1 Kings 11:5

11:1-8 There is not a more melancholy and astonishing instance of human depravity in the sacred Scriptures, than that here recorded. Solomon became a public worshipper of abominable idols! Probably he by degrees gave way to pride and luxury, and thus lost his relish for true wisdom. Nothing forms in itself a security against the deceitfulness and depravity of the human heart. Nor will old age cure the heart of any evil propensity. If our sinful passions are not crucified and mortified by the grace of God, they never will die of themselves, but will last even when opportunities to gratify them are taken away. Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. We see how weak we are of ourselves, without the grace of God; let us therefore live in constant dependence on that grace. Let us watch and be sober: ours is a dangerous warfare, and in an enemy's country, while our worst foes are the traitors in our own hearts.

And Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians,.... Enticed by the Zidonian women, or woman, he had, 1 Kings 11:1 . According to the Phoenician histories (i), Solomon married a daughter of Hiram, king of Tyre and Zidon; so Clemens of Alexandria says (k), that Hiram gave his daughter to Solomon; Ashtoreth is Astarte, the same with the Venus of the Greeks, so Suidas (l); and Lucian (m) expressly says, the Sidonians had a temple, said by them to belong to Astarte, which he takes to be the moon; and both Venus and Juno signify the same planet; See Gill on Judges 2:13 . and after Milcom the abomination of the Amnonites; the same with Molech, 1 Kings 11:7. See Gill on Leviticus 18:21. See Gill on Amos 1:13. After this he was drawn by his Ammonitish wife, or wives, 1 Kings 11:1, though the Jewish writers think he did not worship these idols, but suffered his wives to do it, and connived at it, which was his sin; so Ben Gersom and Abarbinel. (i) Apud Tatian. contr. Graecos, p. 171. (k) Stromat. l. 1. p. 325. (l) In voce (m) De Dea Syria.

1 Kings 11:5-7 . Solomon went after Ashtoreth — Called also Astarte. See on Jdg 2:13 . And after Milcom — The same, it is thought, with Molech, who is here called an abomination, because highly detested by God. Solomon built a high place for Chemosh — That is, an altar upon a high place, as the manner of the heathen was. Concerning Chemosh, see Numbers 21:29 . In the hill that is before Jerusalem — In the mount of Olives, which was nigh to Jerusalem, as if to confront the temple. From this act this hill was called the mount of corruption, 2 Kings 23:13 . O sad effects of riches and prosperity on mankind! How insolent do they make them, and how forgetful of God! Wisely did Agar pray, Give me not riches, lest I be full and say, Who is the Lord?

(5) Ashtoreth (or, Astarte ).—The goddess of the Zidonians, and possibly the Hittites, corresponding to Baal, the great Tyrian god, and representing the receptive and productive, as Baal the active and originative, power in Nature. As usual in all phases of Natureworship, Ashtoreth is variously represented, sometimes by the moon, sometimes by the planet Venus (like the Assyrian Ishtar , which seems a form of the same name)—in either case regarded as “the queen of heaven.” (See Jeremiah 44:17 ; Jeremiah 44:25 ). There seems, indeed, some reason to believe that the name itself is derived from a root which is found both in Syriac and Persian, and which became aster in the Greek and astrum in Latin, and has thence passed into modern European languages, signifying a “star,” or luminary of heaven. With this agrees the ancient name, Ashterôth-Karnaîm (or, “the horned Ashteroth”)of a city in Bashan ( Genesis 14:5 ; Deuteronomy 1:4 ; Joshua 13:12 ).

This place is the first in which the name Ashtoreth is used in the singular number, and expressly limited to the “goddess of the Ziaonians.” In the earlier history we hear not unfrequently of the worship of the “Ashtaroth,” that is, of the “Ashtoreths,” found with the like plural Baalim, as prevalent in Canaan, and adopted by Israel in evil times (see Judges 2:13 ; Judges 10:6 ; 1Samuel 7:3 ; 1Samuel 12:10 ; 1Samuel 31:10 ); and the worship of the Asherah (rendered “groves” in the Authorised version), may perhaps refer to emblems of Astarte. In these cases, however, it seems not unlikely that the phrase, “Baalim and Ashtaroth,” may be used generally of the gods and goddesses of various kinds of idolatry. The worship of the Tyrian Ashtoreth, as might be supposed from the idea which she was supposed to represent, was one of chartered license and impurity. Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.—The name Milcom (like the Malcham of Jeremiah 49:1; Jeremiah 49:3) is probably only a variety of the well-known Molech, which is actually used for it in 1Kings 11:7. The name “Molech” (though here connected expressly with the Ammonite idolatry) is a general title, signifying only “king” (as Baal signifies “lord”), and might be applied to the supreme god of any idolatrous system. Thus the worship of “Molech,” with its horrible sacrifice of children “passing through the fire,” is forbidden in Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:2, evidently as prevailing among the Canaanite races (comp.

5 . Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians ] Ashtoreth was the chief female divinity of the Phœnicians, as Baal was their chief male deity. As Baal has been identified with the sun, so Ashtoreth has by some been thought to be the moon. Recent investigations have however connected the name of Ashtoreth with the planet Venus, and by some it is thought that the name was applied in some parts of the Phœnician settlements to Venus, in others to the moon. Ashtoreth is identified with the Greek Ἀστάρτη , and the name of an ancient city ( Genesis 14:5 ) Ashteroth-Karnaim , i.e. Ashteroth of the two horns, seems to point to the crescent moon. This is accepted by Milton ( Par. L . I. 438). ‘Ashtoreth, whom the Phœnicians called Astartè, queen of heaven, with crescent horns To whose bright image, nightly by the moon Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs.’ The worship of Ashtoreth was very widespread, as might be expected from the wide commercial relations, and distant colonies, of the Phœnicians. Why Ashtoreth is here named ‘goddess’ while the other deities are called ‘abominations’ may be due to the greater intercourse between Sidon and the Holy Land than existed with other countries. The Phœnician workmen at the Temple had perhaps caused the Israelites to become more accustomed to the name and worship of Ashtoreth. Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites ] This is the same divinity who is called below ( 1 Kings 11:7 ) Molech, and in Zephaniah 1:5 Malcham.

Molech was a fire god, and was worshipped with human sacrifices. The root of the word is the same as that of the Hebrew word for ‘king.’ Hence some think ‘their king’ in 2 Samuel 12:30 means Molech, the god of the Ammonites. There are numerous allusions in the Old Test. to the worship of this god, the phrase most common being ‘to make their children to pass through the fire to Molech.’ See 2 Kings 23:10 ; 2 Kings 23:13 . Some have explained this not as actual burning of the children to death, but as a passing of them between two fires for an ordeal of purification. But in 2 Chronicles 28:3 it is said of Ahaz, ‘He burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah had driven out.’ And the actual burning of the children thus offered is alluded to very plainly in Jeremiah 7:31 , ‘They have built the high places of Tophet, … to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire.’ The tradition is that the statue of Molech was of brass and the hands so arranged that the victim slipped from them into a fire which burnt underneath. It may be because there were no such sacrifices offered to Ashtoreth, that she is not spoken of as ‘an abomination.’

Went after - This expression is common in the Pentateuch, and always signifies actual idolatry (see Deuteronomy 11:28 ; Deuteronomy 13:2 ; Deuteronomy 28:14 , etc.). For Ashtoreth, or Astarte, the goddess of the Zidonians, see Exodus 34:13, note; Deuteronomy 16:21, note. On the tomb of a Phoenician king, discovered in 1855, on the site of Sidon, mention is made of a temple of Astarte there, which the monarch built or restored; and his mother is said to have been a priestess of the goddess. Milcom or Molech 1 Kings 11:7 are variants of the term ordinarily used for "king" among the Semitic races of Western Asia, which appears in melkarth (Phoenic.), Abimelech (Hebrew), Andrammelek (Assyrian), Abd-ul-malik (Arabic), etc. On the character and worship of Molech, see Leviticus 20:2-5 note.