1 Kings
Wisdom not practiced: Solomon’s glory, the division of the kingdom, and the prophetic ministry of Elijah.
First Kings opens with an old king and a disputed succession and closes with a divided nation and a dead king in Samaria. In between lies the golden age of Israel. Solomon, David’s son, asks God for wisdom and receives it with riches and honor besides. He builds the temple, dedicates it with one of the great prayers of the Bible, and the glory of the LORD fills the house.
Yet Solomon did not practice what he knew. He multiplied horses, silver, and wives—the three things Deuteronomy 17 forbade a king—and his foreign wives turned his heart after other gods. After his death the kingdom split. Ten tribes followed Jeroboam in the north, setting up golden calves at Dan and Bethel; Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to Rehoboam in Jerusalem.
The second half of the book traces the two kingdoms side by side and introduces the prophets as God’s voice to wayward kings. Elijah bursts onto the scene in chapter 17, confronts Ahab and Jezebel, and calls down fire on Mount Carmel. The prophetic ministry that shapes the rest of Israel’s history begins here.
Writer: Jeremiah
Written: Compiled from the royal and prophetic records during the captivity, about 588–560 BC; traditionally ascribed to Jeremiah.
Name: The rulers of Israel and Judah
Title and authorship
The Hebrew title is Melakim, “Kings.” First and Second Kings were one book, continuing the history of Samuel. The Septuagint called them the Third and Fourth Books of Kingdoms.
The author is not named. Jewish tradition ascribes Kings to Jeremiah, and the book’s final form belongs to the exile (2 Kings 25:27). The writer drew on “the book of the acts of Solomon” and the chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah (11:41; 14:19, 29).
Historical background
Jerusalem, Samaria, and the surrounding nations from David’s last days about 1015 BC through the reign of Ahaziah of Israel about 896 BC.
Israel in exile, shown why the kingdom was lost and that God had kept His word both in blessing and in judgment.
The temple
Solomon began the temple in the fourth year of his reign, 480 years after the Exodus (6:1), and finished it in seven years. Built of hewn stone prepared at the quarry, with cedar from Lebanon supplied by Hiram of Tyre, it was twice the size of the tabernacle in its dimensions and overlaid with gold within.
Solomon’s trade and wealth
Solomon controlled caravan routes between Egypt, Arabia, and Mesopotamia, ran a fleet from Ezion-geber on the Red Sea with Phoenician sailors, and traded horses and chariots. The visit of the queen of Sheba, from southern Arabia, fits this commercial world (10:1–13).
The two kingdoms
After 975 BC in the traditional chronology, Israel (ten tribes, capital eventually at Samaria) and Judah (Judah and Benjamin, capital Jerusalem) went separate ways. All the kings of Israel were evil; Judah had both good and evil kings. Omri built Samaria, and Assyrian records call Israel “the house of Omri.”
Key passages
1 Kings 3:9
Solomon asks for “an understanding heart to judge thy people.”
1 Kings 9:4–5
God sets the condition for the continuance of the dynasty on the throne of Israel: walk as David walked.
1 Kings 11:9–13
Because Solomon’s heart turned away, the kingdom would be torn from his son, except for one tribe kept for David’s sake.
1 Kings 18:21
Elijah confronts the attempt to remain undecided between the Lord and Baal.
Outline
1–4 · Solomon established
The succession is settled and Solomon receives wisdom for governing.
5–8 · The temple built
Preparation, construction, furnishings, and dedication make worship central to the kingdom.
9–11 · Glory compromised
Alliances, ambition, wealth, and foreign worship expose a heart turning from obedience.
12–16 · The kingdom divided
Rehoboam and Jeroboam lead separate kingdoms as corrupt worship takes root.
17–22 · The prophetic challenge
Elijah confronts Ahab and Jezebel; God’s word judges kings and sustains his servant.
Original language
חָכְמָה (chokmah, H2451) — “wisdom”
Practical skill in living, whether in craftsmanship, government, or morals. God gave Solomon chokmah exceeding all the east (4:29–31), but wisdom must be practiced to be kept.
לֵב שֹׁמֵעַ (lev shomea, H3820) — “understanding heart”
Literally “a hearing heart.” Solomon asked for a heart that listens—to God and to his people—in order to judge rightly.
שָׁלֵם (shalem, H8003) — “perfect, whole”
Solomon’s own name (Shelomoh) is related to shalom, peace. Yet his heart “was not perfect (shalem) with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David” (11:4).
דְּמָמָה דַקָּה (demamah daqqah, H1827) — “still small voice”
Literally “a thin silence” or “a gentle whisper.” After wind, earthquake, and fire, God spoke to Elijah quietly.
Doctrinal study
The conditions of blessing on the throne
God’s covenant with David guaranteed an eternal throne, but the enjoyment of the throne by any particular son depended on obedience (9:4–9). Solomon’s sin brought chastening, not cancellation: one tribe was preserved “for David my servant’s sake” (11:13), keeping the line intact for the Messiah.
Elijah and the true God
On Carmel Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal: “If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him” (18:21). Fire from heaven consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the water. The same prophet who stood alone on the mountain later sat alone under a juniper tree; God fed him, rested him, and gave him a successor.
God’s house and prayer for the nations
Solomon prayed that God would hear the stranger who came from a far country and prayed toward the temple, “that all people of the earth may know thy name” (8:41–43). Christ quoted Isaiah’s echo of this: “My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer” (Mark 11:17).
Commentary notes
Seeds of self-destruction
The seeds of Solomon’s fall were planted early: forty thousand stalls of horses (4:26), marriage alliance with Pharaoh (3:1), and treasuries of silver (10:27). Deuteronomy 17:16–17 had forbidden a king to multiply horses, wives, or gold. Wisdom can be gained and lost.
After the mountain, the valley
Elijah’s greatest victory on Carmel was followed by fear, flight, and a request to die. God’s answer was food, sleep, a revelation of Himself, and a new assignment. The believer must watch for valleys after mountaintops and rest when God provides rest.
The sword of truth
Solomon’s judgment between the two harlots—“Divide the living child in two” (3:25)—revealed the true mother by her heart. The word of God likewise divides and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
Christ in the book
- Solomon — the son of David reigning in peace and wisdom; “a greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42)
- The temple — “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19)
- Elijah raising the widow’s son — life given back to the dead (17:22)
Applications
Historical
- God establishes the kingdom through Solomon; Solomon leads it into apostasy; as a result it is divided into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. The prophets, especially Elijah, call the nation back to the LORD.
- The united kingdom divides into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, whose rulers are subsequently recorded in parallel.
- Solomon’s reign includes the construction of the temple and extensive spiritual privileges, followed by deliberate disobedience and idolatry.
Doctrinal
- Solomon pictures both Christ and His counterfeit. His glorious reign of peace and wisdom anticipates the millennial kingdom, while his 666 talents of gold (10:14), multiplied wives, and idolatry picture the Antichrist who imitates Christ. It takes the Book to tell them apart.
- Solomon’s peaceful and prosperous kingdom is a type of Christ’s reign. His later corruption limits the comparison to those features that prefigure the Messiah.
- Elijah’s conflict with false worship introduces patterns of prophetic witness and opposition that recur in later Scripture.
Devotional
- How God’s kingdom is established in a believer’s life, and the forces that can bring it down: divided loyalties, prosperity without prudence, and the slow drift of a heart that once loved God.
- Solomon’s later conduct demonstrates that the possession of wisdom does not ensure obedience to its instruction.
- Elijah’s exhaustion and discouragement after Carmel demonstrate his continuing need for God’s provision, instruction, and correction.
Answering the critics
Some twentieth-century scholars have called the chronology of Kings unreliable because the reign lengths and synchronisms between the two kingdoms do not seem to add up.
The writer recorded a history of kings, not an official chronological table, and used different reckoning systems current at the time: co-regencies, accession-year versus non-accession-year counting, and different months for beginning the year. When these are understood, the numbers fit together remarkably well. An apparent difficulty is not an error.