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1 Kings 2:12-46
New English Translation

Solomon Secures the Throne

12 Solomon sat on his father David’s throne, and his royal authority[a] was firmly solidified.

13 Haggith’s son Adonijah visited Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She asked, “Do you come in peace?” He answered, “Yes.”[b] 14 He added,[c] “I have something to say to you.” She replied, “Speak.” 15 He said, “You know that the kingdom[d] was mine and all Israel considered me king.[e] But then the kingdom was given to my brother, for the Lord decided it should be his.[f] 16 Now I’d like to ask you for just one thing. Please don’t refuse me.”[g] She said, “Go ahead and ask.”[h] 17 He said, “Please ask King Solomon if he would give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife, for he won’t refuse you.”[i] 18 Bathsheba replied, “That’s fine;[j] I’ll speak to the king on your behalf.”

19 So Bathsheba visited King Solomon to speak to him on Adonijah’s behalf. The king got up to greet[k] her, bowed to her, and then sat on his throne. He ordered a throne to be brought for the king’s mother,[l] and she sat at his right hand. 20 She said, “I would like to ask you for just one small favor.[m] Please don’t refuse me.”[n] He said,[o] “Go ahead and ask, my mother, for I would not refuse you.” 21 She said, “Allow Abishag the Shunammite to be given to your brother Adonijah as a wife.” 22 King Solomon answered his mother, “Why just request Abishag the Shunammite for him?[p] Since he is my older brother, you should also request the kingdom for him, for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab son of Zeruiah!”

23 King Solomon then swore an oath by the Lord, “May God judge me severely,[q] if Adonijah does not pay for this request with his life![r] 24 Now, as certainly as the Lord lives (he who made me secure, allowed me to sit on my father David’s throne, and established a dynasty[s] for me as he promised), Adonijah will be executed today!” 25 King Solomon then sent[t] Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he killed Adonijah.[u]

26 The king then told Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your property[v] in Anathoth. You deserve to die,[w] but today I will not kill you because you did carry the ark of the Sovereign Lord before my father David and you suffered with my father through all his difficult times.”[x] 27 Solomon removed Abiathar from being a priest for the Lord, fulfilling the Lord’s message that he had pronounced against the family of Eli in Shiloh.

28 When the news reached Joab (for Joab had supported[y] Adonijah, although he had not supported Absalom), he[z] ran to the tent of the Lord and grabbed hold of the horns of the altar.[aa] 29 When King Solomon heard[ab] that Joab had run to the tent of the Lord and was right there beside the altar, he ordered Benaiah son of Jehoiada,[ac] “Go, strike him down.” 30 When Benaiah arrived at the tent of the Lord, he said to him, “The king says, ‘Come out!’” But he replied, “No, I will die here!” So Benaiah sent word to the king and reported Joab’s reply.[ad] 31 The king told him, “Do as he said! Strike him down and bury him. Take away from me and from my father’s family[ae] the guilt of Joab’s murderous, bloody deeds.[af] 32 May the Lord punish him for the blood he shed;[ag] behind my father David’s back he struck down and murdered with the sword two men who were more innocent and morally upright than he[ah]—Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army. 33 May Joab and his descendants be perpetually guilty of their shed blood, but may the Lord give perpetual peace to David, his descendants, his family,[ai] and his dynasty.”[aj] 34 So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and executed Joab;[ak] he was buried at his home in the wilderness. 35 The king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada to take his place at the head of[al] the army, and the king appointed Zadok the priest to take Abiathar’s place.[am]

36 Next the king summoned[an] Shimei and told him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but you may not leave there to go anywhere.[ao] 37 If you ever do leave and cross the Kidron Valley, know for sure that you will certainly die. You will be responsible for your own death.”[ap] 38 Shimei said to the king, “My master the king’s proposal is acceptable.[aq] Your servant will do as you say.”[ar] So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.[as]

39 Three years later two of Shimei’s servants ran away to King Achish son of Maacah of Gath. Shimei was told, “Look, your servants are in Gath.” 40 So Shimei got up, saddled his donkey, and went to Achish at Gath to find his servants; Shimei went and brought back his servants from Gath. 41 When Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had then returned, 42 the king summoned[at] Shimei and said to him, “You will recall[au] that I made you take an oath by the Lord, and I solemnly warned you, ‘If you ever leave and go anywhere,[av] know for sure that you will certainly die.’ You said to me, ‘The proposal is acceptable; I agree to it.’[aw] 43 Why then have you broken the oath you made before the Lord and disobeyed the order I gave you?”[ax] 44 Then the king said to Shimei, “You are well aware of the way you mistreated my father David.[ay] The Lord will punish you for what you did.[az] 45 But King Solomon will be empowered,[ba] and David’s dynasty[bb] will endure permanently before the Lord.” 46 The king then gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada who went and executed Shimei.[bc]

So Solomon took firm control of the kingdom.[bd]

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 2:12 tn Or “kingship.”
  2. 1 Kings 2:13 tn Heb “[in] peace.”
  3. 1 Kings 2:14 tn Heb “and he said.”
  4. 1 Kings 2:15 tn Or “kingship.”
  5. 1 Kings 2:15 tn Heb “set their face to me to be king.”
  6. 1 Kings 2:15 tn Heb “and the kingdom turned about and became my brother’s, for from the Lord it became his.”
  7. 1 Kings 2:16 tn Heb “Do not turn back my face.”
  8. 1 Kings 2:16 tn Heb “She said, ‘Speak!’”
  9. 1 Kings 2:17 tn Heb “Say to Solomon the king, for he will not turn back your face, that he might give to me Abishag the Shunammite for a wife.”
  10. 1 Kings 2:18 tn Heb “[It is] good!”
  11. 1 Kings 2:19 tn Or “meet.”
  12. 1 Kings 2:19 tn Heb “he set up a throne for the mother of the king.”
  13. 1 Kings 2:20 tn Or “I’d like to make just one request of you.”
  14. 1 Kings 2:20 tn Heb “Do not turn back my face.”
  15. 1 Kings 2:20 tn Heb “and the king said to her.”
  16. 1 Kings 2:22 tn Heb “for Adonijah.”
  17. 1 Kings 2:23 tn Heb “So may God do to me, and so may he add.”
  18. 1 Kings 2:23 tn Heb “if with his life Adonijah has not spoken this word.”
  19. 1 Kings 2:24 tn Heb “house.”
  20. 1 Kings 2:25 tn The Hebrew text adds, “by the hand of.”
  21. 1 Kings 2:25 tn Heb “and he struck him and he died.”
  22. 1 Kings 2:26 tn Or “field.”
  23. 1 Kings 2:26 tn Heb “you are a man of death,” an idiom.
  24. 1 Kings 2:26 tn Heb “and because you suffered through all which my father suffered.”
  25. 1 Kings 2:28 tn Heb “turned after” (also later in this verse).
  26. 1 Kings 2:28 tn Heb “Joab.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  27. 1 Kings 2:28 sn Grabbed hold of the horns of the altar. The “horns” of the altar were the horn-shaped projections on the four corners of the altar (see Exod 27:2). By going to the holy place and grabbing hold of the horns of the altar, Joab was seeking asylum from Solomon.
  28. 1 Kings 2:29 tn Heb “and it was related to King Solomon.”
  29. 1 Kings 2:29 tn Heb “so Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying.”
  30. 1 Kings 2:30 tn Heb “saying, “In this way Joab spoke and in this way he answered me.”
  31. 1 Kings 2:31 tn Heb “house.”
  32. 1 Kings 2:31 tn Heb “take away the undeserved bloodshed which Joab spilled from upon me and from upon the house of my father.”
  33. 1 Kings 2:32 tn Heb “The Lord will cause his blood to return upon his head.”
  34. 1 Kings 2:32 tn Heb “because he struck down two men more innocent and better than he and he killed them with the sword, and my father David did not know.”
  35. 1 Kings 2:33 tn Heb “house.”
  36. 1 Kings 2:33 tn Heb “his throne.”
  37. 1 Kings 2:34 tn Heb “struck him and killed him.” The referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  38. 1 Kings 2:35 tn Heb “over.”
  39. 1 Kings 2:35 tc The Old Greek translation includes after v. 35 some fourteen verses that are absent from the MT.
  40. 1 Kings 2:36 tn Heb “sent and summoned.”
  41. 1 Kings 2:36 tn Heb “and you may not go out from there here or there.”
  42. 1 Kings 2:37 tn Heb “your blood will be upon your head.”
  43. 1 Kings 2:38 tn Heb “Good is the word, as my master the king has spoken.”
  44. 1 Kings 2:38 tn Heb “so your servant will do.”
  45. 1 Kings 2:38 tn Heb “many days.”
  46. 1 Kings 2:42 tn Heb “sent and summoned.”
  47. 1 Kings 2:42 tn Heb “Is it not [true]…?” In the Hebrew text the statement is interrogative; the rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course it is.”
  48. 1 Kings 2:42 tn Heb “here or there.”
  49. 1 Kings 2:42 tn Heb “good is the word; I have heard.”
  50. 1 Kings 2:43 tn Heb “Why have you not kept the oath [to] the Lord and the commandment I commanded you?”
  51. 1 Kings 2:44 tn Heb “You know all the evil, for your heart knows, which you did to David my father.”
  52. 1 Kings 2:44 tn Heb “The Lord will cause your evil to return upon your head.”
  53. 1 Kings 2:45 tn Or “blessed.”
  54. 1 Kings 2:45 tn Heb “throne.”
  55. 1 Kings 2:46 tn “The king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada and he went out and struck him down and he died.”
  56. 1 Kings 2:46 tn “And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.”
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1 Kings 2:12-46
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

12 So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was firmly established.(A)

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.”(B) 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.(C) 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.”(D) 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.(E) 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.”(F) 21 She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as his wife.”(G) 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!”(H) 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!(I) 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.”(J) 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.”(K) 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.(L)

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.(M) 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.”(N) 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.(O) 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.(P) 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.”(Q) 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.(R)

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.(S) 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.”(T) 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,”(U) 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.(V) 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.(W) 45 But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever.”(X) 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.(Y)

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