4. As Solomon grew old, his wives caused him to follow other gods. He did not follow the Lord completely as his father David had done.
5. Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the people of Sidon, and Molech, the hated god of the Ammonites.
6. So Solomon did what the Lord said was wrong and did not follow the Lord completely as his father David had done.
7. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built two places for worship. One was a place to worship Chemosh, the hated god of the Moabites, and the other was a place to worship Molech, the hated god of the Ammonites.
8. Solomon did the same thing for all his foreign wives so they could burn incense and offer sacrifices to their gods.
9. The Lord had appeared to Solomon twice, but the king turned away from following the Lord, the God of Israel. The Lord was angry with Solomon,
10. because he had commanded Solomon not to follow other gods. But Solomon did not obey the Lord’s command.
11. So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have chosen to break your agreement with me and have not obeyed my commands, I will tear your kingdom away from you and give it to one of your officers.
12. But I will not take it away while you are alive because of my love for your father David. I will tear it away from your son when he becomes king.
13. I will not tear away all the kingdom from him, but I will leave him one tribe to rule. I will do this because of David, my servant, and because of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen.”
14. The Lord caused Hadad the Edomite, a member of the family of the king of Edom, to become Solomon’s enemy.
15. Earlier, David had defeated Edom. When Joab, the commander of David’s army, went into Edom to bury the dead, he killed all the males.
16. Joab and all the Israelites stayed in Edom for six months and killed every male in Edom.
17. At that time Hadad was only a young boy, so he ran away to Egypt with some of his father’s officers.
18. They left Midian and went to Paran, where they were joined by other men. Then they all went to Egypt to see the king, who gave Hadad a house, some food, and some land.
19. The king liked Hadad so much he gave Hadad a wife—the sister of Tahpenes, the king’s wife.
20. They had a son named Genubath. Queen Tahpenes brought him up in the royal palace with the king’s own children.
21. While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David had died and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead also. So Hadad said to the king, “Let me go; I will return to my own country.”
22. “Why do you want to go back to your own country?” the king asked. “What haven’t I given you here?”“Nothing,” Hadad answered, “but please, let me go.”