In this first part of 1 Kings, we witness the rise to the throne of King Solomon, David's son, and the pinnacle of the splendor of the kingdom of Israel: the construction of the magnificent Temple of Jerusalem and the unmatched wisdom God granted him. However, we also witness how Solomon's heart drifted away from God because of his many foreign wives, sowing the seeds of the kingdom's future division.
The book of 1 Kings was probably compiled during the Babylonian exile, around the 6th century BC, and Jewish tradition attributes its authorship to the prophet Jeremiah, though it draws on various historical sources of the kingdom. Chapters 1 through 11 span roughly 970 to 930 BC, covering Solomon's roughly forty-year reign. A curious fact: the Queen of Sheba traveled from southern Arabia — or possibly Ethiopia — to personally verify Solomon's legendary wisdom, and was so amazed that she gave him more than four tons of gold. Solomon's Temple took seven years to build and became the spiritual heart of the whole nation of Israel for centuries.