David’s Final Charge to Solomon
1When David’s time to die drew near, he charged his son Solomon, saying, 2“I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. 3Keep the charge of Yahweh your God: walk in his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you turn, 4and so that Yahweh may fulfill the word he spoke concerning me: ‘If your descendants are careful to walk before me faithfully, with all their heart and all their soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ 5You also know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me — what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether: he killed them, shedding the blood of war in peacetime, and staining with that blood of war the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. 6Act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace. 7But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, for they stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom. 8And remember, you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a bitter curse on the day I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by Yahweh, ‘I will not put you to death by the sword.’ 9But now, do not leave him unpunished. You are a wise man; you know what you should do to him. Bring his gray head down to Sheol in blood.” 10Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. 11The time that David reigned over Israel was forty years — seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. 12Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established.
Adonijah’s Last Request
13Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She said, “Do you come in peace?” He said, “In peace.” 14Then he said, “I have something to say to you.” She said, “Speak.” 15He said, “You know that the kingdom was mine, and all Israel expected me to reign. But the kingdom has turned and become my brother’s, for it was his from Yahweh.” 16“Now I have one request to make of you,” he said. “Do not refuse me.” She said to him, “Speak.” 17He said, “Please speak to Solomon the king — he will not refuse you — and ask him to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.” 18Bathsheba said, “Very well, I will speak to the king on your behalf.” 19Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him on Adonijah’s behalf. The king rose to meet her and bowed down to her; then he sat 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 make of you; do not refuse me.” The king said to her, “Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you.” 21She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as his wife.” 22King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? You might as well ask the kingdom for him — after all, he is my older brother — for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab son of Zeruiah!” 23Then King Solomon swore by Yahweh, “May God punish me, and do so severely, if Adonijah has not spoken this word at the cost of his own life! 24Now, as Yahweh lives — who has established me and seated me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house as he promised — Adonijah will be put to death this very day.” 25King Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he struck Adonijah down, and he died.
Solomon Settles Old Scores
26To Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go to Anathoth, to your own fields. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you carried the ark of the Lord Yahweh before David my father, and because you shared in all the hardships my father endured.” 27So Solomon dismissed Abiathar from being priest of Yahweh, fulfilling the word that Yahweh had spoken concerning the house of Eli at Shiloh. 28When the news reached Joab — for Joab had sided with Adonijah, though he had not sided with Absalom — Joab fled to the tent of Yahweh and took hold of the horns of the altar. 29King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of Yahweh and was there beside the altar. So Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, strike him down.” 30Benaiah went to the tent of Yahweh and said to him, “The king says, ‘Come out.’” He answered, “No, I will die here.” Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.” 31The king said to him, “Do as he has said. Strike him down and bury him, and so remove from me and from my father’s house the blood that Joab shed without cause. 32Yahweh will bring his blood back on his own head, because he struck down two men more righteous and better than himself, and killed them with the sword without my father David knowing it — Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army. 33May their blood come back on the head of Joab and on the head of his descendants forever, but for David, his descendants, his house, and his throne, may there be peace from Yahweh forever.” 34So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down and killed him, and he was buried at his own house in the wilderness. 35The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army in his place, and he put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.
The Confinement and Fall of Shimei
36Then the king sent for Shimei and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, and do not go anywhere else. 37On the day you leave and cross the Wadi Kidron, know for certain that you will die. Your blood will be on your own head.” 38Shimei said to the king, “The word is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do.” And Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time. 39But at the end of three years, two of Shimei’s slaves 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 Gath, to Achish, to look for his slaves. Shimei went and brought his slaves back from Gath. 41Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned. 42The king sent for Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by Yahweh and warn you plainly, ‘On the day you leave and go anywhere else, know for certain that you will die’? And you said to me, ‘The word I have heard is good.’ 43Why then did you not keep your oath to Yahweh and the command I gave you?” 44The king also said to Shimei, “You know in your own heart all the wrong you did to David my father. Now Yahweh has brought your wrongdoing back on your own head. 45But King Solomon will be blessed, and the throne of David will remain secure before Yahweh forever.” 46Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down, and he died. So the kingdom was now firmly established in Solomon’s hand.
