1 Kings 3:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh— There are many who blame this action of Solomon's; observing, that whatever augmentation of power he might promise himself from this alliance, he certainly ran the hazard of having his religion corrupted. Others, however, have observed, that as the sacred Scriptures commend the beginning of Solomon's reign, in all other respects except the people's sacrificing in high places, which might be the rather tolerated because there was no house built unto the name of the Lord in those days, 1 Kings 3:2 and as they gave him this character, that he loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, 1 Kings 3:2 he would never have done an act so directly contrary to the laws of God as marrying an idolatrous princess, had she not been first proselyted to the Jewish faith. The Scriptures, indeed, take notice of the gods of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Sidonians, for whom Solomon, in compliance with his strange wives, built places of worship. See chap. 11: But as there is no mention made of any Gods of the Egyptians, it seems very likely that this princess, when she was espoused to Solomon, quitted the religion of her ancestors, to which Psalms 45:10-11 is thought to allude in its primary sense. However this be, it is certain that no where in Scripture do we find Solomon reproved for this match; nor can we think that his book of Canticles, which is supposed to be in its primary sense his Epithalamium, would have found a place in the sacred canon, had the spouse, whom it all along celebrates, been at that time an idolatress. It may seem somewhat strange, that in all the history of the Jews, from the time of Moses to that of Solomon, no mention should be made of the kings of Egypt, as if they had no concern in the affairs of Canaan, but were wholly diverted some other way: but for this their own historians account, when they tell us, that during this space of time the "Egyptian kings did nothing worthy recording." Diodor. Biblioth. lib. 1: p. 29. Clemens Alexandrinus, in a passage taken from Alexander Polyhistor, tells us, that the proper name of this Egyptian king, whose daughter Solomon married, was Vaphres. See Calmet.