1 Kings 2:5-32

5“Moreover, you also know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, whom he killed, shedding the blood of war in peacetime, and putting the blood of war on his waistband and on his sandals on his feet.

6So act according to your wisdom, and let his gray hair not go down to Sheol in shalom.

7But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table—for they befriended me when I fled from your brother Absalom.

8Also behold, you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by Adonai saying: ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’

9Now don’t let him go unpunished. For you are a wise man, and you will know how to deal with him, and bring his gray hair down to Sheol with blood.”

10Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.

11The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years—seven years he reigned in Hebron and 33 years he reigned in Jerusalem.

12Then Solomon sat upon the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was established firmly. Solomon’s Throne Secured

13Later Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bath-sheba, Solomon’s mother. “Is your coming in shalom?” she asked. “It is in shalom,” he said.

14Then he said, “I have something to say to you.” “Speak!” she said.

15Then he said, “You know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel looked to me to be the king. However, the kingship has turned about and become my brother’s—for it was his from Adonai.

16So now one petition I ask of you; do not deny me.” “Speak!” she said to him.

17Then he said, “Please, speak to King Solomon—for he won’t turn you down—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.”

18“Very well,” said Bath-sheba, “I will speak to the king for you.”

19So Bath-sheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah. The king rose up to greet her and bowed down to her. Then he sat down on his throne and had a throne set up for the king’s mother, and she sat at his right hand.

20Then she said: “I ask one small petition of you; do not deny.” “Ask, my mother,” the king said to her, “for I will not turn you down.”

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

22King Solomon answered and said to his mother: “So why are you asking Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom as well—for he is my older brother—for him and for Abiathar the kohen, and for Joab son of Zeruiah!”

23Then King Solomon swore by Adonai saying: “May God do so to me and even more, if Adonijah does not pay with his own life for this request!

24Now therefore, as Adonai lives who has established me and set me on the throne of my father David, and who has made me a house as He promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death this day.”

25Then King Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada. He struck him down and he died.

26Also to Abiathar the kohen the king said, “Go to Anathoth, to your own fields, for you deserve death, but I will not put you to death at this time, because you carried the ark of Adonai Elohim before my father David, and because you were afflicted in everything with which my father was afflicted.”

27So Solomon dismissed Abiathar from being kohen to Adonai—so fulfilling the word of Adonai that He spoke at Shiloh about the house of Eli.

28When the news came to Joab, he fled to the Tent of Adonai and grasped the horns of the altar—for Joab had defected to Adonijah, though he had not defected to Absalom.

29It was reported to King Solomon that Joab had fled to the Tent of Adonai, and behold, he was by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying: “Go, strike him down!”

30So Benaiah came to the Tent of Adonai and said to him: “Thus says the king: Come out!” But he replied: “No, for I will die here.” Benaiah reported back to the king saying: “Thus said Joab and thus he answered me.”

31Then the king commanded him: “Do as he has said—strike him down. Then bury him. So you will remove the blood that Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father’s house.

32Thus Adonai will return his blood on his own head, because he struck down two men more righteous and better than he—Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah—and killed them with the sword, without my father David’s knowledge.