The Divided Kingdom Bible Story from 1 Kings 1-6; 11-12

Jul 15, 2026

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A Bible story covering the transition from King David to Solomon and the rise of Solomon’s wisdom and wealth. It describes Solomon’s construction of the Temple in Jerusalem and God’s presence with the people. The narrative then shifts to Solomon’s disobedience through foreign marriages and worship of other gods, leading to God’s anger. As punishment, God promises to divide Israel into two kingdoms after Solomon’s death.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

Solomon’s Rule and Wisdom

Building the Temple

Disobedience and Consequences

The Division of Israel

18. The Divided Kingdom A Bible story from 1 Kings 1-6; 11-12 English Spiritual 18. The Divided Kingdom Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community. Illustrations are © Sweet Publishing. English Copyright © 2015, unfolding Word | Open Bible Stories [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) You are free to make commercial use of this work. You may adapt and add to this work, but you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. You must keep the copyright and credits for authors, illustrators, etc. This work is a derivative of "Creative Commons Open Bible Stories" attributed to [unfoldingWord.org](unfoldingWord.org) used under CC BY SA 4.0. All included images originate from “Bible Images from Sweet Publishing” attributed to Sweet Publishing used under CC BY SA 3.0. After many years, David died, and his son Solomon began to rule over Israel. God spoke to Solomon and asked him what he wanted most. When Solomon asked for wisdom, God was pleased and made him the wisest man in the world. Solomon learned many things and was a very wise judge. God also made him very wealthy. In Jerusalem, Solomon built the Temple for which his father David had planned and gathered materials. People now worshiped God and offered sacrifices to him at the Temple instead of at the Tent of Meeting. God came and was present in the Temple, and he lived there with his people. But Solomon loved women from other countries. He disobeyed God by marrying many women, almost 1,000 of them! Many of these women came from foreign countries and brought their gods with them and continued to worship them. When Solomon was old, he also worshiped their gods. God was angry with Solomon and, as a punishment for Solomon’s unfaithfulness, he promised to divide the nation of Israel into two kingdoms after Solomon’s death. After Solomon died, his son, Rehoboam, became king. Rehoboam was a foolish man. All the people of the nation of Israel came together to confirm him as king. They complained to Rehoboam that Solomon had made them do a lot of hard work and pay a lot of taxes. Rehoboam foolishly answered them,“You thought my father Solomon made you work hard, but I will make you work harder than he did, and I will punish you more harshly than he did.”

FAQs

What did God ask Solomon for when Solomon began to rule?

God spoke to Solomon and asked what he wanted most. When Solomon asked for wisdom, God was pleased and made him the wisest man in the world.

Why did God promise to divide Israel after Solomon’s death?

Solomon disobeyed God by marrying many women from other countries and worshiping their gods. Because of his unfaithfulness, God promised to divide Israel into two kingdoms after he died.

How did Rehoboam respond to the people’s complaints?

The people said Solomon had made them work hard and pay many taxes. Rehoboam answered foolishly that he would make them work even harder and punish them more harshly than Solomon did.

Jul 15, 2026

Upload by Anda