2,163. Samson and Solomon - Part 2

Hilchos Issurei Biah 13:15

The courts didn’t accept converts during the reigns of David and Solomon because people sought to convert out of fear in David’s time, and they were motivated by the prosperity and prominence of Israel in Solomon’s time. A convert motivated by material concerns is not a righteous convert. Nevertheless, many people converted in front of lay people during David and Solomon’s reigns, making the Sanhedrin suspicious of them. Since they immersed, the court didn’t reject them but they wouldn’t embrace them until they saw how they behaved.

Hilchos Issurei Biah 13:16

Solomon and Samson both converted and married non-Jewish women. These women were insincere and their conversions weren’t supervised by the court so the Bible considers them as if they were non-Jewish and therefore prohibited. Additionally, their behavior corroborated their insincerity since they would worship idols and build altars to them. The Bible holds Solomon responsible and considers it as if he built them as per I Kings 11:7, “Solomon built an altar.”