John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 11 This chapter relates the false steps Solomon took, notwithstanding all his wisdom, in marrying strange wives, and worshipping other gods, 1 Kings 11:1 upon which the Lord threatens him to rend the kingdom in his son's time, 1 Kings 11:9 and he raised up adversaries against him, Hadad, Rezon, and Jeroboam, 1 Kings 11:14 of which last an account is given, and of his being...
John Gill
And he gathered men unto him,.... Perhaps some of the scattered forces of his master: and became captain over a band, when David slew them of Zobah; some that escaped enlisted under this man, and lived by plunder the remainder of David's reign, and so in the reign of Solomon unto his old age, when his heart was turned away from God to idols, by his wives: and they went to Damascus, and dwelt...
Matthew Henry
This chapter begins with as melancholy a "but" as almost any we find in all the Bible. Hitherto we have read nothing of Solomon but what was great and good; but the lustre both of his goodness and of his greatness is here sullied and eclipsed, and his sun sets under a cloud. I. The glory of his piety is stained by his departure from God and his duty, in his latter days, marrying strange wives and...