Quick Facts
Hebrew:
Shlomo
Flourished:
c.975 BCE - c.926 BCE

Solomon was renowned as a sage. When two women each claimed to be the mother of the same baby, he determined the real mother by observing each woman’s reaction to the prospect of dividing the child into two halves; he acknowledged the woman who protested as the mother. Solomon was deemed wiser than all the sages of Egypt and the Middle East—even wiser than some ancient paragons of wisdom. The biblical Book of Proverbs contains collections of aphorisms and other wise teachings attributed to him. Like his father, Solomon was also revered as a poet. The biblical Song of Solomon is attributed to him—albeit spuriously and likely because of his posthumous fame—in the opening verse. His reputation as a great lover, reflected in the size of his harem, is appropriately a major theme in the Song of Solomon. Postbiblical tradition attributed later works to him: the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon, on the one hand, and the Odes of Solomon and Psalms of Solomon, on the other, are tributes to him as sage and poet.

Decline of the kingdom

The biblical account of his reign states that Solomon’s personal prestige and genius were required to perpetuate the powerful nation he had acquired from his father and then further strengthened. It is suspected that the increase in Israel’s wealth was matched by an increase in extravagance and that the wealth was not diffused to the people. It is also considered possible that Solomon’s treatment of the northern tribes showed favouritism to his own tribe of Judah. Solomon’s son and successor, Rehoboam, ill-advisedly adopted a harsh policy toward the northern tribes, which seceded and formed their own kingdom of Israel. This left the descendants of Solomon with the southern kingdom of Judah. Thus, Solomon’s empire was lost beyond recall, and even the homeland was split into two often-hostile kingdoms.

Cyrus H. Gordon The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Quick Facts
Date:
1020 BCE - 721
Key People:
Samuel
David
Saul
Solomon
Ahab

Israel, either of two political units in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament): the united kingdom of Israel under the kings Saul, David, and Solomon, which lasted from about 1020 to 922 bce; or the northern kingdom of Israel, including the territories of the 10 northern tribes (i.e., all except Judah and part of Benjamin), which was established in 922 bce as the result of a revolt led by Jeroboam I. The southern kingdom, ruled by the Davidic dynasty, was thereafter referred to as Judah. The later kingdom’s history was one of dynastic instability, with only two prolonged periods of stable government, under Omri (reigned 876–869 or c. 884–c. 872 bce) and Ahab (c. 874–c. 853 bce) and the Jehu dynasty (c. 842–746 bce). In the 8th century bce the northern kingdom was overrun by the Neo-Assyrian empire, with Samaria, the capital, falling in 722/721.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Zeidan.