1 Kings 2:4-28

⁴If you continually do that, Yahweh will do what he promised me: He said, ‘If your descendants do what I tell them to do, and faithfully obey my commands with all their inner beings, they will always be LIT the ones who will rule MTY Israel.’

⁵There is something else that I want you to do. You know what Joab did to me. He killed my two army commanders, Abner and Amasa. He murdered them violently MTY during a time of peace, pretending that it was a time of war. Those two men ◄were innocent/had not done what was wrong►. But Joab killed them and caused their blood to stain his belt and his sandals.

⁶Because you are wise, do to him what you think is best for you to do, but do not allow him to become old MTY and then die IDM peacefully.

⁷But be kind to the sons of Barzillai, the man from the Gilead region, and be sure that they always have enough food to eat MTY. Do that because Barzillai helped me when I was running away from your older brother Absalom.

⁸Also, you remember Gera's son Shimei from Bahurim town in the area where the descendants of Benjamin live. You know what he did to me. He cursed me terribly on the day I left Jerusalem and went to Mahanaim town. But when he later came down to see me at the Jordan River, I solemnly promised, while Yahweh listened MTY, that I would not cause him to be executed.

⁹But now you must LIT surely punish him. You are a wise man, so you will know what you should do to him. He is an old man MTY, but be sure that he loses/sheds a lot of blood when you kill him MTY.”

¹⁰Then David died EUP and was buried in that part of Jerusalem which was called ❛The City of David❜.

¹¹David had been the king of Israel for 40 years: He ruled for seven years in Hebron and for 33 years in Jerusalem.

¹²Solomon became the ruler/king MTY to take the place of his father David and took control of all of the kingdom.

¹³One day Adonijah came to Solomon's mother Bathsheba. She said to him, “Have you come because you want things to go well?” He replied, “Yes.”

¹⁴But then he said, “I have something to ask you to do.” She said, “Tell me what you want me to do.”

¹⁵He said, “You know that all the Israeli people expected me to be their king because I am David's oldest surviving son. But that did not happen. Instead, my younger brother became king, because that is what Yahweh wanted.

¹⁶Now I have one thing that I ask you to do. Please do not refuse to do it.” She replied, “Tell me what you want me to do.”

¹⁷He said, “Please ask King Solomon to give to me Abishag, the woman from Shunem town, to be my wife. I am sure that he will not refuse.”

¹⁸Bathsheba replied, “Okay, I will speak to the king for you.”

¹⁹So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to tell him what Adonijah wanted. The king got up from his throne and went to greet her and bowed down to her. Then he sat on his throne again and asked someone to bring a chair for her. So she sat down at the king's right side.

²⁰Then she said, “I have one small thing which I want you to do; please do not say that you will not do it.” The king replied, “Mother, what do you want? I will not refuse you.”

²¹She said, “Allow Abishag to be given to your older brother Adonijah to be his wife.”

²²The king replied angrily, “What? Are you requesting me to give Abishag to Adonijah? Does he want me to allow him to rule the kingdom, too? Because he is my older brother, does he think that he should be the king? Does he think that Abiathar should be the priest instead of Zadok, and that Joab should be the army commander instead of Benaiah because they supported him when he tried to become the king?”

²³Then Solomon solemnly promised, requesting Yahweh to listen, “I wish God would strike me and kill me if I do not cause Adonijah to be executed for requesting this!

²⁴Yahweh has appointed me to be the king and placed me here to rule MTY as my father David did. He has promised that my descendants MTY will be the kings of Israel. So just as surely as Yahweh lives, I solemnly promise that Adonijah will be executed today!”

²⁵So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah to go and kill Adonijah, and Benaiah did that.

²⁶Then Solomon said to Abiathar the priest, “Go to Anathoth town, to your land there. You deserve to be killed, but I will not execute you now, because you were the one who supervised the men who carried Yahweh's Sacred Chest for David my father, and you endured all the troubles that my father endured.”

²⁷So Solomon dismissed Abiathar from being the priest of Yahweh. By doing that he caused to happen what Yahweh had said many years previously at Shiloh, that some day he would get rid of the descendants MTY of Eli.

²⁸Joab had not supported Absalom when he tried to become the king, but he had supported Adonijah. So when Joab heard what had happened, he ran to the Sacred Tent, and he grasped the projections on the corners of the altar, because he knew that no one would kill him there.