Seven hundred wives, &c.— Without knowing the customs of the princes of the East, their pomp, and sumptuousness of living, one might be tempted to wonder of what possible use was this multitude of wives and concubines. But, as Solomon was between forty and fifty years old before he ran into this excess, we cannot but suppose that he kept this multitude of women partly for state. Darius Codomanus was wont to carry along with him in his camp no less than three hundred and fifty concubines in time of war; nor was his queen offended at it; for the women used to reverence and adore her, as if she had been a goddess. Father Le Compte, in his history of China, tells us, that the emperor has a vast number of wives chosen out of the prime beauties of the country, many of whom he never so much as saw in his whole life: and, therefore, it is not improbable that Solomon, as he found his riches increase, might enlarge his expences, and endeavour to surpass all the princes of his time in this, as well as in all other kinds of pomp and magnificence.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Lord, what is man! Is this Solomon the wise? Is this Jedediah, the beloved of the Lord? Is this the man of prayer, the builder of God's temple? How art thou fallen, Son of the Morning!
1. The cause of Solomon's sad departure from God is here mentioned. The love of women stole away his heart; insatiate lust led him to multiply his wives and concubines; and when the women of Israel no longer pleased his vitiated taste, or piously refused to minister to his guilty pleasures, he sought for others, less scrupulous, from the forbidden nations around him. On these his heart doated; and as he grew old, he grew fonder still, and could refuse them nothing. Note; (1.) No passion so dangerous to the soul as the criminal love of women. (2.) Every indulgence given to lewd desire, only makes those desires more insatiate.
2. The sad effects produced by his inordinate affections. His heart was drawn aside to idolatry, to which David in his most lamented days never inclined. His wives, taking advantage of his fondness and age, first seduced him to grant them the worship of their own gods, and then engaged him to join with them in the abominable service. To such a pitch of impiety it grew at last, that the high place of Chemosh confronted the very temple of God. Note; (1.) They who give way to one wilful sin, never know when or where they shall stop. (2.) The indulgence of fleshly lusts makes the heart brutish, and stupifies the conscience. (3.) Outward prosperity is a dangerous state: they who fare sumptuously every day, often find their table a snare, and pampered appetite their ruin. (4.) The greatest attainments, without continued watchfulness and jealousy, may be quickly lost; and, like Solomon, the highest in profession of godliness, become the foulest in their falls. (5.) Solomon's sin should be our warning: a busy devil, and a body of flesh, will never cease tempting. Let us never turn into an argument to embolden us, what is left on record as an admonition to deter us from the like sins.
2nd, Justly provoked at such base ingratitude and wilful disobedience, after such repeated instances of his kindness, God sends a terrible message to awaken him from his shameful backsliding. Since he had revolted from God, the kingdom shall revolt from him, that is, from his posterity in the next reign; and though, for the sake of the promise made to David, he would leave him one tribe, that is Judah, with which Benjamin, as adjacent, was reckoned: the other ten tribes should be given to his servant. In mercy God deferred the execution of his sentence till his son's reign, but left him to lament the approaching desolations, when all the glory that he hoped to transmit to his posterity would be so eclipsed. God had given him fair warning before; he has now only his own wickedness to blame. What effect this message had we are not told; but we hope it was, like Nathan's, the means of bringing him to repentance; and that the book of Ecclesiastes contains his repentance, and acknowledgment of his sin and folly.