Solomon Builds the Temple

Relying on these resources, Solomon set about building a temple of immense size for God. The funds for it had been gathered over three years, and he laid its foundation about the fourth year of his reign. This was about the five hundred and eighty-eighth year after the Hebrews left Egypt, although in the third Book of Kings the years are counted as four hundred and forty. That figure is not at all accurate. For in the order of dates I have given above, I would have been more likely, if anything, to count too few years than too many. But I have no doubt that the truth was corrupted through the carelessness of copyists, especially since so many ages came between, rather than that the sacred writer erred. In the same way, we expect that in this little work of ours too, through the carelessness of copyists, things we have put together with some care will be corrupted. [a]

Well then, Solomon finished building the temple in the twentieth year after he began it. Then he offered sacrifice there and spoke a prayer in which he blessed the people and the temple. God spoke to him and declared that if they ever sinned and forsook God, their temple would be razed to the ground. We see that this was fulfilled long ago, and in due course we will set out the events in their order.

Meanwhile Solomon abounded in wealth; he was, in fact, the richest of all the kings who ever lived. But, as always happens in such circumstances, he sank from wealth into luxury and vice. In spite of God’s prohibition he married foreign women, until he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. As a result he set up idols for them, after the manner of their nations, so that they could offer sacrifice to them. God was turned away from him by such conduct. He rebuked him sharply and told him that, as a punishment, the greater part of his kingdom would be taken from his son and given to a servant. And so it happened.