How many wives did Solomon have?
Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, 1,000 women in all. 1 Kings 11:3 says "he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart." The Bible names only one of the wives, Naamah the Ammonitess, and calls another "the daughter of Pharaoh" without a name.
Updated October 25, 2026. Every verse on this page is checked against the King James Version, and the key verse against the World English Bible too. Word counts cover the full text of both.
The verse: 1 Kings 11:3
The number comes from a single verse, the only place the Bible counts Solomon's wives. Both translations give the same figures.
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. (1 Kings 11:3, KJV)
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. (1 Kings 11:3, WEB)
The verse sets the two groups apart: the concubines were secondary wives, ranked below the wives. "Princesses" marks the 700 as women of rank. The one marriage the Bible describes was a treaty: Solomon "made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt" (1 Kings 3:1). The phrase "seven hundred wives" appears once in the Bible, in this verse.
Who were Solomon's wives?
1 Kings 11:1 names where they came from, not who they were: "the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites".
Pharaoh's daughter
The first marriage the Bible tells of, an alliance with Egypt made after Solomon took the throne. Her name is never given. Pharaoh gave the city of Gezer to her as a present, and Solomon built her a house of her own.
1 Kings 3:1; 1 Kings 9:16; 1 Kings 7:8
Naamah the Ammonitess
The mother of Rehoboam, the son who became king after Solomon. She is the only wife of Solomon the Bible names.
1 Kings 14:21; 2 Chronicles 12:13
The nations named are Egypt (Pharaoh's daughter), Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon (Zidonians) and the Hittites. The Bible also names two of Solomon's daughters, Taphath and Basmath, each married to one of his officers (1 Kings 4:11, 4:15). It names one son, Rehoboam, who "reigned in his stead" (1 Kings 11:43). Rehoboam was 41 when he became king (1 Kings 14:21), after Solomon's 40 years on the throne (1 Kings 11:42), so his mother Naamah was married to Solomon before he was king. The marriage to Pharaoh's daughter comes after he took the throne (1 Kings 2:12, 3:1).
The gods his wives brought
1 Kings 11:4 says that when Solomon was old his wives turned his heart "after other gods". Verses 5 to 7 give four names.
| God | Of | Verse |
|---|---|---|
| Ashtoreth | the Zidonians | 1 Kings 11:5 |
| Milcom | the Ammonites | 1 Kings 11:5 |
| Chemosh | Moab | 1 Kings 11:7 |
| Molech | the children of Ammon | 1 Kings 11:7 |
Milcom and Molech are both tied to the Ammonites (verses 5 and 7), and when the prophet Ahijah lists the gods Israel turned to, he names three: "Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon" (1 Kings 11:33). Milcom and Molech may be one god under two names.
He did the same "for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods" (1 Kings 11:8). The next verse says "the LORD was angry with Solomon", and God tells him "I will surely rend the kingdom from thee", though not in his own lifetime (1 Kings 11:11-12). Centuries later Nehemiah used him as the warning: "Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? ... even him did outlandish women cause to sin" (Nehemiah 13:26).
What about Song of Solomon 6:8?
Song of Solomon 6:8 gives different numbers: "There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number." That is 60 queens and 80 concubines. The verse is poetry, set in a love song, and does not say it is counting Solomon's household at any one time. 1 Kings 11:3 is the verse that gives his total, and the next verse places it "when Solomon was old".
Who else in the Bible had more than one wife?
Solomon's 700 is far beyond anyone else. His son Rehoboam is next, with 18 wives and 60 concubines.
| Man | Wives | Concubines | Verse |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solomon | 700 | 300 | 1 Kings 11:3 |
| Rehoboam | 18 | 60 | 2 Chronicles 11:21 |
| Abijah | 14 | 2 Chronicles 13:21 | |
| David | 8named; 2 Samuel 5:13 adds "more" | 10at least | 2 Samuel 15:16 |
| Jacob | 4Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilpah | Genesis 30:4 | |
| Abraham | 3Sarah, Hagar, Keturah | Genesis 25:1 | |
| Esau | 3Adah, Aholibamah, Bashemath | Genesis 36:2-3 | |
| Lamech | 2 | Genesis 4:19 | |
| Elkanah | 2 | 1 Samuel 1:2 | |
| Joash | 2 | 2 Chronicles 24:3 | |
| Ashur | 2Helah, Naarah | 1 Chronicles 4:5 | |
| Gideon | many70 sons (Judges 8:30) | 1 | Judges 8:30-31 |
David's eight named wives are Michal, Ahinoam, Abigail, Maacah, Haggith, Abital, Eglah and Bathsheba (1 Samuel 18:27; 2 Samuel 3:2; 2 Samuel 3:3; 2 Samuel 3:3; 2 Samuel 3:4; 2 Samuel 3:4; 2 Samuel 3:5; 2 Samuel 11:27). His ten concubines are the ones he left to keep the house when he fled Jerusalem (2 Samuel 15:16). The first man in the Bible with two wives is Lamech, in Genesis 4:19. The Law's rule for kings is Deuteronomy 17:17: "Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away."
The table lists every man the Bible gives a number of wives for, plus the best-known men with more than one wife named: Abraham, Jacob, Esau and David. The genealogies of 1 Chronicles name a few more, such as Shaharaim, whose wives were Hushim, Baara and Hodesh (1 Chronicles 8:8-9). A blank concubine cell means no number is given: Genesis 25:6 mentions "the concubines, which Abraham had" without counting them. "Wives" appears 133 times in the King James Version, and "concubine" or "concubines" 39 times in both translations.
Questions about Solomon's wives
How many wives and concubines did Solomon have?
700 wives and 300 concubines, according to 1 Kings 11:3. The wives are called "princesses", women of royal birth, many of them from marriages with other nations.
Who was Solomon's first wife?
Probably Naamah the Ammonitess, the mother of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was 41 when he began to reign (1 Kings 14:21) and Solomon reigned 40 years (1 Kings 11:42), so Rehoboam was born before Solomon became king. The first marriage the Bible tells of is later, to Pharaoh's daughter: Solomon "made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter" (1 Kings 3:1). Her name is never given, and Naamah is the only wife of Solomon the Bible names.
Why did Solomon have so many wives?
The Bible does not give a reason. It says he "loved many strange women" from Egypt, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon and the Hittites (1 Kings 11:1), nations Israel had been told not to marry into (1 Kings 11:2). Deuteronomy 17:17 had warned that a king should not "multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away".
Did Solomon's wives turn him away from God?
Yes, by the Bible's account: "when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods" (1 Kings 11:4). He built places of worship for Chemosh of Moab and Molech of Ammon (1 Kings 11:7), and "the LORD was angry with Solomon" (1 Kings 11:9).
Who had the most wives in the Bible?
Solomon, with 700. Next is his son Rehoboam, with 18 wives and 60 concubines (2 Chronicles 11:21). David has eight wives named across 1 and 2 Samuel.
Sources
- The King James Version (1769) and the World English Bible, both public domain: every verse quoted and every count on this page, counted by scripts/lists/how-many-wives-did-solomon-have.mjs from the text at github.com/seven1m/open-bibles (read and counted 2026-10-25).
Read about 1 Kings, where Solomon's reign is told, and the Song of Solomon. The women the Bible does name are on the women of the Bible. Word counts: Solomon, wife and David. More counts are on the Bible by the numbers.
Counted by Bible Says About from the full public-domain text of the King James Version (1769 edition) and the World English Bible. Verse text only: headings and psalm titles are left out. A word is a run of letters: a hyphenated name like Beer-sheba counts as two, and an apostrophe stays inside its word (LORD'S is one). Matching ignores capital letters. Data compiled 2026-10-25.