When does it all start to go wrong for Solomon?

Question

1 Kings Chapter 10 broadly seems to detail the fulfillment of God's promise to Solomon from Chapter 3:

¹³I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. _ESV

The narrative tone changes abruptly in chapter 11, from the first verse onwards things seem to be on a downward trajectory:

¹Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, ²from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. ³He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. ⁴For 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. _ESV

my question is whether the original audience would have seen this as 'chapter 10 good, chapter 11 bad', or whether the end of chapter 10 would already have begun to ring loud alarm bells, especially verse 26 onwards:

²⁶And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁷And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. ²⁸And Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king's traders received them from Kue at a price. ²⁹A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so through the king's traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria. _ESV

bearing in mind the injunctions about Kings in Deuteronomy 17:

¹⁶Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ ¹⁷And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. _ESV

Answer 1

The change is even more gradual than that. The narrative is intended to show Solomon very slowly becoming corrupted due to his power and wealth.

For example: at the end of 1 Kings 6 it says he took 7 years to build God's temple (Heb: 'Beth'), and in the next verse (1 Kings 7:1) it says he took 14 years to beuild his own house (Heb: 'Beth'). So he already considers himself twice as important as God. Later on in 1 Kings 10:14 it says he had Solomon got 666 talents of gold, which as we know is a number signifying danger.

Professor Iain Provan did some in-depth research on the narrative structure of 1 Kings 1-11 for his PhD, and examined many of the implied literar cues and signals that are harder to pick up for people not raised in ancient Hebrew culture. I would recommend doing further research on the gradual decline of Solomon's wisdom by looking at Provan's essay, "Why Barzillai of Gilead?" which looks at some of the earlier problems even with how David hands over the kingdom to him.

Answer 2

Since the ten tribes complained about Solomon's "forced labour" policy when he died (1 Kings ch12 v4), the problem seems to begin with ch9 vv15-22, which describes the forced labour used for the building of the temple. Admittedly v22 says that the Israelites themselves were exempt, but they would not have complained so bitterly to Rehoboam if this exemption had lasted for the entire reign.