Solomon's Age - Page 3

  • However, the article “Child’s Age”[1] indicates the word translated as “child” can be applied to a male as old as 45 years old.
  • The Expositor’s Bible Commentary states, “The term “little child,” or young lad, relates both to his relative youth and to his inexperience in government.[2]
  • The phrase “inexperienced” and “not know how to go out or come in” does not require that Solomon be chronologically young, but only not experienced in the role of being a king.
  • The Faithlife Study Bible states, “”I am a young boy: A rhetorical phrase expressing inexperience and humility[3]”
  • The International Theological Commentary states, “Solomon was not a “little child” chronologically. Nor is Solomon’s behavior in chapter 2 that of a child. “Little child” in this context is the language of humility expressing Solomon’s sense of his inexperience and dependence. To go out and to come in” refers to life beyond the doors of one’s household and the city gate in the discharge of one’s duties (Deuteronomy 31:2; 1 Samuel 18:16). In Solomon’s case this idiom expresses his inexperience and incompetence in the duties and responsibilities of a king.[4]”
  • The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary states, “He [Solomon] felt himself a mere “child” in matters of royal responsibility and national government[5]”
  • The Thru the Bible Commentary states, “He considered himself “a little child” in experience. He felt incapable of governing this great nation[6]”
  • The Wycliffe Bible Commentary states, “In relation to the magnitude of the task, he felt his own immaturity.[7]”

 

PROVE YOURSELF A MAN

“Now the days of David drew near that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying: ‘I go the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man.’” (1 Kings 2:1-2 NKJV)

  • Some may think that the encouragement to “prove yourself a man” indicates that Solomon was not yet a man, and needed to prove that he was mature enough to be considered as a man.
  • Yet the encouragement by David actually indicates that Solomon had already reached the age of manhood, but must demonstrate the behavior of a man.

 

HIS MOTHER REPRESENTED HIM TO KING DAVID

“So Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, ‘Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king, and David our lord does not know it? Come, please, let me now give you advice, that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. Go immediately to King David and say to him, 'Did you not, my lord, O king, swear to your maidservant, saying, ‘Assuredly your son Solomon shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne?’” (1 Kings 1:11-13 NKJV)

  • Some may think that Bathsheba’s intercession for Solomon indicates that Solomon had not yet reached the status of an adult and needed his mother to speak on his behalf.
  • Yet it was Bathsheba to whom the king first made the promise regarding Solomon, and it was to Bathsheba that the promise needed to be reinforced.

 

SUGGESTIONS SOLOMON BECAME KING AFTER 20

The suggestions that Solomon became king before age 20 are not solid enough to exclude Solomon becoming king after age 20. Furthermore, there are many reasons to indicate that Solomon was at least 20 when he became king.

 

SOLOMON HAD A SON BEFORE BECOMING KING

“Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem” (1 Kings 14:21 ESV)

“So King Rehoboam grew strong in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 12:13 ESV)

Solomon had his son Rehoboam one year prior to ascending to the throne:

  • The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges states, “Rehoboam was forty and one years old] As Solomon’s reign lasted forty years ([1 Kings] 11:42), this son must have been born a year or more before his father came to the throne, and Solomon must have married this Ammonitish wife, Naamah, before Pharaoh’s daughter.”[8]
  • The Evangelical Commentary on the Bible states, “His mother, Naamah, was an Ammonite whom Solomon had married before he began his forty-year reign.[9]
  • The Keil and Delitzsch Commentary states, “Rehoboam, who ascended the throne at the age of forty-one, was born a year before the accession of Solomon (see at 1 Kings 2:24)[10]
  • The KJV Bible Commentary states, “Comparing his age (forty-one years) and the length of his father’s reign (forty years, 11:42), it becomes apparent that Solomon had engaged in foreign marriages prior to his becoming king.”[11]
  • Matthew Poole’s Commentary states, “Rehoboam was forty and one years old; therefore he was born a year before Solomon was king, as appears from 1 Kings 11:42.”[12]
  • Warren Wiersbe states, “According to 1 Kings 14:21, Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign. (Some question that a man forty-one years old could be called “young and indecisive” (2 Chron. 13:7), but age and maturity are two different things … Since Solomon reigned for forty years (11:42), this means that Rehoboam was born before Solomon became king.”[13]
  • John Wesley states, “Forty one years—Therefore he was born a year before Solomon was king, as appears from chap. 11:42 this is noted as an aggravation of Rehoboam’s folly, that he was old enough to have been wiser.[14]”

Some have thought the age of Rehoboam when he ascended the throne to be a copyist error. Yet the same “copyist error” would have been needed in both 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. The article “Fathers at Impossible Ages”[15] describes Ahaz, who became the father of Hezekiah at age 11[16], and Josiah, who became a father to his oldest son at age 14[17]

 

SOLOMON CALLED “OLD” WHEN HE DIED

“For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.” (1 Kings 11:4 ESV) “Solomon ruled over all Israel from Jerusalem for forty years.” (1 Kings 11:42 NET)