מלכים א, פרק י״א, פסוק ז׳

A severe accusation is leveled against King Solomon, suggesting he constructed shrines for idol worship directly across from Jerusalem. Despite this heavy charge, there is a broad consensus that Solomon neither engaged in idol worship himself nor physically built these structures.

The primary approach among commentators is that Solomon's foreign wives were the ones who actually built the altars to serve their own deities. However, because Solomon held the ultimate authority and failed to protest or stop them, he bears the full responsibility. By granting them permission and turning a blind eye, the construction is attributed directly to him as if he had laid the stones himself.

This transfer of blame is reflected in the specific phrasing used to describe the event [אברבנאל]. Rather than using the standard historical past tense to simply state that the king built the altars, a unique verb form is employed. This subtle shift emphasizes that his passive permission was fundamentally equal to him actively building everything his wives constructed.

These shrines were erected on the Mount of Olives and the surrounding areas, which prominently overlook Jerusalem. There, altars for Chemosh and Molech, the idols of Moab and Ammon, were established to accommodate the religious practices of the king's Sidonian and Ammonite wives.