David’s Instructions to Solomon
1 Kings 2When the time for David to die came near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying, “I am going the way of all the earth. You be strong therefore, and show yourself a man. Keep the instruction of YHWH your God: walk in his ways, and keep ʜɪꜱ statutes, ʜɪꜱ commandments, ʜɪꜱ ordinances, and ʜɪꜱ testimonies, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn yourself. Then YHWH may establish ʜɪꜱ word which he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your children are careful of their way, and walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you will never fail to have,’ he said, ‘a man on the throne of Israel.’
“Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, even what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his sash that was around his waist and in his sandals that were on his feet. Do therefore according to your wisdom, and don’t let his gray head go down to Sheol+2:6 Sheol is the place of the dead. in peace. But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table. They came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.
“Look, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by YHWH, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ Now therefore don’t hold him guiltless. You are a wise man, and you will know what you ought to do to him. You are to bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.”
David slept with his fathers, and was buried in David’s city. The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem. Solomon sat on David his father’s throne; and his kingdom was firmly established.
Adonijah Tries to Manipulate Bathsheba
Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. She said, “Do you come peaceably?”
He said, “Peaceably. He said moreover, I have something to tell you.”
She said, “Speak.”
He said, “You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should be king. However, the kingdom is turned over to my brother, and came to him from YHWH. Now I ask one petition of you. Don’t refuse me.”
She said to him, “Speak.”
He said, “Please ask to Solomon the king (for he will not refuse you) to give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.”
Bathsheba said, “All right. I will speak for you to the king.”
Bathsheba therefore went to King Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne and caused a throne to be set for the king’s mother. Then she sat at his right hand. Then she said, “I ask one small petition of you. Don’t refuse me.”
The king said to her, “Speak, my mother, for I will not refuse you.”
She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.”
King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Since he is my elder brother, you should ask the kingdom for him Then King Solomon swore by YHWH, saying, “May God do to me and even more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life. Now therefore as YHWH lives, who has established me and set me on my father David’s throne, and who has made me a house as he promised, surely Adonijah will be put to death today.”
King Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he struck down Adonijah and he died.
Abiathar Exiled and Joab Executed
To Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go to Anathoth, to your own fields, for you are worthy of death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the Lord the ark of YHWH before David my father, and because you were afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted.” So Solomon thrust Abiathar out from being priest to YHWH, that he might fulfill the word of YHWH which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
This news came to Joab, who had followed Adonijah, but didn’t follow Absalom. Joab fled to the Tent of YHWH, and held onto the horns of the altar. King Solomon was told, “Joab has fled to the Tent of YHWH. Look, he is by the altar.” Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, fall on him.”
Benaiah came to the Tent of YHWH, and said to him, “The king says, ‘Come out!’”
He said, “No! I will die here.”
Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.”
The king said to him, “Do as he has said, and fall on him, and bury him, that you may take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father’s house. YHWH will return his blood on his own head, because he fell on two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, and my father David didn’t know it: Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah. So their blood will return on the head of Joab and on the head of his offspring+2:33 or, seed forever. But for David, for his offspring, for his house, and for his throne, there will be peace forever from YHWH.”
Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and fell on him, and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army, and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.
Shimei’s House Arrest and Execution
The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and live there, and don’t go anywhere else. For on the day you go out and pass over the brook Kidron, you will know-know that you will die-die. Your blood will be on your own head.”
Shimei said to the king, “What you say is good. As my lord the king has said, so will your servant do.” Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days.
At the end of three years, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. They told Shimei, saying, “Look, your slaves are in Gath.” Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his slaves, and Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath.
Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had come again. The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, “Didn’t I make you swear by YHWH and warn you, saying, ‘Know-know that the day you go out and walk anywhere else, you will die-die?’ You said to me, ‘The saying that I have heard is good.’ Why then have you not kept the oath of YHWH and the commandment that I have instructed you with?” The king said moreover to Shimei, “You know in your heart all the wickedness that you did to David my father. Therefore YHWH will return your wickedness on your own head. But King Solomon will be blessed, and David’s throne will be established before YHWH forever.” So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down so that he died. The kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.