A reading from the book of first kings.

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh,

Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sedonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning

which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, you shall not enter into marriage with them,

neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn

away your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were

princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old,

his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart

was not wholly true to the Lord His God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon

went after Astorat, the goddess of the Sedonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the

Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord,

as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Kimash, the abomination of Moab,

and from Molek the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem,

and so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrifice to their gods.

And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him

twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods,

but he did not keep what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, since this has been

your practice, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you,

I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David,

your father, I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the

sake of David my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen. And the Lord raised up

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