Solomon allowed archaeologists to date its kings in a modern framework. According to the most widely used chronology, based on that by Old Testament professor Edwin R. Thiele, the death of Solomon and the division of his kingdom would have occurred in the spring of 931 BCE. Solomon was born in Jerusalem, the second born child of David and his wife Bathsheba, widow of Uriah the Hittite. The first child (unnamed in that account), a son conceived adulterously during Uriah's lifetime, had died as a punishment on account of the death of Uriah by David's order. Solomon had three named full
Uriah the Hittite status as one of David's mighty men, British rabbi Jonathan Magonet observes that Uriah refers to Joab, not David, as 'my lord (or commander)' (2 Samuel 11:11). Joab is, Magonet notes, a kingmaker who dispatches ruthlessly his own military rivals, Abner and Amasa. He is sufficiently powerful that David, on his deathbed, advises Solomon to arrange his death (1 Kings 2:5–6). This prompts Magonet to speculate that David saw some deeper political threat from Joab through his entanglement with Uriah's wife. The prophet Nathan soon after confronted David about this murder, by first telling him a story of a rich