomon dies, his son Rehoboam goes to Shechem, where the northern tribes ask him to lighten the burden. The older counselors advise yielding. The younger advise greater harshness, and Rehoboam follows them. The northerners answer with a cry of rejection: what portion have we in David? (1 Kings 12). They make Jeroboam king, and Judah and Benjamin stay with Rehoboam. The date is about 930 BC. The Egyptian king Shishak raided Judah soon afterward (1 Kings 14:25), an event also recorded in Egyptian inscriptions.

Jeroboam fears that pilgrimage to Jerusalem would draw his people back, so he sets up golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The books of Kings call this the sin of Jeroboam and repeat the phrase about every northern king.

Step 4: Two kingdoms to their ends

Israel, the northern kingdom, was the larger and richer. Omri founded Samaria, and his son Ahab and Queen Jezebel promoted the worship of Baal, opposed by the prophet Elijah. The Mesha inscription and Assyrian records confirm Omri and Ahab as real rulers. After a series of coups, Assyria besieged Samaria, and in 722 BC the northern kingdom fell, and many of its people were deported (2 Kings 17).

Judah, the southern kingdom, kept David’s line. Hezekiah resisted Assyria and Josiah led a reform after a book of the law was found in the temple (2 Kings 22 and 23). Josiah died in 609 BC, and Babylon took Jerusalem in 597 BC, then destroyed it in 586 BC. The kingdom ended, and the Davidic line was in exile. The promise of 2 Samuel 7 now faced its greatest test.

  1. What does Solomon’s prayer at the dedication say about the purpose of the temple?
  2. In what ways does the text praise Solomon, and in what ways does it criticize him?
  3. Why did the northern tribes rebel against Rehoboam?
  4. Why did Jeroboam set up golden calves, and why do the books of Kings condemn it?
  5. What do outside records confirm about the northern kingdom?
  6. How do the fall of Samaria and the fall of Jerusalem differ in the text’s explanation?

Examples

A foreigner’s prayer

In 1 Kings 8, Solomon asks that when a foreigner comes from a far country and prays toward the temple, God would hear and do as the stranger asks, so that all peoples may know his name. The temple is thus described as a place of prayer for the nations as well as for Israel.

Two advisers

Rehoboam asks first the old men who served his father, and then the young men who grew up with him. The old advise service and kind words. The young advise a heavier yoke. The story shows how the text uses counsel as a test of wisdom.

Omri in the Assyrian records

Assyrian inscriptions long after Omri still call Israel the land of the house of Omri. The usage shows that Omri was known as an important ruler to the foreign powers, though the Bible gives him only a few verses.

Different perspectives

Jewish readers

Jewish tradition honors Solomon as wise and as the builder of the first temple. It remembers the destruction of the temple on the ninth of Av, a day of fasting. Rabbinic writings discuss Solomon’s failures and wisdom at length.

Catholic and Orthodox readers

These traditions see the temple as a figure of Christ’s body and of the church, and Solomon’s wisdom as a pointer to the wisdom of God. They count Wisdom and Sirach, books about wisdom linked with Solomon’s name, among the Scriptures.

Protestant readers

Protestants usually read Solomon as a warning about the temptation of power and wealth. Many read the division of the kingdom as God’s judgment on unfaithfulness, and the history as showing that human kings cannot save.

Scholarly views

Scholars debate the date of the gates, the size of Solomon’s kingdom, and the period from which parts of 1 Kings come. The high chronology places the buildings in Solomon’s time, while the low chronology places them nearly a century later. The division of the kingdom and the fall of Samaria are not in doubt.

Why it matters

This period fixes the frame in which the prophets speak. They address kings of Israel and Judah, warn against alliances with Assyria and Egypt, and criticize the temple’s misuse. Without the outline of the two kingdoms, their sayings lose their setting. The story also shows how the books of Kings use history to teach about covenant faithfulness.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The temple was a place for Israel only.

Correction: Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8 asks that foreigners who pray toward the temple be heard. Isaiah 56 calls it a house of prayer for all peoples.

Misunderstanding: Israel and Judah were always hostile.

Correction: They fought often, but also made alliances, such as the one between Ahab’s family and Jehoshaphat of Judah. They shared a language and a religion.

Misunderstanding: The ten tribes were lost and have been found in some modern people.

Correction: The Bible does not say they vanished. People from the north joined Judah, and some remained in the land. Claims of identification with modern peoples have no historical support.

Knowledge check

What is the account in 1 Kings 11 of Solomon’s failure?

It says that Solomon loved many foreign women, and in his old age they turned his heart after other gods. He built high places for the gods of his wives. Because of this, God told him the kingdom would be torn from his son, although one tribe would remain for the sake of David and Jerusalem. The text treats it as the fulfillment of the warning in Deuteronomy.

Why did the kingdom divide?

The text gives two reasons. Politically, northern tribes resented heavy burdens and Rehoboam answered their request with threats. Theologically, God judged Solomon’s idolatry. Historians add that northern tribes had long been separate from Judah in character and interest. The division occurred about 930 BC, with Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

What happened to the northern kingdom?

After a period of unstable rule, the Assyrians besieged its capital, Samaria, and in 722 BC the kingdom fell. Many of its people were deported and replaced by settlers from other lands (2 Kings 17). The author explains the fall as the result of long unfaithfulness to the covenant. Assyrian records confirm the conquest.

What are the two chronologies for Solomonic buildings?

The high chronology dates certain gates and buildings at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer to the tenth century BC, matching Solomon. The low chronology dates them about a century later, to the time of Omri and Ahab, and argues that the united kingdom was smaller. The dispute concerns pottery and radiocarbon dates, and scholars remain divided.

Think it through

  1. Why might the writer have praised Solomon’s wisdom and also criticized his rule?
  2. What did the temple do for Israel’s faith, and what risks did it bring?
  3. How does the story of Rehoboam illustrate the cost of ignoring wise counsel?
  4. What would you want to know to judge between the high and low chronologies?

Independent assignment

A timeline of the two kingdoms

In your own notebook, make a timeline from about 1000 BC to 586 BC. Mark David, Solomon, the division, Omri, Ahab, the fall of Samaria, Hezekiah, Josiah and the fall of Jerusalem. Label each date as firm, approximate or disputed. Then write 200 to 300 words on what the books of Kings say about why each kingdom fell. Keep it for yourself.

Further study