⁷ He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, and they supported Adonijah.^(A)

²⁵ Sheva was secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;^(A)

²² King Solomon answered his mother, “And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom as well! For he is my elder brother, and the priest Abiathar and Joab son of Zeruiah are on his side!”^(A)

⁶ David had said, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites first shall be chief and commander.” And Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, so he became chief.^(A)

²⁶ The king said to the priest Abiathar, “Go to Anathoth, to your estate, for you deserve death. But I will not at this time put you to death because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David and because you shared in all the hardships my father endured.”^{(A) 27} So Solomon banished Abiathar from being priest to the Lord, thus fulfilling the word of the Lord that he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.^(B)

²⁸ When the news came to Joab—for Joab had supported Adonijah though he had not supported Absalom—Joab fled to the tent of the Lord and grasped the horns of the altar.^{(C) 29} When it was told King Solomon, “Joab has fled to the tent of the Lord and now is beside the altar,” Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, strike him down.”^{(D) 30} So Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and said to him, “The king commands, ‘Come out.’ ” But he said, “No, I will die here.” Then Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, “Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.” ³¹ The king replied to him, “Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him, and thus take away from me and from my father’s house the guilt for the blood that Joab shed without cause.^{(E) 32} The Lord will bring back his bloody deeds on his own head because, without the knowledge of my father David, he attacked and killed with the sword 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.^{(F) 33} So shall their blood come back on the head of Joab and on the head of his descendants forever, but to David, and to his descendants, and to his house, and to his throne there shall be peace from the Lord forevermore.”^{(G) 34} Then Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down and killed him, and he was buried at his own house near the wilderness. ³⁵ The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army in his place, and the king put the priest Zadok in the place of Abiathar.^(H)

²³ Now Joab was in command of all the army of Israel;^[a] Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in command of the Cherethites and the Pelethites;^(A)

³⁵ The priests Zadok and Abiathar will be with you there. So whatever you hear from the king’s house, tell it to the priests Zadok and Abiathar.^(A)

²⁴ Abiathar came up, and Zadok also, with all the Levites, carrying the ark of the covenant of God. They set down the ark of God until the people had all passed out of the city.^{(A) 25} Then the king said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and the place where it stays.^{(B) 26} But if he says, ‘I take no pleasure in you,’ here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.”^{(C) 27} The king also said to the priest Zadok, “Look,^[a] go back to the city in peace, you and Abiathar,^[b] with your two sons, Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan son of Abiathar.^{(D) 28} See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.”^{(E) 29} So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there.