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1 Kings 1:1-2:46

KINGS 1. King DAVID in his old age. (1Kgs.1.1-4)

1¹King David was now a very old man, and though wrapped in bedclothes he could not keep warm. ²So his servants said to him, 'Let us find a young girl for my lord the king, to wait on the king and look after him; she will lie close beside you and this will keep my lord the king warm.' ³Having searched for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel, they found Abishag of Shunem and brought her to the king. ⁴The girl was very beautiful. She looked after the king and waited on him but the king did not have intercourse with her.

Adonijah claims the throne. (1Kgs.1.5-10)

⁵Now Adonijah son of Haggith was growing pretentious and saying, 'I shall be king!' Accordingly, he procured a chariot and team with fifty guards to run ahead of him. ⁶Never once in his life had his father crossed him by saying, 'Why are you behaving like that?' He was very handsome too; his mother had given birth to him after Absalom. ⁷He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, who both rallied to Adonijah's cause; ⁸but neither Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah son of Jehoiada, nor the prophet Nathan, nor Shimei and Rei, nor David's champions, supported Adonijah. ⁹One day when Adonijah was sacrificing sheep, oxen and fattened calves at the Sliding Stone which is beside the Fuller's Spring, he invited all his brothers, the royal princes, and all the men of Judah in the king's service; ¹⁰but he did not invite the prophet Nathan, or Benaiah, or the champions, or his brother Solomon.

SOLOMON is made king. (976 BCE) (1Kgs.1.11-53)

¹¹Nathan then said to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, 'Have you not heard that, unknown to our lord David, Adonijah son of Haggith has become king? ¹²Well, this is my advice to you if you want to save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. ¹³Go straight in to King David and say, 'My lord king, did you not make your servant this promise on oath: Your son Solomon is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne? How is it, then, that Adonijah is king?' ¹⁴And while you are still there talking to the king, I shall come in after you and confirm what you say.' ¹⁵So Bathsheba went to the king in his room (he was very old and Abishag of Shunem was in attendance on him). ¹⁶She knelt, prostrated herself before the king, and the king said, 'What do you want?' ¹⁷'My lord,' she replied, 'you swore to your servant by Yahweh your God, 'Your son Solomon is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne.' ¹⁸And now here is Adonijah king, and you, my lord king, knowing nothing about it! ¹⁹He has sacrificed quantities of oxen, fattened calves and sheep, and invited all the royal princes, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the army commander; but he has not invited your servant Solomon. ²⁰Yet you are the man, my lord king, to whom all Israel looks, to tell them who is to succeed my lord the king. ²¹And when my lord the king falls asleep with his ancestors, Solomon and I shall be made to suffer for this.' ²²She was still speaking to the king when the prophet Nathan came in. ²³The king was told, 'The prophet Nathan is here'; and he came into the king's presence and prostrated himself on his face before the king. ²⁴'My lord king,' said Nathan, 'is this, then, your decree, 'Adonijah is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne'? ²⁵For he has gone down today and sacrificed quantities of oxen, fattened calves and sheep, and invited all the royal princes, the army commanders, and the priest Abiathar; and they are there now, eating and drinking in his presence and shouting, 'Long live King Adonijah!' ²⁶He has not, however, invited me your servant, Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, or your servant Solomon. ²⁷Can it be that this is done with my lord the king's approval and that you have not told those loyal to you who is to succeed to the throne of my lord the king?' ²⁸King David then spoke. 'Call Bathsheba to me,' he said. And she came into the king's presence and stood before him. ²⁹Then the king swore this oath, 'As Yahweh lives, who has delivered me from all adversity, ³⁰just as I swore to you by Yahweh, God of Israel, that your son Solomon should be king after me and take my place on my throne, so I shall bring it about this very day.' ³¹Bathsheba knelt down, prostrated herself on her face before the king and said, 'May my lord King David live for ever!' ³²Then King David said, 'Summon Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.' So they came into the king's presence. ³³'Take the royal guard with you,' said the king, 'mount my son Solomon on my own mule and escort him down to Gihon. ³⁴There Zadok the priest and the prophet Nathan are to anoint him king of Israel; then sound the trumpet and shout, 'Long live King Solomon!' ³⁵Then you are to escort him back, and he is then to assume my throne and be king in place of me, for he is the man whom I have appointed as ruler of Israel and of Judah.' ³⁶Benaiah son of Jehoiada answered the king. 'Amen!' he said. 'And may Yahweh, God of my lord the king, confirm it! ³⁷As Yahweh has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon and make his throne even greater than the throne of my lord King David!' ³⁸Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and Pelethites then went down; they mounted Solomon on King David's mule and escorted him to Gihon. ³⁹Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the Tent and anointed Solomon. They sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, 'Long live King Solomon!' ⁴⁰The people all escorted him back, with pipes playing and loud rejoicing and shouts to split the earth. ⁴¹Adonijah and his guests, who had by then finished their meal, all heard the noise. Joab too heard the sound of the trumpet and said, 'What is that noise of uproar in the city?' ⁴²While he was still speaking, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest arrived. 'Come in,' Adonijah said, 'you are an honest man, so you must be bringing good news.' ⁴³'The truth is,' Jonathan answered, 'our lord King David has made Solomon king. ⁴⁴With him, the king sent Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada and the Cherethites and Pelethites; they mounted him on the king's mule, ⁴⁵and Zadok the priest and the prophet Nathan have anointed him king at Gihon; and they have gone back again with shouts of joy and the city is now in an uproar; that was the noise you heard. ⁴⁶What is more, Solomon is seated on the royal throne. ⁴⁷And further, the king's officers have been to congratulate our lord King David with the words, 'May your God make the name of Solomon more glorious than yours, and his throne more exalted than your own!' And the king bowed down on his bed, ⁴⁸and then said, 'Blessed be Yahweh, God of Israel, for setting one of my own sons on the throne while I am still alive to see it!' ' ⁴⁹At this, all Adonijah's guests, taking fright, got up and made off in their several directions. ⁵⁰Adonijah, in terror of Solomon, got up and ran off to cling to the horns of the altar. ⁵¹Solomon was told, 'You should know that Adonijah is terrified of King Solomon and is now clinging to the horns of the altar, saying, 'Let King Solomon first swear to me that he will not have his servant executed.' ' ⁵²'Should he bear himself honourably,' Solomon answered, 'not one hair of his shall fall to the ground; but if he proves difficult, he shall die.' ⁵³King Solomon then sent for him to be brought down from the altar; he came and threw himself Prostrate before King Solomon; Solomon said to him, 'Go to your house.'

David's last instructions. (1Kgs.2.1-9)

2¹As David's life drew to its close he laid this charge on his son Solomon, ²'I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong and show yourself a man. ³Observe the injunctions of Yahweh your God, following his ways and keeping his laws, his commandments, his ordinances and his decrees, as stands written in the Law of Moses, so that you may be successful in everything you do and undertake, ⁴and that Yahweh may fulfil the promise which he made me, 'If your sons are careful how they behave, and walk loyally before me with all their heart and soul, you will never want for a man on the throne of Israel.' ⁵'You know too what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the army of Israel, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether; how he murdered them, shedding the blood of war in time of peace and staining the belt round my waist and the sandals on my feet with the blood of war. ⁶You will be wise not to let his grey head go down to Sheol in peace. ⁷As regards the sons of Barzillai of Gilead, treat them with faithful love, let them be among those who eat at your table, for they were as kind to me when I was fleeing from your brother Absalom. ⁸You also have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim. He called down a terrible curse on me the day I left for Mahanaim, but he came down to meet me at the Jordan and I swore to him by Yahweh that I would not put him to death. ⁹But you, you must not let him go unpunished; you are a wise man and will know how to deal with him, to bring his grey head down to Sheol in blood.'

Death of David. (1Kgs.2.10-12)

¹⁰So David fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. ¹¹David was king of Israel for a period of forty years: he reigned at Hebron for seven years, and in Jerusalem for thirty-three. ¹²Solomon then sat on the throne of David, and his sovereignty was securely established.

Death of Adonijah. (1Kgs.2.13-25)

¹³Adonijah son of Haggith went to Bathsheba mother of Solomon. 'Do you bring peace?' she asked. He replied, 'Yes, peace.' ¹⁴Then he said, 'I have something to say to you.' 'Say on,' she replied. ¹⁵'You know', he said, 'that the kingdom should have come to me, and that all Israel expected me to be king; but the crown eluded me and fell to my brother, since it came to him from Yahweh. ¹⁶Now I have one request to make you; do not refuse me.' 'Go on,' she said. ¹⁷He went on, 'Please ask King Solomon—for he will not refuse you—to give me Abishag of Shunem in marriage.' ¹⁸'Very well,' Bathsheba replied, 'I shall speak to the king about you.' ¹⁹So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah; the king got up to meet her and bowed before her; he then sat down on his throne; a seat was brought for the king's mother, and she sat down on his right. ²⁰She said, 'I have one small request to make you; do not refuse me.' 'Mother,' the king replied, 'make your request, for I shall not refuse you.' ²¹'Let Abishag of Shunem', she said, 'be given in marriage to your brother Adonijah.' ²²King Solomon replied to his mother, 'And why do you request Abishag of Shunem for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him, since he is my elder brother and Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah are on his side.' ²³And King Solomon swore by Yahweh: 'May God bring unnameable ills on me, and worse ills, too,' he said, 'if Adonijah does not pay for these words of his with his life! ²⁴As Yahweh lives who has set me securely on the throne of my father David, and who, as he promised, has given him a dynasty, Adonijah shall be put to death this very day.' ²⁵And King Solomon commissioned Benaiah son of Jehoiada to strike him down, and that was how he died.

Abiathar's banishment - death of Joab. (1Kgs.2.26-35)

²⁶As for Abiathar the priest, the king said to him, 'Go to Anathoth to your estate. You deserve to die, but I am not going to put you to death now, since you carried the ark of Yahweh in the presence of my father David and shared all my father's hardships.' ²⁷Solomon deprived Abiathar of the priesthood of Yahweh, thus fulfilling the prophecy which Yahweh had uttered against the House of Eli at Shiloh. ²⁸When the news reached Joab—for Joab had lent his support to Adonijah, though he had not supported Absalom—he fled to the Tent of Yahweh and clung to the horns of the altar. ²⁹King Solomon was told, 'Joab has fled to the Tent of Yahweh; he is there beside the altar.' On this, Solomon sent word to Joab, 'What reason did you have for fleeing to the altar?' Joab replied, 'I was afraid of you and fled to Yahweh.' Solomon then sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada. 'Go', he said, 'and strike him down.' ³⁰Accordingly Benaiah went to the Tent of Yahweh. 'By order of the king,' he said, 'come out!' 'No,' he said, 'I will die here.' So Benaiah brought word back to the king, 'This is what Joab said, and the answer he gave me.' ³¹'Do as he says,' the king replied. 'Strike him down and bury him, and so rid me and my family today of the innocent blood which Joab has shed. ³²Yahweh will bring his blood down on his own head, because he struck down two more upright and better men than he, and, without my father David's knowledge, put to the sword Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah. ³³May their blood come down on the head of Joab and his descendants for ever, but may David, his descendants, his dynasty, his throne, have peace for ever from Yahweh.' ³⁴Whereupon Benaiah son of Jehoiada went out, struck Joab down and put him to death; he was buried at his home in the desert. ³⁵In his place as head of the army the king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada and, in place of Abiathar, the priest Zadok.

Death of Shimei. (1Kgs.2.36-46)

³⁶The king had Shimei summoned to him. 'Build yourself a house in Jerusalem,' he told him. 'You are to live there; do not leave it to go anywhere at all. ³⁷The day you go out and cross the ravine of the Kidron, be sure you will certainly die. Your blood will be on your own head.' ³⁸'That is a fair demand,' Shimei replied to the king, 'your servant will do as my lord the king orders.' And for a long time Shimei lived in Jerusalem. ³⁹But when three years had gone by, it happened that two of Shimei's slaves ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath; Shimei was told, 'Your slaves are in Gath.' ⁴⁰On this, Shimei got up and saddled his donkey and went to Akish at Gath to find his slaves. He went off and brought his slaves back from Gath. ⁴¹Solomon was informed that Shimei had left Jerusalem for Gath and come back again. ⁴²The king had Shimei summoned to him. 'Did I not make you swear by Yahweh,' he said, 'and did I not warn you, 'The day you leave to go anywhere at all, be sure you will certainly die'? To which you replied, 'That is a fair demand.' ⁴³Why did you not keep the oath to Yahweh and the order which I imposed on you?' ⁴⁴The king then said to Shimei, 'You know well all the evil you did to my father David. Yahweh is about to bring your wickedness down on your own head. ⁴⁵But may King Solomon be blessed, and may the throne of David be kept secure before Yahweh for ever!' ⁴⁶The king gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he went out and struck Shimei down; and that was how he died. And now the kingdom was securely in Solomon's hands.