1 Kings 2:13-34

New International Version

Solomon’s Throne Established

¹³Now Adonijah,^(A) the son of Haggith, went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. Bathsheba asked him, “Do you come peacefully?”^(B)

He answered, “Yes, peacefully.” ¹⁴Then he added, “I have something to say to you.”

“You may say it,” she replied.

¹⁵“As you know,” he said, “the kingdom was mine. All Israel looked to me as their king. But things changed, and the kingdom has gone to my brother; for it has come to him from the Lord. ¹⁶Now I have one request to make of you. Do not refuse me.”

“You may make it,” she said.

¹⁷So he continued, “Please ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you—to give me Abishag^(C) the Shunammite as my wife.”

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

¹⁹When Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king’s mother,^(D) and she sat down at his right hand.^(E)

²⁰“I have one small request to make of you,” she said. “Do not refuse me.”

The king replied, “Make it, my mother; I will not refuse you.”

²¹So she said, “Let Abishag^(F) the Shunammite be given in marriage to your brother Adonijah.”

²²King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you request Abishag^(G) the Shunammite for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him—after all, he is my older brother^(H)—yes, for him and for Abiathar^(I) the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah!”

²³Then King Solomon swore by the Lord: “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely,^(J) if Adonijah does not pay with his life for this request! ²⁴And now, as surely as the Lord lives—he who has established me securely on the throne of my father David and has founded a dynasty for me as he promised^(K)—Adonijah shall be put to death today!” ²⁵So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah^(L) son of Jehoiada, and he struck down Adonijah and he died.^(M)

²⁶To Abiathar^(N) the priest the king said, “Go back to your fields in Anathoth.^(O) You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you carried the ark^(P) of the Sovereign Lord before my father David and shared all my father’s hardships.”^(Q) ²⁷So Solomon removed Abiathar from the priesthood of the Lord, fulfilling^(R) the word the Lord had spoken at Shiloh about the house of Eli.

²⁸When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns^(S) of the altar. ²⁹King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and was beside the altar.^(T) Then Solomon ordered Benaiah^(U) son of Jehoiada, “Go, strike him down!”

³⁰So Benaiah entered the tent^(V) of the Lord and said to Joab, “The king says, ‘Come out!^(W)’”

But he answered, “No, I will die here.”

Benaiah reported to the king, “This is how Joab answered me.”

³¹Then the king commanded Benaiah, “Do as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so clear me and my whole family of the guilt of the innocent blood^(X) that Joab shed. ³²The Lord will repay^(Y) him for the blood he shed,^(Z) because without my father David knowing it he attacked two men and killed them with the sword. Both of them—Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa^(AA) son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army—were better^(AB) men and more upright than he. ³³May the guilt of their blood rest on the head of Joab and his descendants forever. But on David and his descendants, his house and his throne, may there be the Lord’s peace forever.”