SECTION A: THEMES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT (a) However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake David my ser...

Answer Details

What led to the pronouncement, "I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant" (1 Kings 11:1-13)

This pronouncement was God's judgment upon King Solomon because of his apostasy in his later years. The circumstances that led to it were as follows:

• Solomon's many foreign wives: King Solomon loved many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. These were from nations concerning which the Lord had warned Israel not to intermarry, lest they turn their hearts after other gods.
• His heart turned away from God: When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God as was the heart of David his father.
• He fell into idolatry: Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord.
• He built high places for idols: On the mountain east of Jerusalem, Solomon built high places for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, and did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
• God's anger and repeated warnings: The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him not to go after other gods. But Solomon did not keep what the Lord commanded.

Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, "Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen." This judgment was later fulfilled when the kingdom was divided in the days of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, leaving the tribe of Judah (with Benjamin) to the house of David.