Bible Timeline · About 970 to 930 BC; temple begun about 966 BC

Solomon and the First Temple

Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, asked God for wisdom and became the wisest and richest king of his time. He built the first temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, begun about 966 BC. But his many foreign wives turned his heart to other gods, and the kingdom split after he died.

Read it in the Bible: 1 Kings 3:1-28 1 Kings 6:1-38 1 Kings 8:1-66 1 Kings 10:1-13 1 Kings 11:1-13 2 Chronicles 3:1 Matthew 12:42

Solomon was David's son and Israel's third king, ruling about 970 to 930 BC. When God offered him anything he wanted, he asked for wisdom, and God made him the wisest and richest king of his age. In his fourth year, about 966 BC, he began building the first temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, and when it was finished the glory of God filled it. Solomon is linked to Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. But late in life his hundreds of foreign wives turned his heart to other gods, and his kingdom split in two after his death. He shows that a great start does not guarantee a great finish.

How Did Solomon Become King?

Solomon was not the oldest son. As David grew old, his son Adonijah threw himself a coronation party. The prophet Nathan and Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, reminded David that he had promised the throne to Solomon. David had Solomon anointed king right away, 1 Kings 1. Before he died, David told his son to walk in God's ways and keep His commands, 1 Kings 2:2 to 3.

Why Did Solomon Ask for Wisdom?

One night at Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!” 1 Kings 3:5

That is the ultimate blank check. Solomon, still young, felt overwhelmed by the job.

Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?” 1 Kings 3:9

God was pleased. Because Solomon did not ask for long life, money or the death of his enemies, God gave him wisdom and threw in what he did not ask for.

Moreover, I will give you what you did not request … so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal. 1 Kings 3:13

What he did not request was riches and honor, and he got plenty of both.

Right after that, two women came to him, each claiming the same baby. Solomon called for a sword and ordered the baby cut in half. The real mother cried out to give the child to the other woman rather than see him die. Solomon knew at once who the mother was, 1 Kings 3:16 to 28. The whole nation stood in awe.

Did Solomon Write Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon?

Solomon composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five. 1 Kings 4:32

Proverbs is mostly Solomon's, 1:1, 10:1 and 25:1, with sayings from other wise men too. King Hezekiah's men copied more of his proverbs about 700 BC.
Ecclesiastes is by the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem. Tradition says Solomon wrote it late in life, about 950 to 930 BC. Many scholars think a later writer spoke in his voice, about 450 to 250 BC.
Song of Solomon is traditionally his, about 970 to 930 BC. The Hebrew title can mean by, for or about Solomon, and many scholars date it later.

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7

When Was Solomon's Temple Built?

The Bible gives a very specific date.

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the house of Yahweh. 1 Kings 6:1

Using the widely accepted chronology worked out by Edwin Thiele, the kingdom split in about 931 BC. Counting back forty years for Solomon's reign puts his fourth year about 966 BC. This verse is also why many date the Exodus to about 1446 BC. Those who prefer the later Exodus date read the 480 years as a round number for twelve generations. The temple took seven years to finish, 1 Kings 6:38.

Where Was the First Temple?

Then Solomon began to build the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where Yahweh had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 Chronicles 3:1

Mount Moriah is where Abraham went to offer Isaac about a thousand years earlier, Genesis 22:2, and where God provided a ram in Isaac's place. It is also the threshing floor David bought after a plague, where God stopped the angel of judgment, 2 Samuel 24. Today it is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

King Hiram of Tyre sent cedar from Lebanon and skilled workers. The stones were finished at the quarry, so no hammer or chisel was heard at the building site, 1 Kings 6:7. The temple followed the same basic pattern as the tabernacle, with a Holy Place and a Most Holy Place, only bigger and covered with gold. The ark was carried into the inner room.

And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of Yahweh so that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh. 1 Kings 8:10 to 11

Solomon's prayer of dedication shows he knew no building could hold God.

But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built. 1 Kings 8:27

This temple stood for about four hundred years, until the Babylonians destroyed it in 586 BC.

Who Was the Queen of Sheba?

Solomon's fame spread so far that the queen of Sheba traveled to test him with hard questions, 1 Kings 10. She came with camels loaded with spices, gold and jewels, and left amazed. Not even half was told to me, she said, 1 Kings 10:7. Sheba was likely in southern Arabia, in modern Yemen, though some place it in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church treasures a later book called the Kebra Nagast, written in its present form around the 1300s AD, which says she and Solomon had a son, Menelik, who became Ethiopia's first king. The Bible itself says only that Solomon gave her all she desired, 1 Kings 10:13, and does not mention a child.

Why Did Solomon Turn Away From God?

Solomon's wisdom did not protect him from his own choices. Many of his marriages sealed treaties with other nations, starting with Pharaoh's daughter, 1 Kings 3:1. God's law had warned kings not to multiply wives, horses or gold, Deuteronomy 17:16 to 17. Solomon did all three.

He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines … and his wives turned his heart away. 1 Kings 11:3

He built shrines for their gods on a hill east of Jerusalem, including Chemosh of Moab and Molech of Ammon, 1 Kings 11:7. God told him the kingdom would be torn away, but for David's sake not in his lifetime, and one tribe would stay with his son. Solomon reigned forty years and died about 930 BC.

How Solomon Points to Jesus

Jesus pointed to Solomon and then pointed past him.

The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here. Matthew 12:42

Solomon was the son of David who built God's house. Jesus is the greater Son of David, and He said His own body was the true temple, John 2:19 to 21. Solomon's wisdom could not keep his own heart. Jesus is the wisdom of God, 1 Corinthians 1:24, and He gives us a new heart. And the place where Abraham offered his son and where Solomon's temple stood is not far from the hill where God would one day offer His own Son.

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Questions People Ask

Why did Solomon ask God for wisdom?

When God told Solomon in a dream to ask for anything, Solomon asked for an understanding heart to govern God's people well, 1 Kings 3:9. God was pleased and also gave him riches and honor he did not ask for.

When was Solomon's temple built?

1 Kings 6:1 says Solomon began building in his fourth year, 480 years after the Exodus. Using Edwin Thiele's widely accepted chronology, that was about 966 BC. It took seven years to finish.

Where was Solomon's temple?

On Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, at the threshing floor David bought from Ornan the Jebusite, 2 Chronicles 3:1. It is the same area where Abraham offered Isaac, today called the Temple Mount.

How many wives did Solomon have?

1 Kings 11:3 says he had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines. Many were foreign princesses, and they turned his heart to other gods.

Who was the Queen of Sheba?

She was a ruler who traveled to Jerusalem to test Solomon's wisdom, 1 Kings 10. Sheba was likely in southern Arabia, though Ethiopian tradition in the much later Kebra Nagast places her in Ethiopia and says she bore Solomon a son, Menelik.

Sources

Edwin R. Thiele, Wikipedia

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