1 Kings 1-3

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Struggle for the Succession

1 King David was old and advanced in years, and although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm. ² So his servants said to him, “Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king, and let her wait on the king and be his attendant; let her lie in your bosom, so that my lord the king may be warm.” ³ So they searched for a beautiful young woman throughout all the territory of Israel and found Abishag the Shunammite and brought her to the king.^{(A) 4} The young woman was very beautiful. She became the king’s attendant and served him, but the king did not know her sexually.

⁵ Now Adonijah son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.” He prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.^{(B) 6} His father had never at any time reprimanded him by asking, “Why have you done thus and so?” He was also a very handsome man, and he was born next after Absalom.^{(C) 7} He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, and they supported Adonijah.^{(D) 8} But the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the prophet Nathan, and Shammah^[a] and his companions,^[b] David’s own warriors, did not side with Adonijah.^(E)

⁹ Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fatted cattle by the stone Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel, and he invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah,^{(F) 10} but he did not invite the prophet Nathan or Benaiah or the warriors or his brother Solomon.^(G)

¹¹ Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, “Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become king and our lord David does not know it?^{(H) 12} Now therefore come, let me give you advice, so that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. ¹³ Go in at once to King David and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying, “Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne? Why then is Adonijah king?” ’^{(I) 14} Then while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.”

¹⁵ So Bathsheba went to the king in his room. The king was very old; Abishag the Shunammite was attending the king.^{(J) 16} Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king, and the king said, “What do you wish?” ¹⁷ She said to him, “My lord, you swore to your servant by the Lord your God, saying, ‘Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne.’^{(K) 18} But now suddenly Adonijah has become king, though you, my lord the king, do not know it. ¹⁹ He has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance and has invited all the children of the king, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the commander of the army, but your servant Solomon he has not invited.^{(L) 20} But you, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. ²¹ Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king sleeps with his ancestors, that my son Solomon and I will be counted offenders.”^(M)

²² While she was still speaking with the king, the prophet Nathan came in. ²³ The king was told, “Here is the prophet Nathan.” When he came in before the king, he did obeisance to the king, with his face to the ground. ²⁴ Nathan said, “My lord the king, have you said, ‘Adonijah shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne’? ²⁵ For today he has gone down and has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance and has invited all the king’s children, Joab the commander^[c] of the army, and the priest Abiathar, who are now eating and drinking before him, and saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’^{(N) 26} But he did not invite me, your servant, and the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon.^{(O) 27} Has this thing been brought about by my lord the king and you have not let your servants know who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”

The Accession of Solomon

²⁸ King David answered, “Summon Bathsheba to me.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before the king. ²⁹ The king swore, saying, “As the Lord lives, who has saved my life from every adversity,^{(P) 30} as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,’ so will I do this day.”^{(Q) 31} Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground and did obeisance to the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”^(R)

³² King David said, “Summon to me the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” When they came before the king, ³³ the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule and bring him down to Gihon.^{(S) 34} There let the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan anoint him king over Israel; then blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’^{(T) 35} You shall go up following him. Let him enter and sit on my throne; he shall be king in my place, for I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.” ³⁶ Benaiah son of Jehoiada answered the king, “Amen! May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, so ordain. ³⁷ As the Lord has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”^(U)

³⁸ So the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule and led him to Gihon.^{(V) 39} There the priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!”^{(W) 40} And all the people went up following him, playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth quaked at their noise.

⁴¹ Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished feasting. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, “Why is the city in an uproar?” ⁴² While he was still speaking, Jonathan son of the priest Abiathar arrived. Adonijah said, “Come in, for you are a worthy man and surely you bring good news.”^{(X) 43} Jonathan answered Adonijah, “No, for our lord King David has made Solomon king; ⁴⁴ the king has sent with him the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and they had him ride on the king’s mule; ⁴⁵ the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan have anointed him king at Gihon, and they have gone up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise that you heard.^{(Y) 46} Solomon now sits on the royal throne.^{(Z) 47} Moreover, the king’s servants came to congratulate our lord King David, saying, ‘May God make the name of Solomon more famous than yours and make his throne greater than your throne.’ The king bowed in worship on the bed^{(AA) 48} and went on to pray thus, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who today has granted one of my offspring^[d] to sit on my throne and permitted me to witness it.’ ”^(AB)

⁴⁹ Then all the guests of Adonijah got up trembling and went their own ways. ⁵⁰ Adonijah, fearing Solomon, got up and went to grasp the horns of the altar.^{(AC) 51} Solomon was informed, “Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon; see, he has laid hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’ ” ⁵² So Solomon responded, “If he proves to be a worthy man, not one of his hairs shall fall to the ground, but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die.”^{(AD) 53} Then King Solomon sent to have him brought down from the altar. He came to do obeisance to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, “Go home.”

David’s Instruction to Solomon

2 When David’s time to die drew near, he charged his son Solomon, saying:^{(AE) 2} “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, be courageous,^{(AF) 3} and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn.^{(AG) 4} Then the Lord will establish his word that he spoke concerning me: ‘If your heirs take heed to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel.’^(AH)

⁵ “Moreover, you know also what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me, how he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, whom he murdered, retaliating in time of peace for blood that had been shed in war and putting innocent blood^[e] on the belt around my^[f] waist and on the sandals on my^[g] feet.^{(AI) 6} Act, therefore, according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.^{(AJ) 7} Deal loyally, however, with the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, for with such loyalty they met me when I fled from your brother Absalom.^{(AK) 8} There is also with you Shimei son of Gera, a Benjaminite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a terrible curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim, but when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’^{(AL) 9} Therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; you will know what you ought to do to him, and you must bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.”^(AM)

Death of David

¹⁰ Then David slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David.^{(AN) 11} The time that David reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.^{(AO) 12} So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was firmly established.^(AP)

Solomon Consolidates His Reign

¹³ Then Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She asked, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably.”^{(AQ) 14} Then he said, “May I have a word with you?” She said, “Go on.” ¹⁵ He said, “You know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel expected me to reign; however, the kingdom has turned about and become my brother’s, for it was his from the Lord.^{(AR) 16} And now I have one request to make of you; do not refuse me.” She said to him, “Go on.” ¹⁷ He said, “Please ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.”^{(AS) 18} Bathsheba said, “Very well; I will speak to the king on your behalf.”

¹⁹ So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. The king rose to meet her and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne and had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right.^{(AT) 20} Then she said, “I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me.” And the king said to her, “Make your request, my mother, for I will not refuse you.”^{(AU) 21} She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as his wife.”^{(AV) 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!”^{(AW) 23} Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, “So may God do to me, and more also, for Adonijah has devised this scheme at the risk of his life!^{(AX) 24} Now therefore as the Lord lives, who has established me and placed me on the throne of my father David and who has made me a house as he promised, today Adonijah shall be put to death.”^{(AY) 25} So King Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he struck him down, and he died.

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.”^{(AZ) 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.^(BA)

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.^{(BB) 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.”^{(BC) 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.^{(BD) 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.^{(BE) 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.”^{(BF) 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.^(BG)

³⁶ Then the king sent and summoned Shimei and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, and do not go out from there to any place whatever.^{(BH) 37} For on the day you go out and cross the Wadi Kidron, know for certain that you shall die; your blood shall be on your own head.”^{(BI) 38} And Shimei said to the king, “The sentence is fair; as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do.” So Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days.

³⁹ But it happened at the end of three years that two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to King Achish son of Maacah of Gath. When it was told Shimei, “Your slaves are in Gath,”^{(BJ) 40} Shimei arose and saddled a donkey and went to Achish in Gath, to search for his slaves; Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath.^{(BK) 41} When Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and returned, ⁴² the king sent and summoned Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the Lord and solemnly adjure you, saying, ‘Know for certain that on the day you go out and go to any place whatever, you shall die’? And you said to me, ‘The sentence is fair; I accept.’ ⁴³ Why then have you not kept your oath to the Lord and the commandment with which I charged you?” ⁴⁴ The king also said to Shimei, “You know in your own heart all the evil that you did to my father David, so the Lord will bring back your evil on your own head.^{(BL) 45} But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever.”^{(BM) 46} Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck him down, and he died.

So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.^(BN)

Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom

3 Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt; he took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem.^{(BO) 2} The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord.^(BP)

³ Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places.^{(BQ) 4} The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.^{(BR) 5} At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I should give you.”^{(BS) 6} And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you, and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne today.^{(BT) 7} And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.^{(BU) 8} And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted.^{(BV) 9} Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this great people of yours?”^(BW)

¹⁰ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹ God said to him, “Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or for the life of your enemies but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,^{(BX) 12} I now do according to your word. Indeed, I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you, and no one like you shall arise after you.^{(BY) 13} I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you.^{(BZ) 14} If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.”^(CA)

¹⁵ Then Solomon awoke; it had been a dream. He came to Jerusalem, where he stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. He offered up burnt offerings and offerings of well-being and provided a feast for all his servants.^(CB)

Solomon’s Wisdom in Judgment

¹⁶ Later, two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷ The one woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house.^{(CC) 18} Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no one else with us in the house; only the two of us were in the house. ¹⁹ Then this woman’s son died in the night because she lay on him. ²⁰ She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast and laid her dead son at my breast.^{(CD) 21} When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead, but when I looked at him closely in the morning, clearly it was not the son I had borne.” ²² But the other woman said, “No, the living son is mine, and the dead son is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead son is yours, and the living son is mine.” So they argued before the king.

²³ Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is alive, and your son is dead,’ while the other says, ‘Not so! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’ ” ²⁴ So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king. ²⁵ The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one and half to the other.” ²⁶ But the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because compassion for her son burned within her, “Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” The other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.”^{(CE) 27} Then the king responded, “Give her the living boy; do not kill him. She is his mother.” ²⁸ All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.^(CF)