1 Kings 11:43

And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:41-43 Solomon's reign was as long as his father's, but his life was not so. Sin shortened his days. If the world, with all its advantages, could satisfy the soul, and afford real joy, Solomon would have found it so. But he was disappointed in all, and to warn us, has left this record of all earthly enjoyments, Vanity and vexation of spirit. The New Testament declares that one greater than Solomon is come to reign over us, and to possess the throne of his father David. May we not see something of Christ's excellency faintly represented to us in this figure?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Josephus gave Solomon a reign of 80 years, either because he wished to increase the glory of his country's greatest king, or through his having a false reading in his copy of the Septuagint Version. It is, no doubt, remarkable that the three successive kings, Saul, David, and Solomon, should have each reigned forty years Acts 13:21; 2 Samuel 5:4-5; but such numerical coincidences occur from time to time in exact history.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

40. Shishak—He harbored and encouraged the rebellious refugee, and was of a different dynasty from the father-in-law of Solomon.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Slept with his fathers: this expression is promiscuously used concerning good and bad, and signifies only that they died as their fathers did. But hence interpreters question, whether Solomon was saved, or damned? That he was damned, some believe upon this only argument, that he died without repentance; which they gather,

1. Because his repentance is not mentioned in his history.

2. Because if he had repented, he would have abolished the monuments of idolatry which he had erected; which that he did not they gather from 2 Kings 23:13, of which (God assisting) I shall speak upon that place. But to the former many things may be said:

1. We read nothing of the repentance of Adam, Noah, after his drunkenness, Lot, Samson, Asa, &c.; shall we therefore conclude they were all damned? The silence of the Scripture is a very weak argument in matters of history.

2. If he did repent, yet the silence of the Scripture about it in this history was not without wise reasons; as, among others, that his eternal condition being thus far left doubtful, his example might have the greater influence for the terror and caution of future offenders.

3. His repentance is sufficiently implied in this, (to omit divers other passages,) that after Solomon’s death the way of Solomon is mentioned with honour, and joined with the way of David, 2 Chronicles 11:17. But it seems to be put out of dispute by the Book of Ecclesiastes, which (by the general consent both of Jewish and Christian interpreters) was written by Solomon, and that after his fall, as is evident, not only from the unanimous testimony of the Hebrew writers, who thence conclude that he did repent, and was saved; but also from the whole strain of that book, which was written long after he had finished all his works, and after he had liberally drunk of all sorts of sensual pleasures, and sadly experienced the bitter effects of his love of women, Ecclesiastes 7:27, &c; which makes it more than probable, that as David wrote Psa 51, so Solomon wrote this book, as a public testimony and profession of his repentance. And this argument is so cogent, that those interpreters who are of the other opinion confess it, if Solomon did write this book after his fall, which they pretend he wrote before it; but they offer not any argument to prove it. And therefore we have reason to conclude that Solomon did repent, and was saved.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Solomon slept with his fathers,.... Died as they did:

and was buried in the city of David his father; not in Bethlehem, but Zion, 1 Kings 2:10.

and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead; of whom more in the following chapter. Though nothing is said of Solomon's repentance, there is no doubt but he was a good man, repented of his sins, and was saved; as may be concluded from the commendations of him after his death, 2 Chronicles 11:17 from the promise of God that he made, that his mercy should not depart from him, though he chastised him, 2 Samuel 7:14 from his being an inspired writer, who were all holy men, 2 Peter 1:20, and especially from his writing the book of Ecclesiastes after his fall, which contains a full acknowledgment of all his evils, a recantation of them, and repentance for them. Abulpharagius (b), an Arabic writer, rashly asserts that he died without repentance.

(b) Hist. Dynast. Dyn. 3. p. 55.

Geneva Study Bible

And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

43. And Solomon slept with his fathers] The LXX. (Vat.) continues ‘and they buried him in the city of David his father,’ and then joins on the words of 1 Kings 12:2 about Jeroboam hearing of Solomon’s death in Egypt, adding, what is not found there, that ‘he made ready and came into his own city, into the land Sarira, which is mount Ephraim.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 43. ? And Solomon slept with his fathers [see note on ch. 2:10. For the later and often mythical accounts of Solomon, see Ewald, 3. pp. 318, 319. The question of his repentance is discussed by Keble, "Occasional Papers," pp. 416-434], and was hurled in the city of David his father; and Rehoboam his son [So far as appears his only son. "Solomon hath but one son, and he no miracle of wisdom." "Many a poor man hath a houseful of children by one wife, whilst this great king hath but one son by any housefuls of wives" (Bp. Hall). It is worth remembering in this connection that Psalm 127, which speaks of children as God's reward (ver. 3), is with good reason ascribed to Solomon] reigned in his stead.



1 Kings 11:43

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Conclusion of the history of Solomon. - Notice of the original works, in which further information can be found concerning his acts and his wisdom (see the Introduction); the length of his reign, viz., forty years; his death, burial, and successor. Solomon did not live to a very great age, since he was not more than twenty years old when he ascended the throne. - Whether Solomon turned to the Lord again with all his heart, a question widely discussed by the older commentators (see Pfeifferi Dubia vex. p. 435; Buddei hist. eccl. ii. p. 273ff.), cannot be ascertained from the Scriptures. If the Preacher Koheleth) is traceable to Solomon so far as the leading thoughts are concerned, we should find in this fact an evidence of his conversion, or at least a proof that at the close of his life Solomon discovered the vanity of all earthly possessions and aims, and declared the fear of God to be the only abiding good, with which a man can stand before the judgment of God.