Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. And they destroyed him. That is the blunt verdict of Josephus, who watched the wisest king in Israel's history slide into idolatry because he could not say no to the women he loved.
It started with foreign marriages—Sidonian women, Tyrian women, Ammonites, Edomites—all forbidden by the Torah of Moses (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). Solomon worshipped their gods to please them. As his mind weakened with age, he could no longer recall the devotion that had defined his youth. God had appeared to him twice in dreams, urging him to follow the example of his father David. He ignored both warnings.
A prophet came and delivered the sentence: the kingdom would be torn apart. Not during Solomon's lifetime—God honored His promise to David—but under his son. Ten tribes would be ripped away and given to a servant. Only two would remain for David's grandson, preserved for the sake of Jerusalem and its Temple.
God then raised enemies. Hadad, a surviving prince of the Edomite royal line, had fled to Egypt as a child when Joab slaughtered every fighting man in Edom. Pharaoh raised Hadad like a son and gave him his wife's sister in marriage. When Hadad heard that both David and Joab were dead, he returned and began raiding Israel from Syria alongside a warlord named Rezon.
Meanwhile, Solomon's own officer Jeroboam—a young man of fierce ambition whom Solomon had put in charge of fortification works—met the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh on the road outside Jerusalem. Ahijah tore his garment into twelve pieces and gave Jeroboam ten, telling him God would hand him ten tribes because Solomon had abandoned the covenant. When Solomon learned of the prophecy, he tried to kill Jeroboam, who fled to Egypt and waited.
Solomon died at ninety-four, having reigned eighty years. His son Rehoboam inherited the throne—and immediately bungled it. The people begged for lighter burdens. Rehoboam's elder advisors counseled mercy. His young friends told him to threaten scorpions. He chose the young friends. Ten tribes seceded on the spot, stoned Rehoboam's tax collector to death, and crowned Jeroboam as their king. The united kingdom of Israel was finished.