How many wives did Shlomo HaMelech have?

King Solomon (Shlomo HaMelech) had 700 wives and 300 concubines, for a total of 1,000 women in his household. This is stated explicitly in the Book of Kings and is one of the most discussed — and troubling — facts about Solomon's otherwise illustrious reign.

Key Takeaways

The Torah explicitly records 700 princess-wives (sarot) and 300 concubines (pilagshim), totaling 1,000.
Many of these wives were foreign women from nations explicitly forbidden by the Torah, including Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites.
These wives led Solomon to build altars for their gods in his old age, a grave sin that caused the kingdom to be divided after his death.
The Talmud and later commentators debated how the wisest man who ever lived could have fallen so far — and whether he truly sinned or the text requires deeper interpretation.
Ecclesiastes 7:28, likely written by Solomon himself, may obliquely reference this episode.

The Biblical Source

The primary source is I Kings 11:1-3, which states explicitly:

וַיְהִי־ל֣וֹ נָשִׁ֗ים שָׂרוֹת֙ שְׁבַ֣ע מֵא֔וֹת וּפִלַגְשִׁ֖ים שְׁלֹ֣שׁ מֵא֑וֹת וַיַּטּ֥וּ נָשָׁ֖יו אֶת־לִבּֽוֹ׃ "He had seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart."

[I Kings 11:3]

The same passage notes that Solomon "loved many foreign women" from the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites — nations about which God had explicitly warned Israel: "They will surely turn your heart after their gods" [I Kings 11:2].

The Three Violations of Deuteronomy 17

The Torah in Deuteronomy 17:16-17 warns that a Jewish king must not:

Accumulate too many horses
Take too many wives (לֹא יַרְבֶּה-לּוֹ נָשִׁים — "he shall not multiply wives for himself")
Accumulate excessive silver and gold

Solomon violated all three. The Talmud [Sanhedrin 21b] records a remarkable debate: the verse warns that a king should not multiply wives "lest his heart turn away" — and Solomon famously said, "I will multiply wives and my heart will not turn." To which God essentially responded: Solomon will eventually be held accountable, and indeed his heart did turn.

The Consequences

[Radak on I Kings 11:15] explains that the enemies God raised up against Solomon — Hadad the Edomite and Rezon ben Eliada — were divine punishments triggered specifically by the idolatrous practices of Solomon's wives, who built bamot (high places) for their gods.

[Abarbanel on Deuteronomy 27:14] places Solomon's wives in a broader historical pattern, listing them alongside the sin of Peor and the idol of Micah as prime examples of how foreign worship was the "greatest cause of Israel's suffering and destruction."

[Radak on Jeremiah 32:31] adds that from the very day Solomon built the Temple, his foreign wives were already worshipping other gods — suggesting the sin began earlier than most realize.

Solomon's Own Reflection?

[Steinsaltz on Ecclesiastes 7:28] notes a poignant connection: when Solomon writes "one perfect man out of one thousand I have found, but a perfect woman among all these I did not find," this may be a veiled reference to his own experience with his thousand wives and concubines — a moment of painful personal reckoning embedded in his wisdom literature.

How Could the Wisest Man Sin So Greatly?

This question is explicitly raised by the [Shenei Luchot HaBrit (Shelah HaKadosh), Torah Shebikhtav, Shoftim 26], who writes:

"I must confess that I have been troubled for many years by what happened to King Solomon. How is it possible that a man who is described as having been wiser than anyone and beloved of his God, could become so bereft of wisdom when he became old that he is described as having been misled by his wives to follow idols?"

Several approaches exist in the commentators:

Rashi [Sanhedrin 21b] takes the sin literally — Solomon genuinely sinned and is criticized by Scripture.
Ramban and others suggest that Solomon's sin was more passive — he permitted his wives to worship idols rather than actively worshipping himself, but this passivity was itself sinful for a king of his stature.
Malbim [Introduction to Song of Songs] reads the entire Solomonic saga allegorically — Solomon represents the human intellect in battle with the appetitive faculty (physical desire), and his wives represent the pull of material and sensory temptation.

A Note on the Ammonite Connection

Interestingly, [Kehot Chumash on Numbers 21:12] points out that God commanded Israel not to attack Ammon partly because one of Solomon's wives — Naamah the Ammonite, mother of Rehoboam — would descend from them. This shows that even within Solomon's problematic marriages, divine providence was at work threading future history.