1 Kings 11:8
ESV
And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
NIV
He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
NASB
He also did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
CSB
He did the same for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.
NLT
Solomon built such shrines for all his foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.
KJV
And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
NKJV
And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
What does 1 Kings 11:8 mean?
When Solomon was younger, he married a princess of Egypt (1 Kings 3:1). Egyptian writings suggest Pharaohs never gave their daughters to foreigners; God blessed Solomon with exceptional honor from the nations (1 Kings 3:13). The queen lived in the city of David until Solomon finished the temple, his residence, and the government compound. Solomon then moved her to a palace on a nearby hill. He didn't believe a pagan woman should live in the same city where the ark of the covenant had dwelled (2 Chronicles 8:11).Since then, Solomon has married hundreds of foreign princesses, probably as part of alliances with their fathers. Each princess seems to have brought her own gods and styles of worship. Solomon loves his wives beyond mere political convenience. The older he gets, the more enmeshed he becomes with them. Eventually, he accepts and worships his wives' gods. He even builds worship sites on the high places (1 Kings 11:1–7).
When Solomon was first king, he "loved the Lord" (1 Kings 3:3). Now that he's older, he "[clings] to these [wives] in love" (1 Kings 11:2). He had built the temple of Yahweh, the permanent dwelling place of the ark. Now, he builds shrines for Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Molech (1 Kings 11:5, 7). He had led the people in a grand prayer, asking God to bless them (1 Kings 8:12–61). Now, he leads them to blend their worship with false gods and idols. This practice will plague Israel until the Babylonian captivity.
Because of Solomon's horrible sin, God will take half the nation from his son (1 Kings 11:31–34). Twenty years after Solomon dies, King Asa will take it all down: altars, high places, memorial stones, Asherim, and incense altars (2 Chronicles 14:2–5). Asa will also take out the male cult prostitutes and remove his mother from her position of influence after she makes an Asherah. He won't remove the high places where people worship God, which is common for even the most devout kings, but he will prove his own devotion (1 Kings 15:11–14). Asa will know that the king's job is to lead his people into goodness, not be led by them into sin.
