What is the context?
The account now makes Solomon’s failure explicit. He loves many foreign women and takes seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines. As he grows old, his wives turn his heart toward other gods.
The warning in Deuteronomy 7:3–4 explains the danger as being drawn away to serve other gods. Here that danger becomes reality: Solomon follows Ashtoreth and Milcom and builds places of worship for Chemosh and Molech, as well as providing for the worship of his other wives.
The text says Solomon clung to these women in love. The Hebrew verb dabaq, pronounced dah-BAHK, means to cling or hold close. Brown–Driver–Briggs lists this verse under the word’s use for attachment and loyalty. The account makes the direction of that attachment—and its effect on his devotion to God—the central concern.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry reads Solomon’s actions as participation in idol worship and warns that great wisdom and age do not protect someone from an unguarded heart. Wesley emphasizes the permission Solomon gives to this worship and considers his participation in its outward acts possible, while stopping short of saying he changed his beliefs about which God is true.
The difference concerns how to describe Solomon’s inward beliefs and involvement. The narrative itself is unambiguous about his responsibility: he follows other gods, establishes their worship and does evil in the LORD’s sight.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
Solomon’s divided devotion belongs within a wider biblical warning about competing loyalties. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus explains that a person cannot serve two masters. His immediate example is God and money, but the principle helps explain why devotion cannot simply be divided without consequence.
This is a connection in theme, rather than a claim that Jesus is interpreting Solomon’s marriages. God’s purpose for His people calls for wholehearted faithfulness, and Solomon’s story shows what happens when another attachment takes priority.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.