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Week 27, Day 2 — 1 Kings 9, 2 Chronicles 8

Jeremy Paschall
06/30/24 - Podcast

And now, a minute with the Word…

In the midst of celebrating Solomon’s successes, 2 Chronicles 8.11 portends spiritual disaster for the king and for all Israel: “Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, ‘My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy.’” While her specific religious and moral proclivities are not recorded, Solomon’s decision regarding her living quarters is a tacit admission of her failings — no doubt she and her entourage had “brought up from Egypt idolatrous rites, superstitious practices, [and] immoral usages” (Pulpit, Homilies by W. Clarkson, 2 Chronicle 8.11). Though perhaps politically expedient, this marriage introduced to Solomon and to Israel influences that would lead them from the commitment they had just made at the dedication of the temple.