1 Kings 11 · a question people ask
Did Solomon turn back to the LORD before he died?
1 Kings doesn't say. The last it says of his heart is that "his heart was turned away from the LORD" (11:9), and Ahijah gives the LORD's reason for the torn kingdom: "because they have forsaken me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon" (11:33). Then the chapter closes his reign in the book's own words: "Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, aren’t they written in the book of the acts of Solomon?" (11:41). "The time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years" (11:42). "Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in his father David’s city; and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place" (11:43). No verse tells of him turning back, and none says he never did. Other verses speak of him. The LORD had said to David of the offspring who would "build a house for my name" (2 Samuel 7:13), "If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men" (2 Samuel 7:14), "but my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you" (2 Samuel 7:15). When he was born, "The LORD loved him" (2 Samuel 12:24). Nehemiah asks, "Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin" (Nehemiah 13:26). Christians weigh these verses in different ways when they ask what became of Solomon; none of them says whether he turned back, and these notes don't guess.
The verses
“The LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,”
“because they have forsaken me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon. They have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in my eyes, and to keep my statutes and my ordinances, as David his father did.”
“Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, aren’t they written in the book of the acts of Solomon? The time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in his father David’s city; and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.”
“When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men; but my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.”