1 Kings 11

According to Moses, Israelites were supposed to kill the locals, not marry them and make more of them. “When the LORD your God gives them to you, you’ll need to finish them off. After you defeat them in battle, wipe them out by killing them all. Don’t make any peace treaty with them. Don’t show them mercy” (Deuteronomy 7:2). Solomon showed them his bedroom.

Deuteronomy 7:3-4.

Kings in ancient times had a custom of creating peace treaties by marrying into the royal families of nations they wanted as allies. They figured a foreign king would be less likely to attack the city were his daughter lived with another king or a prince. But 700 treaties is a bit much, some might conclude. When Israelites invaded the land 200-400 years earlier (scholars disagree on the date of Moses), the Bible listed only seven nations larger and stronger than Israel (Deuteronomy 7:1; Joshua 3:10; 24:11). Not 700.

A concubine was a woman who lived with a man in a legally binding relationship as a secondary wife. But she often had less social status and fewer privileges than a wife. The reason for having a concubine wasn’t necessarily for the pleasure of it, but for the sons of it. People wanted kids. Especially boys. Big families provided more security. They worked together and took care of each other.

Astarte is the Greek form of the goddess also known as Ashtarte, Ashtaroth, and similar variations. She was a goddess of fertility, like Baal, a male god. But Astarte was also a go-to goddess for matters of love and war. Sometimes she’s described as Baal’s wife. Her figurines portray her as well-endowed, and then some—with her privates exposed and prominently displayed. People worshiped her throughout and beyond what is now Israel and Palestinian Territory. When Philistines defeated King Saul, they hung his armor as a war trophy in a temple devoted to Astarte (1 Samuel 31:10).

Milcom shows up elsewhere in the Bible and in archaeological discoveries around Ammon, capital of Jordan. Some features on statues of him suggest a connection to the Egyptian god Osiris, best known as god of the dead and the afterlife.

Chemosh was Moab’s national god, and possibly the Ammonites as well. When King Solomon married into the religion and built a sanctuary to Chemosh on the Mount of Olives, he legitimized this idolatry for about 400 years. Israel’s idolatry, the prophets said, would be why God would allow invaders to wipe the Jewish nation off the political map. Babylonians from what is now Iraq did that in 586 BC. The god’s name shows up in a Canaanite inscription chiseled into a stone record known as the Mesha Stele or the Moabites Stone, from the 800’s BC. It’s on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Scholars debate who or what Molech was and whether children were literally sacrificed or perhaps figuratively presented to Molech and dedicated to him. Many scholars say Molech was a god, because of the way Bible writers describe people prostituting themselves to Molech (Leviticus 20:5). Most scholars seem to agree that some people of Israel “ built places to worship Baal so they could burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to Molech” (Jeremiah 32:35 New Century Version). Scholars, however, question why this note got added to a chapter about sex sins. Theories: Sex sins and killing your own children each have the power to destroy a family. Both sins are rotten to the core and despicable. Molech’s worship may have focused on family, such as communicating with the dead and worshiping the peoples’ ancestors.

1 Kings 6:6-9.

The writer doesn’t tell us what Millo means. The root at the bottom of the Hebrew term means to “fill.” Some say the Millo may have been a bit like a retaining wall or an abutment to support the south side of the Temple Mount area. Many scholars say it probably was once part of a stair-step structure discovered by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon. And that structure may have been part of a large stone building discovered in 2005 by Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar.

We’re walking about forced labor. They weren’t slaves. Solomon reportedly enslaved only non-Israelites (1 Kings 9:22). But he did draft his own people for work projects, much like the military sometimes drafts soldiers for war.

The Acts of Solomon is a history book lost to history.

“Forty years” was a common way of saying “many years,” or “a long time.” The symbolic number shows up about 150 times in the Bible. It was probably intended to be taken no more literally than our modern saying “at the eleventh hour.” “Eleventh hour” means at the last moment, not 11 o-clock.