1 Kings 2

Revised Geneva Translation

2 Then the days of David drew near, that he should die. And he charged Solomon, his son, saying,

² “I go the way of all the Earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself to be a man,

³ “and keep the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and keep His Statutes and His Commandments and His Judgments and His Testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do, and in everything to which you turn,

⁴ “so that the LORD may confirm His Word which He spoke to me, saying, ‘If your sons guard their way, so that they walk before Me in truth, with all their hearts and with all their souls, you shall not (said He) lack one of yours upon the throne of Israel.’

⁵ “You also know what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me, and what he did to the two captains to the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed and shed blood of battle in peace. And he put the blood of war upon his girdle that was around his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.

⁶ “Do, therefore, according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace.

⁷ “But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite. And let them be among those who eat at your table. For so they came to me when I fled from Absalom, your brother.

⁸ “And behold, with you is Shimei, the son of Gera, the son of Benjamin of Bahurim, who cursed me with a horrible curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at Jordan and I swore to him by the LORD, saying, ‘I will not kill you with the sword.’

⁹ “But you shall not count him innocent. For you are a wise man, and know what you ought to do to him. Therefore, you shall cause his gray head to go down to the grave with blood.”

¹⁰ So David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.

¹¹ And the days which David reigned upon Israel were forty years. For seven years he reigned in Hebron and for thirty-three years he reigned in Jerusalem.

¹² Then Solomon sat upon the throne of David, his father. And his kingdom was established mightily.

¹³ And Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. And she said, “Do you come peaceably?” And he said, “Yea.”

¹⁴ Moreover he said, “I have something to say to you.” And she said, “Say on.”

¹⁵ Then he said, “You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, so that I should reign. However, the kingdom has turned away and is my brother’s. For it came to him by the LORD.

¹⁶ “Now, therefore, I ask one request of you. Do not refuse me.” And she said to him, “Say on.”

¹⁷ And he said, “Please speak to Solomon the king, (for he will not say no to you) so that he gives me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife.”

¹⁸ And Bathsheba said, “Well, I will speak to the king for you.”

¹⁹ Bathsheba, therefore, went to King Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne. And he had a seat prepared for the king’s mother. And she sat at his right hand.

²⁰ Then she said, “I desire a small request of you. Do not turn away.” Then the king said to her, “Ask on, my mother. For I will not turn away.”

²¹ Then she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as a wife.”

²² But king Solomon answered and said to his mother, “And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also (for he is my elder brother) and for him both Abiathar the Priest and Joab the son of Zeruiah!”

²³ Then King Solomon swore by the LORD, saying, “God do so to me and more also if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life!

²⁴ “Now, therefore, as the LORD lives, Who has established me and set me on the throne of David, my father, Who has also made me a House (as He promised), Adonijah shall surely die this day!”

²⁵ And King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. And he struck him so that he died.

²⁶ Then the king said to Abiathar the Priest, “Go to Anathoth, to your own fields. For you are worthy of death. But I will not kill you this day, because you bear the Ark of the LORD God before David, my father, and because you have suffered in all in which my father has been afflicted.”

²⁷ So Solomon cast out Abiathar from being Priest to the LORD, so that he might fulfill the words of the LORD which He spoke against the House of Eli in Shiloh.

²⁸ Then news came to Joab (for Joab had followed Adonijah, but he had not followed Absalom). And Joab fled to the Tabernacle of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the Altar.

²⁹ And it was told to King Solomon that Joab had fled to the Tabernacle of the LORD and, behold, was by the Altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, fall upon him!”

³⁰ And Benaiah came to the Tabernacle of the LORD, and said to him, “Thus says the king, ‘Come out!’” And he said, “No! But I will die here!” Then Benaiah brought word back to the king, saying, “Thus said Joab and thus he answered me.”

³¹ And the king said to him, “Do as he has said, and strike him, and bury him, so that you may take away from me and from the House of my father the innocent blood which Joab shed.

³² “And the LORD shall bring his blood upon his own head. For he struck two men more righteous and better than he and killed them with the sword —Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah—though my father David did not know it.

³³ “Therefore, their blood shall return upon the head of Joab, and on the head of his seed, forever. But upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his House and upon his throne, there shall be peace forever from the LORD.”

³⁴ So Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up and struck him and killed him. And he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

³⁵ And the king put Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, in his room over the army. And the king set Zadok the Priest in the room of Abiathar.

³⁶ Afterward, the king sent and called Shimei, and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there. And do not go anywhere from there.

³⁷ “For the day that you go out and pass over the river of Kidron, know assuredly that you shall die the death. Your blood shall be upon your own head.”

³⁸ And Shimei said to the king, “The thing is good. As my lord the king has said, so will your servant do.” So Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem for many days.

³⁹ And after three years, two of the servants of Shimei fled away to Achish, son of Maachah, king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, “Behold, your servants are in Gath.”

⁴⁰ And Shimei arose and saddled his donkey and went to Gath, to Achish, to seek his servants. And Shimei went and brought his servants from Gath.

⁴¹ And it was told to Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back.

⁴² And the king sent and called Shimei, and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the LORD, and solemnly say to you, ‘The day that you go out and walk anywhere, know assuredly that you shall die the death?’ And you said to me, ‘The thing is good. I have heard.’

⁴³ “Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment with which I charged you?”

⁴⁴ The king also said to Shimei, “You know all the wickedness which your heart perceives that you did to David, my father. Therefore, the LORD shall bring your wickedness upon your own head.

⁴⁵ “And let King Solomon be blessed, and the throne of David established before the LORD, forever.”

⁴⁶ So the king commanded Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, who went out and struck him so that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.