Kings III 2:13-38

¹³And Adonias the son of Aggith came in to Bersabee the mother of Solomon, and did obeisance to her: and she said, Dost thou enter peaceably? and he said, Peaceably:

¹⁴I have business with thee. And she said to him, Say on.

¹⁵And he said to her, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and all Israel turned their face toward me for a king; but the kingdom was turned from me and became my brother's: for it was appointed to him from the Lord.

¹⁶And now I make one request of thee, do not turn away thy face. And Bersabee said to him, Speak on.

¹⁷And he said to her, Speak, I pray thee, to king Solomon, for he will not turn away his face from thee, and let him give me Abisag the Somanite for a wife.

¹⁸And Bersabee said, Well; I will speak for thee to the king.

¹⁹And Bersabee went in to king Solomon to speak to him concerning Adonias; and the king rose up to meet her, and kissed her, and sat on the throne, and a throne was set for the mother of the king, and she sat on his right hand.

²⁰And she said to him, I ask of thee one little request; turn not away my face from thee. And the king said to her, Ask, my mother, and I will not reject thee.

²¹And she said, Let, I pray thee, Abisag the Somanite be given to Adonias thy brother to wife.

²²And king Solomon answered and said to his mother, And why hast thou asked Abisag for Adonias? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother, and he has for his companion Abiathar the priest, and Joab the son of Saruia the commander-in-chief.

²³And king Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if it be not that Adonias has spoken this word against his own life.

²⁴And now as the Lord lives who has established me, and set me on the throne of my father David, and he has made me a house, as the Lord spoke, this day shall Adonias be put to death.

²⁵So king Solomon sent by the hand of Banæas the son of Jodae, and he slew him, and Adonias died in that day.

²⁶And the king said to Abiathar the priest, Depart thou quickly to Anathoth to thy farm, for thou art worthy of death this day; but I will not slay thee, because thou hast borne the ark of the covenant of the Lord before my father, and because thou wast afflicted in all things wherein my father was afflicted.

²⁷And Solomon removed Abiathar from being a priest of the Lord, that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he spoke concerning the house of Heli in Selom.

²⁸And the report came to Joab son of Saruia; for Joab had turned after Adonias, and he went not after Solomon: and Joab fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold of the horns of the altar.

²⁹And it was told Solomon, saying, Joab has fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and lo! he has hold of the horns of the altar. And king Solomon sent to Joab, saying, What ails thee, that thou hast fled to the altar? and Joab said, Because I was afraid of thee, and fled for refuge to the Lord. And Solomon sent Banæas son of Jodae, saying, Go and slay him, and bury him.

³⁰And Banæas son of Jodae came to Joab to the tabernacle of the Lord, and said to him, Thus says the king, Come forth. And Joab said, I will not come forth, for I will die here. And Banæas son of Jodae returned and spoke to the king, saying, Thus has Joab spoken, and thus has he answered me.

³¹And the king said to him, Go, and do to him as he has spoken, and kill him: and thou shalt bury him, and thou shalt remove this day the blood which he shed without cause, from me and from the house of my father.

³²And the Lord has returned upon his own head the blood of his unrighteousness, inasmuch as he attacked two men more righteous and better than himself, and slew them with the sword, and my father David knew not of their blood, even Abenner the son of Ner the commander-in-chief of Israel, and Amessa the son of Jether the commander-in-chief of Juda.

³³And their blood is returned upon his head, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but to David, and his seed, and his house, and his throne, may there be peace for ever from the Lord.

³⁴So Banæas son of Jodae went up, and attacked him, and slew him, and buried him in his house in the wilderness.

³⁵And the king appointed Banæas son of Jodae in his place over the host; and the kingdom was established in Jerusalem; and as for Sadoc the priest, the king appointed him to be high priest in the room of Abiathar. And Solomon son of David reigned over Israel and Juda in Jerusalem:

^35aand the Lord gave understanding to Solomon, and very much wisdom, and largeness of heart, as the sand by the sea-shore.

^35bAnd the wisdom of Solomon abounded exceedingly beyond the wisdom of all the ancients, and beyond all the wise men of Egypt;

^35cand he took the daughter of Pharao, and brought her into the city of David, until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the Lord first, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. In seven years he made and finished them.

^35dAnd Solomon had seventy thousand bearers of burdens, and eighty thousand hewers of stone in the mountain:

^35eand Solomon made the sea, and the bases, and the great lavers, and the pillars, and the fountain of the court, and the brazen sea— and he built the citadel as a defence above it, he made a breach in the wall of the city of David;

^35fthus the daughter of Pharao went up out of the city of David to her house which he built for her. Then he built the citadel;

^35gand Solomon offered up three whole-burnt-offerings in the year, and peace-offerings on the altar which he built to the Lord, and he burnt incense before the Lord, and finished the house.

^35hAnd these are the chief persons who presided over the works of Solomon; three thousand and six hundred masters of the people that wrought the works.

³⁵ⁱAnd he built Assur, and Magdo, and Gazer, and upper Bæthoron, and Ballath:

^35konly after he had built the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about, afterwards he built these cities.

^35lAnd when David was yet living, he charged Solomon, saying, Behold, there is with thee Semei the son of Gera, of the seed of Benjamin out of Chebron:

^35mhe cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went into the camp;

³⁵ⁿand he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, He shall not be slain with the sword.

^35oBut now do not thou hold him guiltless, for thou art a man of understanding, and thou wilt know what thou shalt do to him, and thou shalt bring down his grey hairs with blood to the grave.

³⁶And the king called Semei, and said to him, Build thee a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and thou shalt not go out thence any whither.

³⁷And it shall come to pass in the day that thou shalt go forth and cross over the brook Kedron, know assuredly that thou shalt certainly die: thy blood shall be upon thine head. And the king caused him to swear in that day.

³⁸And Semei said to the king, Good is the word that thou hast spoken, my lord O king: thus will thy servant do. And Semei dwelt in Jerusalem three years.