And so he did for all his foreign wives: Solomon had shrines built for the worship of Chemosh and Molech, but he did not stop there. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates the first half of this verse as “And he did the same for all his foreign wives.”

Regarding the verbs rendered burned incense and sacrificed, see the comments on 1 Kgs 3.3. These verbs are feminine plural in form and the subject in each case is the foreign wives. Solomon had the shrines built so that his wives could perform the ritual duties required by their gods. The words burned incense and sacrificed are participles in Hebrew. According to the translation in Revised Standard Version, the wives were already burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods. But participles sometimes refer to action in the near future. If that is the case here, then the Good News Translation translation correctly expresses the intended meaning. Either interpretation is possible.

The deuterocanonical book Sirach refers to this aspect of Solomon’s life by stating “You put a stain upon your honor, and defiled your posterity” (Sirach 47.20).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .