1 *Kings 2

₁The time for David to die had come and he told his son Solomon: ₂‘I am going to die, like all people. You must be strong, and you must be a brave man. ₃You must do what the Lord your God has said. You must live as He wants. You must listen to Him and always do what God tells you and teaches you, and everything that Moses has written in the laws. Then you will succeed in everything you do and everywhere you go. ₄Then the Lord will do what He promised when He said: “If your children continue to listen to Me, and if they do what I want with all their hearts and lives, then one of your descendants will always be king and sit on the throne of Israel.”

₅You know what Joab, son of Zeruiah, did to me and what he did to the 2 chiefs of the army of Israel. He killed Abner, son of Ner, and Amasa, son of Jether. He killed them like people kill other people in war, but it was in a time of peace. ₆You must do with him what you think is right. He is an old man, but you must not let him die in peace just because he is old.

₇Remember the sons of Barzillai of Gilead are your friends. You must let them eat at your table because they did that for me when I had to flee from your brother Absalom. ₈Shimei, son of Gera, is still here with you. He is a man of Benjamin, from the town of Bahurim. He is the one who cursed me and made me very sad when I went to the town of Mahanaim. Later he came to meet me at the Jordan River and I promised him that I would not kill him with a sword, and the Lord was my Witness. ₉But now you must not let him get away. You must punish him. You are a wise man, and you will know what you must do with him. He is an old man, but his blood must flow. He must die.’

₁₀Then David died and they buried him in the City of David. ₁₁He was king for 40 years, 7 years in Hebron and 33 years in Jerusalem. ₁₂His son Solomon became king and he sat on the throne of his father David. Everyone accepted that he was the king.

₁₃Adonijah, son of Haggith, came to Solomon's mother Bathsheba and Bathsheba asked him: ‘Do you come as a friend?’ Adonijah said: ‘Yes, I come as a friend. ₁₄I want to talk to you about something.’ Bathsheba said: ‘You may speak.’ ₁₅Then Adonijah said: ‘You know that I would have become king and that all the Israelites accepted me. But the Lord decided something else and my brother became king. ₁₆Now there is one thing I want to ask you, and you must not say no.’ Bathsheba said: ‘You may ask me.’

₁₇Then Adonijah said: ‘Will you please talk to King Solomon, because he will not say no to you. Ask him if I can marry Abishag from Shunem.’ ₁₈Bathsheba said: ‘Yes, I will go to the king and tell him what you have asked.’

₁₉Bathsheba went to the king to talk to him about Adonijah. The king stood up and he came to meet her. He bowed before her and then he went to sit on his throne. He told his officials to bring another throne for his mother to sit on his right hand side. ₂₀She said: ‘I want to ask you something. Please do not say no.’ The king said to her: ‘Mother, you may ask me. I will not say no to you.’ ₂₁She said: ‘You must give Abishag from Shunem to Adonijah your brother so that he can marry her.’

₂₂King Solomon answered his mother and said: ‘Why do you ask me to give Abishag from Shunem to Adonijah? It is the same as if you ask me that Adonijah must be king in my place. He is my older brother and the priest Abiathar and Joab, son of Zeruiah, also want Adonijah to be king.’

₂₃King Solomon said: ‘The Lord is my Witness and He must punish me if I let Adonijah live after he has asked this of me. ₂₄As sure as the Lord lives, who made me king and made me sit on the throne of my father David, who made my family royal family as He promised, so surely Adonijah will die today.’

₂₅King Solomon told Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, to kill Adonijah and he did it.

₂₆The king told the priest Abiathar: ‘You must go and stay on your land in Anathoth. I should kill you now, but I will not do it because you have carried the covenant box of the Lord before my father David, and you have suffered with him.’ ₂₇That is how Solomon stopped Abiathar from being a priest and then the words became true that the Lord had said to the family of Eli in the town of Shiloh.

₂₈When they told Joab what had happened, he ran to the tent of the Lord and he held on to the horns_of_the_altar. He had not helped Absalom when he wanted to become king, but now he had tried to help Adonijah to be king. ₂₉When they told King Solomon that Joab had gone to the tent of the Lord and that he was standing at the altar, he sent Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, and told him to kill Joab. ₃₀Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and he said to Joab: ‘The king says you must come out.’ But Joab said: ‘I will not go out. I want to die here.’

Benaiah told the king what Joab had said ₃₁and the king told Benaiah: ‘You must do what he said. Kill him and bury him. Then the people will not accuse me and my family anymore and say that we have killed innocent people. It was Joab who killed them. ₃₂The Lord will punish Joab because he killed 2 good men, men who were better than he was. Joab killed them with a sword but my father David did not know about it. Joab killed Abner, son of Ner, who was the chief of the army of Israel, and Amasa, son of Jether, chief of the army of Judah. ₃₃Joab and his descendants will always be guilty because he killed those men, but the Lord will be good to David and his descendants, his family and his government.’

₃₄Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, went and he killed Joab. They buried Joab at his home in the desert. ₃₅The king chose Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, to be the chief of the army in place of Joab, and he chose the priest Zadok in place of Abiathar.

₃₆The king called Shimei and he said to him: ‘You must build a house in Jerusalem and you must stay there. Do not leave the city. ₃₇If you leave your house and go over the Kidron Valley, you will die, and it will be your own fault, this is sure.’ ₃₈Shimei said to the king: ‘Your_Majesty, what you said is good, and I will do that.’

Shimei stayed in Jerusalem for a long time ₃₉but 3 years later, 2 of his slaves ran away to King Achish, son of Maakah from the town of Gath. They told Shimei that his slaves were in Gath. ₄₀He put a saddle on his donkey and he went to Achish in Gath to look for his slaves and he brought them back from Gath. ₄₁The people told Solomon that Shimei had gone away from Jerusalem to Gath and that he had come back. ₄₂Solomon then called Shimei and said to him: ‘Can you remember that I warned you and made you promise before God? I said if you left the city and went to another place, you would die, this was sure. And you told me that it was good, and you understood. ₄₃Why didn't you do what you had promised before the Lord? Why have you not done what I told you?’ ₄₄The king also said to Shimei: ‘You know that you are a bad person. You know what you did against my father David. The Lord will now punish you for what you did. ₄₅But the Lord will keep on being good to me and there will always be one of David's descendants on his throne before the Lord.’ ₄₆The king then sent Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, to kill Shimei. Everyone then knew and accepted that Solomon was king.