¹⁸ But instead, Adonijah has made himself king, and my lord the king does not even know about it.

²⁴ Nathan asked, “My lord the king, have you decided that Adonijah will be the next king and that he will sit on your throne?

¹⁷ “Friends,^[a] I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance.

²⁷ Has my lord the king really done this without letting any of his officials know who should be the next king?”

¹¹ Then Nathan went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, and asked her, “Haven’t you heard that Haggith’s son, Adonijah, has made himself king, and our lord David doesn’t even know about it?

Adonijah Claims the Throne

⁵ About that time David’s son Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, began boasting, “I will make myself king.” So he provided himself with chariots and charioteers and recruited fifty men to run in front of him.

¹⁰ But while he was there, he sent secret messengers to all the tribes of Israel to stir up a rebellion against the king. “As soon as you hear the ram’s horn,” his message read, “you are to say, ‘Absalom has been crowned king in Hebron.’”