The Kingdom Established in Solomon's Hand
13 Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. She said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably. 14 He said moreover, I have something to tell you.” She said, “Say on.” 15 He said, “You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign. However, the kingdom is turned around, and has become my brother’s; for it was his from Yahweh. 16 Now I ask one petition of you. Don’t deny me.” She said to him, “Say on.” 17 He said, “Please speak to Solomon the king (for he will not tell you ‘no’), that he give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.” 18 Bathsheba said, “All right. I will speak for you to the king.” 19 Bathsheba therefore went to King Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne and caused a throne to be set for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right hand. 20 Then she said, “I ask one small petition of you; don’t deny me.” The king said to her, “Ask on, my mother, for I will not deny you.” 21 She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.” 22 King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is my elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.” 23 Then King Solomon swore by Yahweh, saying, “God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life. 24 Now therefore as Yahweh lives, who has established me and set me on my father David’s throne, and who has made me a house as he promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death today.” 25 King Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell on him, so that he died. 26 To Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go to Anathoth, to your own fields, for you are worthy of death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the Lord Yahweh’s ark before David my father, and because you were afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted.” 27 So Solomon thrust Abiathar out from being priest to Yahweh, that he might fulfill Yahweh’s word which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. 28 This news came to Joab; for Joab had followed Adonijah, although he didn’t follow Absalom. Joab fled to Yahweh’s Tent, and held onto the horns of the altar. 29 King Solomon was told, “Joab has fled to Yahweh’s Tent; and behold, he is by the altar.” Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, fall on him.” 30 Benaiah came to Yahweh’s Tent, and said to him, “The king says, ‘Come out!’” He said, “No; but I will die here.” Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.” 31 The king said to him, “Do as he has said, and fall on him, and bury him, that you may take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father’s house. 32 Yahweh will return his blood on his own head, because he fell on two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, and my father David didn’t know it: Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah. 33 So their blood will return on the head of Joab and on the head of his offspring forever. But for David, for his offspring, for his house, and for his throne, there will be peace forever from Yahweh.” 34 Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and fell on him, and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. 35 The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army; and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar. 36 The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and live there, and don’t go anywhere else. 37 For on the day you go out and pass over the brook Kidron, know for certain that you will surely die. Your blood will be on your own head.” 38 Shimei said to the king, “What you say is good. As my lord the king has said, so will your servant do.” Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days. 39 At the end of three years, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. They told Shimei, saying, “Behold, your slaves are in Gath.” 40 Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his slaves; and Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath. 41 Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had come again. 42 The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, “Didn’t I adjure you by Yahweh and warn you, saying, ‘Know for certain that on the day you go out and walk anywhere else, you shall surely die’? You said to me, ‘The saying that I have heard is good.’ 43 Why then have you not kept the oath of Yahweh and the commandment that I have instructed you with?” 44 The king said moreover to Shimei, “You know in your heart all the wickedness that you did to David my father. Therefore Yahweh will return your wickedness on your own head. 45 But King Solomon will be blessed, and David’s throne will be established before Yahweh forever.” 46 So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out, and fell on him, so that he died. The kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.
Four accounts settled in one chapter — a request for a nurse that was a claim on a throne, and an old oracle discharged by a royal decree.
He said, “Please speak to Solomon the king (for he will not tell you ‘no’), that he give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.”
Adonijah's approach to Bathsheba is smooth and its opening is revealing: you know that the kingdom was mine... however, the kingdom is turned around, and has become my brother's; for it was his from Yahweh 1 Kings 2:15. He concedes God's decision and then immediately tests it. Abishag had been brought to David's bed as his nurse; possession of a dead king's woman was a public claim on his throne, as Abner's case and Absalom's had already established 2 Samuel 3:7 2 Samuel 16:21. It is a coup attempt made in the form of a favor.
King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is my elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.”
Solomon reads it instantly and names the other two members of the old coalition in the same breath. Whether Bathsheba understood what she was carrying, the narrative does not say — the king rises and bows to her and sets a throne at his right hand 1 Kings 2:19 before hearing the request, which makes the refusal that follows all the sharper. The condition of the pardon was if wickedness is found in him 1 Kings 1:52, and by the terms stated in advance, it has been.
So Solomon thrust Abiathar out from being priest to Yahweh, that he might fulfill Yahweh’s word which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
Abiathar is spared for carrying the ark and sharing David's afflictions, and exiled to his fields at Anathoth. And the narrator stops the political narrative to say what has actually happened: a word spoken to a boy in a dark sanctuary generations earlier 1 Samuel 2:31–35 has just been discharged by a royal decree about a priest's retirement. This is the book's method announcing itself in its second chapter — kings make policy, and God's spoken word is what the policy turns out to be executing.
28 This news came to Joab; for Joab had followed Adonijah, although he didn’t follow Absalom. Joab fled to Yahweh’s Tent, and held onto the horns of the altar. 29 King Solomon was told, “Joab has fled to Yahweh’s Tent; and behold, he is by the altar.” Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, fall on him.” 30 Benaiah came to Yahweh’s Tent, and said to him, “The king says, ‘Come out!’” He said, “No; but I will die here.” Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.”
Joab takes the sanctuary his own victims never had, and refuses to come out. Solomon's order is grounded in law rather than in grudge — the altar is no refuge for deliberate murder Exodus 21:14 — and the reasoning is stated: he fell on two men more righteous and better than he... and my father David didn't know it 1 Kings 2:32. The blood is returned to the head that shed it, and the throne is cleared of it. The man who was too hard for David dies by the altar he ran to.
The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and live there, and don’t go anywhere else.
Shimei's terms are generous and precise, he accepts them, and three years later he crosses the boundary to recover two runaway slaves. The charge Solomon brings is the broken oath rather than the old cursing 1 Kings 2:43 — a man executed on a condition he agreed to in front of witnesses. Readers may still find the whole sequence colder than they would like; the narrative's own verdict is the last line, which is not a moral endorsement but a statement of fact: the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon 1 Kings 2:46.
settled What this mark means