1 Kings 2:8-36

8“Keep an eye on Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim who is with you. He uttered malicious curses against me the day I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan River, and I swore to him by the Lord, ‘I will never kill you with the sword.’

9So don’t let him go unpunished, for you are a wise man. You know how to deal with him to bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.”

10Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David.

11The length of time David reigned over Israel was forty years: he reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

12Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingship was firmly established.

13Now Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She asked, “Do you come peacefully?” “Peacefully,” he replied,

14and then asked, “May I talk with you?” “Go ahead,” she answered.

15“You know the kingship was mine,” he said. “All Israel expected me to be king, but then the kingship was turned over to my brother, for the Lord gave it to him.

16So now I have just one request of you; don’t turn me down.” She said to him, “Go on.”

17He replied, “Please speak to King Solomon since he won’t turn you down. Let him give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife.”

18“Very well,” Bathsheba replied. “I will speak to the king for you.”

19So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah. The king stood up to greet her, bowed to her, sat down on his throne, and had a throne placed for the king’s mother. So she sat down at his right hand.

20Then she said, “I have just one small request of you. Don’t turn me down.” “Go ahead and ask, mother,” the king replied, “for I won’t turn you down.”

21So she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as a wife.”

22King Solomon answered his mother, “Why are you requesting Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Since he is my elder brother, you might as well ask the kingship for him, for the priest Abiathar, and for Joab son of Zeruiah.”

23Then King Solomon took an oath by the Lord: “May God punish me and do so severely if Adonijah has not made this request at the cost of his life.

24And now, as the Lord lives — the one who established me, seated me on the throne of my father David, and made me a dynasty as he promised  — I swear Adonijah will be put to death today!”

25Then King Solomon dispatched Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who struck down Adonijah, and he died.

26The king said to the priest Abiathar, “Go to your fields in Anathoth. Even though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death today, since you carried the ark of the Lord God in the presence of my father David and you suffered through all that my father suffered.”

27So Solomon banished Abiathar from being the Lord’s priest, and it fulfilled the Lord’s prophecy he had spoken at Shiloh against Eli’s family.

28The news reached Joab. Since he had supported Adonijah but not Absalom, Joab fled to the Lord’s tabernacle and took hold of the horns of the altar.

29It was reported to King Solomon, “Joab has fled to the Lord’s tabernacle and is now beside the altar.” Then Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada and told him, “Go and strike him down!”

30So Benaiah went to the tabernacle and said to Joab, “This is what the king says: ‘Come out!’” But Joab said, “No, for I will die here.” So Benaiah took a message back to the king, “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.”

31The king said to him, “Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him in order to remove from me and from my father’s family the blood that Joab shed without just cause.

32The Lord will bring back his own blood on his head because he struck down two men more righteous and better than he, without my father David’s knowledge. With his sword, Joab murdered Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.

33The responsibility for their deaths will come back to Joab and to his descendants forever, but for David, his descendants, his dynasty, and his throne, there will be peace from the Lord forever.”

34Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up, struck down Joab, and put him to death. He was buried at his house in the wilderness.

35Then the king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada in Joab’s place over the army, and he appointed the priest Zadok in Abiathar’s place.

36Then the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Build a house for yourself in Jerusalem and live there, but don’t leave there and go anywhere else.