1 Reyes 2

David’s last charge to Solomon

¹When the time came near for David to die, he gave a charge to his son Solomon: ²“I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong, then, and show yourself a man. ³Keep what the LORD your God has entrusted to you: walk in his ways and keep his statutes, his commandments, his rulings, and his decrees, as they are written in the law of Moses. Then you will act wisely and succeed in all you do and wherever you turn, ⁴so that the LORD may keep the promise he made about me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, walking faithfully before me with all their heart and all their soul, there will always be a man of your line on the throne of Israel.’ ⁵You also know how Joab son of Zeruiah treated me, and what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He killed them, spilling blood in a time of peace as though it were war, and he stained the belt at his waist and the sandals on his feet with that blood of war. ⁶Act as your wisdom tells you, but do not allow his gray head to go down in peace to Sheol.

⁷But show faithful love to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite; give them a place among those who eat at your table, for they came to my side in just that way when I was fleeing from your brother Absalom. ⁸There is also Shimei son of Gera with you, the Benjaminite from Bahurim. He hurled bitter curses at me on the day I set out for Mahanaim. But he came down to the Jordan to meet me, and I gave him my oath by the LORD: ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ ⁹But now, do not treat him as innocent. You are a wise man; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to Sheol in blood.” ¹⁰Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David.

The death of David

¹¹David’s reign over Israel lasted forty years: seven of them he reigned in Hebron, and thirty-three in Jerusalem. ¹²So Solomon took his seat on the throne of his father David, and his royal rule was made very firm. ¹³Then Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She asked, “Have you come in peace?” “Yes, in peace,” he answered. ¹⁴Then he said, “I have something to say to you.” “Say it,” she replied. ¹⁵He said, “You know that the kingship was mine. All Israel looked to me to be king. But the kingship changed hands and went to my brother, because it came to him from the LORD. ¹⁶Now I have one request to ask of you. Do not refuse me.” “Say it,” she replied. ¹⁷He said, “Please ask King Solomon, for he will not refuse you, to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.” ¹⁸“Very well,” said Bathsheba. “I will speak on your behalf to the king.” ¹⁹So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. The king stood up to meet her and bowed down to her. Then he sat down on his throne and had a throne set for the king’s mother, and she sat at his right hand. ²⁰She said, “I have one small request to ask of you. Do not refuse me.” The king answered her, “Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you.” ²¹She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given in marriage to your brother Adonijah.” ²²King Solomon answered his mother, “Why are you asking for Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? You might as well ask for the kingdom for him, since he is my older brother. Ask it for him, and for Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah too!”^a

Solomon deals with Adonijah, Abiathar and Joab

²³Then King Solomon swore by the LORD, “May God deal with me ever so severely if this request does not cost Adonijah his life! ²⁴Now, as surely as the LORD lives, who has made me secure and seated me on the throne of my father David, and has made me a house as he promised, Adonijah will be put to death today!” ²⁵So King Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who struck Adonijah down, and he died.

²⁶To Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go to your fields at Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you bore the ark of the Lord GOD before my father David and shared in all the hardships my father endured.” ²⁷So Solomon removed Abiathar from serving as priest of the LORD. This fulfilled the word the LORD had spoken about the house of Eli at Shiloh.^b

²⁸When the news reached Joab, since he had sided with Adonijah, though he had not sided with Absalom, Joab fled to the tent of the LORD and grasped the horns of the altar. ²⁹King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the LORD and was there beside the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada with the order, “Go and strike him down.”^{c 30}Benaiah went to the tent of the LORD and said to him, “The king says this: ‘Come out!’” But he said, “No, I will die here.” Benaiah took word back to the king: “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.” ³¹The king said to him, “Do as he said. Strike him down and bury him, and so take away from me and from my father’s house the guilt of the blood that Joab shed without cause. ³²The LORD will bring his blood back on his own head, because without my father David’s knowledge he attacked two men more righteous and better than himself and killed them with the sword: Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah. ³³So their blood will come back on Joab’s head and on the heads of his descendants forever. But for David and his descendants, his house and his throne, there will be peace from the LORD forever.” ³⁴So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down and killed him, and he was buried at his own home in the wilderness. ³⁵The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army in Joab’s place, and he put Zadok the priest in Abiathar’s place. ³⁶Then the king summoned Shimei and told him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and make your home there. Do not leave it to go anywhere at all. ³⁷On the day you go out and cross the Kidron Valley, you may be certain you will die. Your blood will be on your own head.” ³⁸Shimei answered the king, “What you say is fair. Your servant will do just as my lord the king has said.” So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.

The death of Shimei

³⁹But three years later two slaves belonging to Shimei ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. Shimei was told, “Your slaves are in Gath.” ⁴⁰So Shimei got up, saddled his donkey, and went to Achish at Gath to look for his slaves. Shimei went and brought his slaves back from Gath. ⁴¹Word reached Solomon that Shimei had left Jerusalem for Gath and had come back. ⁴²Then the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Did I not have you swear by the LORD, and did I not warn you, ‘The day you leave and go anywhere at all, you can be sure that you will die’? And you said to me, ‘What you say is fair; I will obey.’ ⁴³Why then have you failed to keep your oath to the LORD and the command I gave you?” ⁴⁴The king also said to Shimei, “You know in your heart all the wrong you did to my father David. Now the LORD will bring your wrongdoing back on your own head. ⁴⁵But King Solomon will be blessed, and David’s throne will stand firm before the LORD forever.” ⁴⁶Then the king gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who went out and struck Shimei down, and he died. So the kingdom was made secure in Solomon’s hand.^d