Verse 5
5. Went after This expression seems to show that Solomon was actually guilty of idolatry. Compare Deuteronomy 11:28; Deuteronomy 13:2; Deuteronomy 28:14. Yet the exact extent to which he went into idolatry is left uncertain. He probably never so far apostatized as to forget Jehovah, and neglect the ordinary service of the temple.
Ashtoreth See on Judges 2:13.
Milcom Called also Molech, (1 Kings 11:7;) and Moloch. Amos 5:26. The fire god of the Ammonites, an abomination, particularly in that he was worshipped by the offering of human sacrifices. See on Leviticus 18:21.
Some have distinguished Milcom and Molech as two different deities, chiefly because of the difference in the names and because they seem, in 2 Kings 23:10; 2 Kings 23:13, to have been worshipped at two different places, the Mount of Olives and the Valley of Hinnom. But the similarity of the names, both from the same Hebrews root, ( מלכם מלךְ ,) is a stronger argument for their identity than the slight difference is for the contrary; and the same idol may have been worshipped in two different places near Jerusalem.
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