In the previous chapters the Scripture related the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh and did not rebuke him because she was the one wife only who did not secretly practice the religion of her homeland and was no reason of offense for him. But later he took other wives, so that the holy Scripture justly condemned both the previous marriage and these new ones. And there were four reasons for this: the first was his open transgression against religion because he had brought back [Israel’s] ancient idolatry which he had previously rejected; the second was that he took many wives against the clear precept of the Law; the third was that he loved these wives to distraction; the fourth was his apostasy from the worship of the true God which derived, as the Law had predicted, from such marriages. Therefore, with good reason the Scripture emphasizes many times, with very severe words, that the crime of Solomon was a consequence of his familiarity with these women. A further detail, which increases Solomon’s guilt, is that he did not only cause harm with his actions but also with his example. He was harmful not only because he was corrupted but also because he corrupted the kings that followed him, with the exception of one or two. Solomon was certainly the first among the leaders and kings of Israel who established public ceremonies and sacrifices of idolatry through the authority of magistrates.

However, in [David’s] son Solomon libido was not a passing guest; it reigned as a king. Scripture does not pass this over in silence but blames him as a lover of women. His beginnings were redolent with the desire for wisdom; when he had obtained it through spiritual love, he lost it through carnal love.

[God] promised that something everlasting would spring from David’s seed. Then Solomon was born, and he became a man of such profound wisdom that everyone supposed God’s promise concerning David’s offspring had been fulfilled in him. But no, Solomon fell and so made room for people to stretch their hope toward Christ. God can neither be deceived nor deceive us, so we can be certain that he did not ground his promise in Solomon, for he knew Solomon would fall. The divine purpose was that after Solomon’s fall you would look to God and earnestly press him for what he had promised.

Did you lie, then, Lord? Do you go back on your promises? Do you fail to deliver what you swore to give? Perhaps God will counter you by saying, I did swear, and I did promise, but that man did not persevere. But how can that be the answer? Did you not foresee, O Lord God, that he would not persevere? Of course you foresaw it. Why, then, did you promise me something that would last forever and attach that promise to someone who would not persevere? You said to me, ‘If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my ordinances, if they break my commandments and violate my covenant,’^[1] nevertheless my promise shall endure, and my oath shall be fulfilled. ‘Once I have sworn in my holiness,’^[2] within myself. In that most secret place you swore it, in the fountain from which the prophets drank, those prophets who belched out for us the words, Once have I sworn in my holiness, and I will not lie to David.^[3] Make good your oath then, and deliver what you promised. I was stripped away from David of old, lest in that David we should hope for its fulfillment, and so that you can say to us, Keep hoping for what I promised.

Even David himself was aware of this. Consider what he says: Yet you, you yourself, have rejected him to nothing.^[4] So what has become of your promise? You have put off your Anointed.^[5] The speaker has doleful things to relate, but by these very words he cheers us, because he is implying, What you promised stands absolutely firm, O God, for you have not taken your Anointed right away from us, but only put him off. ^[6] SOLOMON ALLOWED HIS WIVES TO WORSHIP IDOLS. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The words the wives turned away his heart do not mean that Solomon himself apostatized and worshiped the idols but that he gave [his wives] freedom to worship their idols without preventing them or converting them, as his father David [had done]. Therefore, since man and wife become one flesh,^[1] and the Scripture usually attributes to them both the action of one because of their union . . . this is why [Solomon] is justly rebuked for allowing his wives to adore [the idols]. Silence, as they say, expresses consent. Other commentators^[2] assert that [Solomon] worships the idols but is not punished, even though he deserved it, thanks to his father and all his merits and toil in building the house. ^[3]

The hands of the sinful woman were stretched out over his feet, that they might receive a gift from his divinity.^[1] Our Lord, therefore, showed his humanity so that the sinful woman might approach him. He also revealed his divinity in order that the Pharisee might be found guilty by him. Consequently, the sinful woman could scoff at the cunning thoughts of him who had been scoffing at her tears. She, through her love, brought into the open the tears that were hidden in the depths of her eyes, and [the Lord], because of her courage, brought into the open the thoughts that were hidden in the Pharisee. The sinful woman thought he was like God. Her faith was witness to this. Simon thought he was [merely] like a man. What he had worked out in his mind showed this. Our Lord, therefore, standing in the middle, worked out a parable between the two of them, so that the sinful woman might be encouraged through his pronouncing the parable and the Pharisee might be denounced through the explanation of the parable.

But now, likewise, we are in the middle; and like Solomon we have fallen between women. But, even if we, like Solomon, have fallen between women, we are not, like Solomon, wounded by women. For these Gentile women were turning Solomon aside from the fear of God to their idols by means of their allurements. We place the faith of the Gentile women above the heroic exploits of the Hebrew women. For the latter, through the wholeness of their bodies, rendered Solomon’s healthy faith sick, while the former, through their being healed, restore our ailing faith to health. Who therefore would not [wish] to be healed [by such faith]?

Solomon was in his time David’s son, a great man, through whom many holy precepts and healthful admonitions and divine mysteries have been wrought by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. Solomon himself was a lover of women and was rejected by God: and this lust was so great a snare to him that he was induced by women even to sacrifice to idols, as Scripture witnesses concerning him. But if, by his fall, what was delivered through him were blotted out, it would be judged that he had himself delivered these precepts and not that they were delivered through him. The mercy of God, therefore, and his Spirit, excellently wrought that whatever of good was declared through Solomon, might be attributed to God; and the man’s sin, to the man. What marvel that Solomon fell among God’s people? Did not Adam fall in paradise? Did not an angel fall from heaven and become the devil? We are thereby taught that no hope must be placed in any human being.

The son of this David, Solomon by name, was caught by the same snare as his father, and out of complacence to women fell away from the God of his fathers. You see how great an evil it is not to master pleasure, not to upset the ruling principle in nature and for a man to be slave of women. This same Solomon, then, who was formerly righteous and wise but who ran a risk of being deprived of all the kingdom on account of his sin, God permitted to keep the sixth part of the government on account of the renown of his father.

The adversary has no power against us unless God has previously permitted it, in order that all our fear and devotion and obedience may be turned to God, since in temptations nothing is permitted evil, unless the power is granted by God. . . . Moreover, power is given to evil against us according to our sins, as it is written: Who has given Jacob for spoil and Israel to those who despoiled him? Has not God, against whom they have sinned and were unwilling to walk in his ways and to hear his law, even poured out upon them the indignation of his fury?^[1] And again when Solomon sinned and departed from the precepts and the ways of the Lord, it is set down: And the Lord stirred up the adversary^[2] against Solomon himself. ^[3] GOD’S ABSOLUTE GENEROSITY. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: Here God’s mercy is absolutely evident. Even though he knew how wicked Jeroboam was, [God] appoints him king in order to show that, as far as it depends on him, his gifts are never denied but showered on everyone. Humans themselves, however, refuse them deliberately. ^[1]

In the Gospel there is a proof of this mystery of unity, this inseparable bond of harmony, when the coat of the Lord Jesus Christ is not cut or rent at all. The garment is received whole and the coat taken into possession unspoiled and undivided by those who cast lots for Christ’s garment, asking who should put on Christ. Holy Scripture says of this, But for the coat, because it was not sewn but woven from the top throughout, they said to each other: Let us not rend it but casts lots for it, whose it shall be.^[1] He showed a unity that came from the top, that is, from heaven and the Father, a unity that could by no means be rent by one who received and possessed it. Its wholeness and unity remained solid and unbreakable forever. He who rends and divides the church cannot possess the garment of Christ. In contrast, when at Solomon’s death his kingdom and people were being rent, the prophet Ahijah, meeting King Jeroboam in the field, rent his garment into twelve pieces, saying, Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord: Behold, I rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten scepters to you; but he shall have two scepters for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city that I have chosen, to put my name there. When the twelve tribes of Israel were being rent, the prophet Ahijah rent his garment. But since Christ’s people cannot be rent, his coat, woven throughout as a single whole, was not rent by its owners. Undivided, conjoined, coherent, it proves the unbroken harmony of our people who have put on Christ. By the type and symbol of his garment he has manifested the unity of the church. ^[2] CHRIST, THE KING DESCENDING FROM DAVID. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The words so that David may always have a lamp refer to that small part of the kingdom which was like the sun in the abundance of its light: Your throne will be like the sun before me.^[1] Moreover, as we light many firebrands from a lamp, so a large number [of kings] will descend from the royal lineage of David until he, to whom kingship belongs, comes.^{[2] [3]}