Editing Books of Kings (section)

=====His decline (11:1–43)=====
Solomon amasses 700 wives and 300 concubines, many from foreign countries, including from countries God told the Israelites not to intermarry with. Solomon begins to adopt elements from their religions, and builds shrines in Jerusalem to foreign deities. God informs Solomon that because he has broken his commandments, the entire kingdom except one tribe will be taken away from his son.

At the same time, Solomon begins to amass enemies. A young prince named [[Hadad the Edomite|Hadad]] who managed to escape Joab's attempted genocide of the Edomites, hears Joab and David are dead, and returns to [[Edom]] to lead his people. Meanwhile, to the north, the Syrian king [[Rezon the Syrian|Rezon]], whose [[Zobah]]ite army was defeated by David, allies himself with Hadad and causes havoc for Israel from his base in [[Damascus]].

On the home front, [[Jeroboam]], who supervised the building of Solomon's palace terraces and the reconstruction of the city walls, encounters the prophet [[Ahijah the Shilonite]] on the road out of Jerusalem. Ahijah tears his cloak into twelve parts and gives ten of them to Jeroboam, saying that Jeroboam will rule over ten tribes of Israel upon Solomon's death as punishment for Solomon's idol worship. In response, Solomon tries to kill Jeroboam, but he flees to Egypt. Solomon dies after having reigned for forty years and is succeeded by his son [[Rehoboam]].