Righteous Righteous King Solomon

Righteous King Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, was the third king of the united Kingdom of Israel, ascending the throne around 970 BC at about twelve years old and reigning some forty years. He became renowned for the wisdom he received from God in answer to his humble prayer for an understanding heart to govern his people. He built the First Temple in Jerusalem, fulfilling his father David's desire, and adorned and fortified the capital. He is traditionally credited as author of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, works of biblical wisdom literature.

Yet in his later years, under the influence of his many foreign wives, he turned to idolatry, for which he was condemned by God according to 1 Kings 11. Church tradition, drawing on patristic interpretation (notably St. Filaret of Chernigov), holds that Solomon did not remain without repentance and turned back to God before the end of his life; the book of Ecclesiastes is traditionally read as the fruit of his late repentant reflection on the vanity of earthly things.

He is liturgically commemorated on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers before the Nativity of Christ, among the Old Testament righteous ones who were ancestors of Christ according to the flesh.