1 Kings 11:3

3. Seven hundred wives Some have thought by a supposed corruption in the text to reduce the seven hundred to seventy, and the three hundred concubines to eighty, and have referred to Song of Solomon 6:8, as giving support to this conjecture. But all this proceeds from the false idea that an Oriental sovereign has intercourse with all his wives and concubines. The harem of an Eastern monarch is even at the present day looked upon as a sort of state necessity, and the king’s rank and greatness is estimated according to its extent. He multiplies his wives according to his wealth and power, though many of them he never sees at all. Darius Codomannus is said to have taken three hundred and sixty concubines in his camp when he marched against Alexander. So Solomon, wishing to surpass all other kings in the fame of greatness, filled his harem with a thousand women. Among these he had his favourites, who at length turned his heart from God; but the large majority of the thousand he probably never knew personally at all.