He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. His wives turned his heart away.
World English Bible
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. His wives turned his heart away.
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
This one is a three-way tangle. The Hebrew Bible narrates polygamy without condemnation across patriarchs, judges, and kings — Abraham, Jacob, Gideon, David, Solomon, Rehoboam all pile up wives.
Critical scholarship: Leans toward reconciliation.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"1 Kings 11:3 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/1-kings/11/3?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).