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King Solomon was famous for his wisdom and, among other things, his many marital and extramarital relationships. His harem is numbered at 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3)—surely an exaggeration. According to 1 Kings 11, he also took foreign wives, some of whom, claim the biblical writers, led him to idolatry.
It is not remarkable that Solomon should ally himself with queens from the lands around him. Such had been royal policy for many kings throughout ancient Near Eastern history. Yet what was remarkable was for Solomon to have married into the Egyptian royal family (1 Kings 3:1).
What was so exceptional about it? Take as an example this exchange found in one of the Amarna Letters (c. 14th century BCE), written by the Babylonian king Kadashman-Enlil II to the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, more than three centuries before the time of Solomon: “When I wrote to you about marrying your daughter, in accordance with your practice of not giving (a daughter), you wrote to me, ‘From time immemorial no daughter of the king of Egypt is given to anyone.’”1
According to biblical scholar Abraham Malamat, there is only one other possible example of an Egyptian princess being given to a foreign ruler—to King Nikmad of Ugarit, according to an Ugaritic document depicting the marriage. However, Malamat concludes that the king probably did not marry an actual daughter of the pharaoh but rather a member of the royal harem.2
The marriage alliance of Solomon and Egypt, therefore, was truly an exception. But did it actually happen, or was the claim simply an empty boast by the biblical writer? Let’s take a look at the biblical text and the evidence from archaeology.
First Kings 3 begins, “Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt; he took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David, until he finished building his palace and the house of Yahweh and the wall around Jerusalem.” Although the writer seems more interested in Solomon’s building projects than the Egyptian alliance, the reference to Pharaoh has a touch of what one might call realpolitik. The references to Solomon’s signature building projects make it look like something other than empty boasting about a fabulous bride, since building the Temple, for instance, overshadows the brilliant match.
Fast forward to 1 Kings 9:24: “But Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her; then he built the Millo.” Again, the text mentions Pharaoh’s daughter mainly in terms of Solomon’s building projects. Alas, no one has identified the palace Solomon built for his Egyptian wife, but some scholars identify the Millo with the so-called Stepped Stone Structure in Jerusalem, while others believe it may refer to the ancient fortifications around the Gihon Spring.
Now back up just a bit to 1 Kings 9:15–16: “This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the house of Yahweh and his own house, the Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, (and) Gezer. Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it down, had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.”
At the site of Gezer in the Judean foothills, archaeologists have indeed found city walls and a gate that date to the tenth century BCE, the time of Solomon. The dating is supported by the biblical text, as well as more recent radiocarbon evidence.3 It seems probable, therefore, that Solomon rebuilt and refortified the Canaanite city gifted to him by Pharaoh, just as the Bible suggests.
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Which pharaoh was Solomon’s father-in-law? Since the text does not name him, it is not clear, but scholars think it was Pharaoh Siamun of the 21st Dynasty, or less probably, his successor, Psusennes II. We also are not given the name of Pharaoh’s daughter.
Why the Egyptian king chose to ally himself with Solomon is a matter of speculation. Since it happened early in Solomon’s reign, it may indicate that his father David had a successful reign, as the Book of Samuel claims. Egypt certainly had to deal with the fact that it no longer had an empire in the Levant. As a result, it may have been more willing to ally itself with Solomon. Upon Solomon’s death, however, Pharaoh Shoshenq I (biblical Shishak), who founded the 22nd Dynasty, flexed Egyptian muscle and devastated Gezer and several other southern Levantine towns in his famous campaign, which is attested in both Egyptian records and the biblical text (1 Kings 14:25–26). The alliance between Solomon and Egypt was clearly short lived.
In conclusion, the biblical allusion to Pharaoh’s daughter as Solomon’s wife seems not to be an idle boast. Given 1 Kings 11, where foreign wives are the instrument of Solomon’s downfall, this is not altogether surprising. Different biblical books have differing agendas. In fact, the much later Book of Chronicles, which seeks only to glorify Solomon, omits any mention of Solomon’s downfall in the Book of Kings. Indeed, the Chronicler’s only mention of Pharaoh’s daughter uses her to show Solomon’s piety: “Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter from the city of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, ‘My wife shall not live in the house of King David of Israel, for the places to which the ark of Yahweh has come are holy’” (2 Chronicles 8:11).
Whereas the Book of Kings uses Solomon’s foreign wives to decry him as an idolater, Chronicles uses Pharaoh’s daughter as an occasion to boast of Solomon’s piety. That’s boasting, biblical style!
King Solomon was famous for his wisdom and, among other things, his many marital and extramarital relationships. His harem is numbered at 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3)—surely an exaggeration. According to 1 Kings 11, he also took foreign wives, some of whom, claim the biblical writers, led him to idolatry. It is not remarkable that Solomon should ally himself with queens from the lands around him. Such had been royal policy for many kings throughout ancient Near Eastern history. Yet what was remarkable was for Solomon to have married into the Egyptian royal family (1 Kings 3:1). […]
