King Solomon Deuteronomy 17

445 Words1 Page

With the writing of the Proverbs one would think that Solomon would have been a good king according to the standards set forth in Deuteronomy 17. The story of Solomon is a wonderful story, he is the wisest man and his wealth and power was known to all. Solomon wrote many songs and proverbs. Even though, Solomon’s end was a disaster. His wives succeeded in turning his heart from God, which in turn cost his son a lot of his kingdom and divided Israel. The one thing we can learn from this is how to not make the same mistakes as Solomon.
1 Kings presents Solomon favorably, but Deuteronomy makes Solomon out to be something else. Even though 1 Kings is very favorable to Solomon, Deuteronomy paints a picture of the king of Israel that does not resemble Solomon. In Deuteronomy there are prohibitive conditions and imperative conditions, in which the king of …show more content…

The six he breaks are: he acquires many horses, he returns to Egypt for horses, he acquires many wives, he collects large amounts of gold and silver, his kingship exalts him above not only the people of Israel but also over other kingdoms, and he does not observe the laws. The comparison to Pharaoh to Solomon can be made based on Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 17:16 states “But he shall not multiply horse for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’” This is to remind Israel not to turn back to Egypt, but in 1 Kings that is what Solomon did. The parallels between Pharaoh and Solomon are evident. Each was rulers over an empire and had huge building projects. Both forced the residents into forced labor. Both had vast armies of chariots, Solomon to the extent that he had cities built explicitly for his chariots. There are two direct connections to Egypt, Solomon does business with the king of Egypt and is married to the Pharaohs

More about King Solomon Deuteronomy 17

Open Document