1 Kings 2:16-28

16Now I have one thing to ask you. Please do not refuse me.’ Bathsheba replied, ‘Tell me.’

17So Adonijah said, ‘Please ask King Solomon to give me Abishag, the girl from Shunem, to be my wife. He will do it if you ask him.’

18Bathsheba said, ‘I will speak to the king on your behalf.’

19So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak on behalf of Adonijah. The king stood up to meet her. He bent his head down to respect her. Then he sat on his throne. He commanded his servants to bring another throne for his mother. So she sat down at his right side.

20She said, ‘I have one small thing to ask you. Please do not refuse to do it for me.’ The king said to her, ‘Ask me, mother! I will not refuse you!’

21So she said, ‘Please let your brother Adonijah marry Abishag, the girl from Shunem.’

22But King Solomon said to his mother, ‘You are asking me to give Abishag to Adonijah as his wife! You should also ask me to give my kingdom to him, my older brother! That would be the same thing. Then he would rule together with Abiathar the priest and Zeruiah's son Joab!’

23Then King Solomon made this strong promise in the Lord's name. He said, ‘Because Adonijah has asked to have Abishag as his wife, I will certainly punish him with death. If I do not do that, I pray that God will punish me instead!

24As surely as the Lord lives, Adonijah must die today. The Lord has done everything that he promised to me. He has made me strong so that now I rule on the throne of my father David. And my descendants will continue to rule as kings after me.’

25So King Solomon commanded Jehoiada's son Benaiah to kill Adonijah. So Adonijah died.

26Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, ‘Go back to your fields in Anathoth. You also deserve to die. But I will not kill you now because you served my father David. You carried the Covenant Box of the Almighty Lord when David was king. Also, the trouble that happened to my father happened to you too.’

27Solomon sent Abiathar away so that he was no longer a priest who served the Lord. That was the punishment that the Lord had said would happen to Eli's family. So what the Lord had promised at Shiloh now happened.

28When Adonijah had tried to become king, Joab had joined with him. (But he had not joined with Absalom.) Joab heard the news about what had happened to Adonijah and Abiathar. So he hurried to the Lord's holy tent. He took hold of the horns of the altar there.