Solomon's Return to Egypt in 1 Kings 1-12

My favourite biblical genre is Old Testament narrative, particularly that of Genesis and the books of Kings. Occasionally one comes across an article that demonstrates once again the exquisite literary art and subtlety of the these texts cause you to begin to frame sermons in your mind as you read them. Such an article is that  by Yong Ho Jeon, published in the latest edition of Tyndale Bulletin. Jeon summarises the fruits of the latest scholarship on 1 Kings 1-12 and brings together the best insights from this to demonstrate how the author incorporates the motifs of both "exodus" and "return to Egypt" into his description and critique of the reign of Solomon. The article will not be available online for 5 years, so here is a quote [from pp.31-32] to illustrate what I mean and hopefully, encourage you to obtain a copy of the full article:

The 'return to Egypt motif has been noticed only fragmentarily by some scholars who observe Solomon's becoming a 'Pharaoh', especially in chapter 9, where Solomon is described as imitating an Egyptian tyrant in implementing his enormous building project and [p.32] maintaining a standing army and forced labour system. In his building project, 'store cities', 'chariot cities', and 'cavalry cities' especially remind the reader of Egypt. Even though the Israelites do not go back to Egypt in a geographical sense, the Israelite kingdom itself is becoming an Egypt in a metaphorical sense. Additionally, the Israelites' complaint after Solomon's death (12:4), reveals, that Solomon loaded on them a heavy yoke and disciplined them with whips, that he exploited and oppressed them (12:4, 10-11, 14) just as Pharaoh had done to their ancestors (cf. 8:51); that is, the Israelites experienced a similar thing to their ancestors. In other words, they have been living in an 'Egypt' under Solomon's reign. However, in fact, the 'return to Egypt' motif is already observed in Solomon's becoming Pharaoh's son-in-law (3:1) at an early stage. The frequent mentions of 'Pharaoh's daughter' throughout the narrative (3:1; 7:8; 9:16, 24; 11:1), and, more directly, the mention of Solomon's making ships on the seashore of 'the Red Sea' (9:26) and sending his men to Egypt to buy Egyptian horses and chariots (10:28-29), betray the progressive development of the 'return to Egypt motif as the narrative unfolds. Furthermore, the fact that the leader of the northern ten tribes, Jeroboam, is portrayed as a new Moses who has escaped being killed by a tyrant (11:40), and at last succeeds in delivering his people from the heavy yoke of the tyrant (12:3-20), also shows that the previous condition of the Israelites was like the one to which the original Moses was sent by God to save his people.

Yong Ho Jeon, "The Retroactive Re-Evaluation Technique with Pharoah's Daughter and the Nature of Solomon's Corruption in 1 Kings 1-12," Tyndale Bulletin 62.1 (2011): 15-40.