Like  other  Eastern  despots,  he  freely  indulged  his  passions,
and  in  this  —  if  the  enormous  figures  of  700  wives  and  300
concubines  given  in  III  Kings  xi,  3,  be  admitted  as  correct
(with  which  compare  Canticle  vi,  7)  —  he  even  seems  to


THE    KINGDOM    OF    SOLOMON.  231

have  gone  much  beyond  them  all,  most  likely  with  a  view  to
give  evidence  to  his  contemporaries  of  his  superior  wealth
and  power.  Of  course,  this  sensual  life  of  the  king,  besides
involving  necessarily  his  own  physical  and  spiritual  decay,
remained  a  source  of  constant  scandal  for  his  subjects  at
large,  and  for  the  grandees  of  his  court  in  particular ;  and  as
we  have  already  noticed,  it  betrayed  him  into  connections  by
marriage  with  foreign  nations,  that  is,  into  alliances  con
trary  at  least  to  the  spirit  of  the  law  (III  Kings  xi,  2).
