Lesson
Solomon and the Temple
Wisdom is given. The temple is founded in the fourth year, 480 years after the exodus. The heart turns. About 970 to 930 BC, foundation about 966.
October 7, 2026
David is old. Adonijah tries to take the throne. Nathan and Bathsheba go to the king, and Solomon is anointed at Gihon while Adonijah's feast is still going. David charges his son to keep the law, and he dies.
The LORD appears to Solomon in a dream at Gibeon. Ask what I shall give you. Solomon asks for an understanding mind to govern the people, to discern good and evil. The request pleases the LORD. Wisdom is given, and also riches and honor he did not ask for. A condition is named. If you will walk in my ways, as David walked, I will lengthen your days.
He builds the house. The foundation is laid in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon, in the month of Ziv. He overlaid it with gold. The cherubim stand in the inner sanctuary. When the ark is brought in, the glory fills the house so the priests cannot stand to minister. Solomon prays that heaven, not the house, is God's dwelling, and that foreigners will come and pray toward this house. The LORD appears a second time. The promise to David stands if Solomon walks before Him. If he turns to other gods, Israel will be cut off from the land, and the house will become a heap.
The turn
He does turn. Seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turn his heart after other gods. Ashtoreth, Milcom, Chemosh, Molech. He builds high places for them east of Jerusalem. The LORD is angry. He says He will tear the kingdom away, not in Solomon's days, for David's sake, but in his son's days, and not the whole kingdom. One tribe remains. Jeroboam is told by the prophet Ahijah that he will receive ten tribes. Solomon tries to kill him. Jeroboam flees to Egypt, to Shishak, until Solomon dies.
Solomon reigns forty years and sleeps with his fathers. The usual estimate is about 970 to 930 BC. The fourth year, the foundation, is about 966. Those BC numbers are not on a cornerstone. They are counted back from later kings whom Assyria names. The 480 years are the text. How straight to take them is the scroll, and it is also the hinge of the exodus date.
The books of wisdom that carry his name, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song, are not cards on this timeline. They are not a sequence of public events. The temple, the , the wives, and the tearing of the kingdom are.
One verse sets the clock for the whole stretch before him. 1 Kings 6:1 counts "the four hundred and eightieth year" from the exodus to the temple. Read as an exact count, the exodus is about 1446 BC. Read as a round number, it moves later.
This lesson's home is Timeline.