Solomon's wives

1 Kings 11:1-8 - King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

Solomon ruled for 40 years. He had 700 wives of royal birth. I wonder if he had to have an official wedding ceremony for each one. If he started getting these wives at the very beginning of his reign and continued adding on right up to the end of his life (doubtful, since it seems he already had 700 sooner than that), that would mean on average a wedding ceremony about every 3 weeks! Perhaps he doubled up on some of them or some didn't require an official ceremony. Then again, some probably involved celebrations lasting a week or more. And, as I suggested above, this probably wasn't going on all 40 years of his reign from Day 1 to his death. If not, that ups the average frequency even more. It's a wonder he had time to do much else. And yet we know he did supervise the building of the Temple and 2 palaces which took many years to complete.