Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: The Queen of Sheba visits Solomon, God gives Solomon more wisdom and riches than any other king, Solomon turns his heart away from God to follow other gods, and the Lord vows to take away nearly all the kingdom from his son, leaving only one tribe for the sake of David and Israel.
When "the Queen of Sheba [hears] of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she [comes] to test him with hard questions." She comes to Jerusalem with gold, precious stones, and spices, and she speaks to him with "all that is in her heart." He answers all her questions, and it says there is nothing so difficult he could not explain to her. When she sees all his wisdom, his house, his food, his servants, and the grand entryway to the Lord's house, "there [is] no more spirit in her" (I think this means that she is breathless!), and she tells him it is true what she has heard of his wisdom, but that she did not believe it until she saw it for herself, and that she only heard the half of it. She says his wisdom is even more than what she had heard, and she says his servants are blessed to hear it. She blesses the Lord "who delighted in [him]," and acknowledges God's love for Israel and that he set Solomon on the throne to do righteousness and justice. It says she gives him more spices than anyone ever had. She also gives him wood, and he makes steps for the house of the Lord and harps for the singers. The king gives her all she desires besides what is normally given. In the forest of Lebanon, Solomon makes a throne of ivy with two lions beside the arm rests, and six on each side of the steps, and nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom. All his drinking cups are in gold; Not one was silver, because he had gold in abundance, so much that this is counted "as nothing." Gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys are brought every three years on merchant ships, and Solomon surpasses all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. All the earth seeks the presence of Solomon to hear the wisdom which God had put in his heart, and they brings presents of silver, gold, armor, spices, horses, and mules. He has many chariots and horsemen in cities set aside for them, and he makes silver as common in Jerusalem as stones and cedar trees as abundant as sycamores. He has horses imported from Egypt, which he exports to the kings of the Hittites and of Syria.
BUT... Solomon "[loves] many foreign women"- besides Pharaoh's daughter- of the nations whom the Lord had told Israel not to intermarry, as it would turn their hearts away to other gods. He has 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and they turn away his heart to other gods when he is old, and it says his heart is not loyal to God as David's was. He goes after Asherah and the god of the Ammonites and does evil in the sight of the Lord and does not fully follow him as David did. He even builds a high place for the "abomination of Moab" on a hill east of Jerusalem and for Moloch of Amon (the god of human sacrifice), and he does this for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. So the Lord becomes angry with Solomon who had turned his heart away from the Lord, who had appeared to him twice and commanded him concerning this thing. So the Lord says to him that He will tear the kingdom away from him and give it to his servant, but that He will not do it in his days for the sake of David, but will do it in his son's days. However, He will leave him one tribe for the sake of David His servant and for the sake of Jerusalem whom He has chosen. He raises up an adversary against Solomon, an Edomite. This man had favor with Pharaoh, who had given him the sister of his wife, and his children were raised in Pharaoh's house. He asks Pharaoh if he may depart to his own country, and Pharaoh asks if he lacks anything, but he asks to go nevertheless. And God raises up another adversary against Solomon who is captain of a band of raiders, and they reign in Damascus, and he is an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, besides the trouble the Edomite caused, and he hates Israel. Solomon's servant Jeroboam, an Ephraimite, also rebels against him. Solomon had repaired the damages in Jerusalem, and he had made the man an officer of the labor force. He was a mighty man, and when he went out of Jerusalem, a prophet met him on the way, clothed in a new garment. They are alone in the field, and the prophet tears the garment in twelve pieces and tells him to take ten, saying that the Lord has torn the kingdom from Solomon and is giving him ten tribes. He tells him the Lord's reasons for this and also so that David "may always have a lamp before [Him] in Jerusalem." He tells him he will be king over Israel and will reign over all his heart desires. If he will walk in His ways and keep His commands as David did, the Lord will be with him and build for him an enduring house as He built for David, but He will afflict David's descendants because of this, yet not forever. Solomon seeks to kill him, but he flees to Egypt and stays until Solomon's death. All Solomon's acts and wisdom are written in the book of the acts of Solomon. He reigns over Israel 40 years, and he rests with his fathers. Rehoboam his son reigns in his place.
The story of the Queen of Sheba and of Solomon's riches are retold in 2 Chronicles.
Thoughts/discussion questions:
God gave Solomon so much glory, but in the end, it was wasted. How very sad! It is how we finish that really counts.