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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
International Standard Version

12 Solomon then assumed his father David’s throne, and his kingdom was firmly established.

Adonijah asks for Abishag

13 Later, Haggith’s son Adonijah approached Solomon’s mother. “Are you here on a peaceful mission?” she asked.

“Yes,” he replied. 14 “I have something to ask you about.”

“Talk,” she told him.

15 So he replied, “You know that the kingdom should have come to me, and that everyone in Israel intended to place me as the next[a] king. However, the kingdom has turned around and now belongs to my brother, because it went to him from the Lord. 16 So now I’m asking one thing from you. Don’t refuse me.”

“Talk,” she told him.

17 Then he asked her, “Please talk to King Solomon for me, since he won’t refuse you. Ask him to give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife.”

18 “Very well,” Bathsheba replied. “I’ll talk to the king for you.” 19 So Bathsheba went to talk to King Solomon for Adonijah. The king rose to meet her, bowed to her, and sat down on his throne. He ordered a throne be set in place for his mother. She sat on a throne to his right 20 and told him,[b] “I would like to make a minor request of you. Please don’t refuse me.”

“What is your request, mother?” the king asked her. “I won’t turn you down.”

21 So she asked him, “Give Abishag the Shunammite to your brother Adonijah as a wife.”

22 But King Solomon replied to his mother, “Why are you asking Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Why not ask me to give up the kingdom for him, since he’s my older brother, and why not ask[c] for Abiathar the priest, and for Zeruiah’s son Joab?”

23 Then King Solomon took this oath in the name of the Lord: “May God do so to me, and more besides, if Adonijah hasn’t endangered his life by bringing up this subject. 24 Now therefore, as the Lord lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of my father David, and who has established a dynasty, just like he promised, Adonijah will surely be executed today.” 25 So King Solomon sent for Jehoiada’s son Benaiah, who attacked and killed Adonijah.[d]

26 The king also told Abiathar the priest, “Go home to Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I won’t kill you today, because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David and because you shared all the troubles that my father went through.” 27 So Solomon fired Abiathar as the Lord’s priest, thus fulfilling the promise that the Lord had spoken in Shiloh concerning Eli’s household.[e]

Joab is Executed

28 When Joab learned what had happened, he ran to the Lord’s tent and grabbed hold of the horns of the altar, since Joab had supported Adonijah (though he had not supported Absalom). 29 Somebody informed King Solomon, “Joab just ran to the Lord’s tent and now he’s standing beside the altar!”

But Solomon ordered Jehoiada’s son Benaiah, “Go kill him!”

30 So Benaiah went into the Lord’s tent and told Joab,[f] “The king orders you to come out!”

“No,” Joab said, “I’d rather die here!”

So Benaiah went and informed the king, “This is how Joab answered me.”

31 The king replied to him, “Do just what he asked. Kill him and bury him so that you may remove from me and from my father’s household the guilt that Joab shed needlessly. 32 The Lord will repay him for his bloodshed because, without my father David’s consent he attacked and murdered two men more righteous and better than he, Ner’s son Abner, the commander of Israel’s army and Jether’s son Amasa, commander of Judah’s army. 33 May their blood be repaid to Joab and to his descendants forever, and may there be peace shown from the Lord forever to David, to his descendants, to his household, and to his throne.”

34 Jehoiada’s son Benaiah then approached Joab, attacked him, killed him, and had him buried at Joab’s[g] home in the wilderness. 35 The king appointed Jehoiada’s son Benaiah in charge of the army to replace Joab and also appointed Zadok the priest to replace Abiathar.

Shimei is Executed

36 The king sent for Shimei and told him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but don’t go anywhere from there. 37 If you ever leave and cross the Kidron Brook, you can be sure that you’ll die. You’ll be responsible for your own death.”

38 Shimei replied to the king, “What your majesty has decreed is acceptable to me. I’ll do what you’ve said.” So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for quite some time. 39 But three years later, two of Shimei’s servants escaped to Maacah’s son Achish, the king of Gath.

Somebody told Shimei, “Look! Your servants went to Gath!” 40 So Shimei got up, saddled a donkey, and traveled to Gath to find his servants. He found them and brought them back from Gath.

41 Later, Solomon found out that Shimei had left Jerusalem, gone to Gath, and had returned, 42 so the king sent for Shimei and asked him, “Didn’t I make a promise to the Lord and warn you, ‘The day you leave and go anywhere else, you can be sure you’ll die’? And you told me, ‘What your majesty has decreed is acceptable to me.’ 43 So why haven’t you kept the oath you made to the Lord, and why didn’t you obey my personal order to you?”

44 The king also reminded Shimei, “You know all the evil things that you admit you did to my father David. Therefore the Lord is going to repay you for[h] all of your evil. 45 But King Solomon will be blessed, and David’s throne will be established in the presence of the Lord forever.” 46 So the king gave orders to Jehoiada’s son Benaiah to go out, attack Shimei, and kill him. That is how the kingdom was established under Solomon’s control.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 2:15 The Heb. lacks the next
  2. 1 Kings 2:20 The Heb. lacks to him
  3. 1 Kings 2:22 The Heb. lacks why not ask
  4. 1 Kings 2:25 Lit. him
  5. 1 Kings 2:27 Cf. 1Sam 2:27-36
  6. 1 Kings 2:30 Lit. him
  7. 1 Kings 2:34 Lit. his
  8. 1 Kings 2:44 Lit. repay on your head
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