I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 11-12.y

A short while back I came across a site which, when discussing King Solomon, said that this passage’s reference to him having 1,000 wives (well, wives and concubines) was surely an exaggeration because no man could sleep with that many women.  While I agree that 1,000 wives sounds excessive, when you think of some modern professional athletes (and other celebrities and wealthy men) you start to think that a man as rich and powerful as King Solomon could surely have done so if he desired.  Wilt Chamberlain claimed to have slept with 20,000 women, and several people who knew him said it was not out of the question.  Or to use someone more comparable to King Solomon: 8% of the people living today are descended from Genghis Khan.

One result of King Solomon being such a womanizer was that he started to take part in worshiping the gods of some of his foreign wives  Again, if we look ate men who are promiscuous on the kind of scale that King Solomon was we see that many times they also get involved in strange and “exotic” rituals.  Which would explain King Solomon’s involvement with these other gods.  Whatever the reason, it led to the dissolution of his kingdom.  It is really two-fold.  God took the kingdom away from his son, or part of it at least.  But, the revolt of the northern tribes was also a natural human reaction to King Solomon’s giving his attention to his wives and their gods rather than to the needs and wants of the people he ruled.