1 Kings 2
2
The Death of David
1Since it was almost time for David to die, he gave his son Solomon his last commands. 2David said, “My time to die is near. Be a good and strong leader. 3Obey the Lord your God. Follow him by obeying his demands, his commands, his laws, and his rules that are written in the teachings of Moses. If you do these things, you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go. 4And if you obey the Lord, he will keep the promise he made to me. He said: ‘If your descendants live as I tell them and have complete faith in me, a man from your family will always be king over the people of Israel.’
5“Also, you remember what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me. He killed the two commanders of Israel’s armies: Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He did this as if he and they were at war, although it was a time of peace. He put their blood on the belt around his waist and on his sandals on his feet. 6Punish him in the way you think is wisest, but do not let him die peacefully of old age.
7“Be kind to the children of Barzillai of Gilead, and allow them to eat at your table. They welcomed me when I ran away from your brother Absalom.
8“And remember, Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite, is here with you. He cursed me the day I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan River, I promised him before the Lord, ‘Shimei, I will not kill you.’ 9But you should not leave him unpunished. You are a wise man, and you will know what to do to him, but you must be sure he is killed.”
10Then David died and was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem. 11He had ruled over Israel forty years—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.
Solomon Takes Control as King
12Solomon became king after David, his father, and he was in firm control of his kingdom.
13At this time Adonijah son of Haggith went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. “Do you come in peace?” Bathsheba asked.
“Yes. This is a peaceful visit,” Adonijah answered. 14“I have something to say to you.”
“You may speak,” she said.
15“You remember that at one time the kingdom was mine,” Adonijah said. “All the people of Israel recognized me as their king, but things have changed. Now my brother is the king, because the Lord chose him. 16Now I have one thing to ask you; please do not refuse me.”
Bathsheba answered, “What do you want?”
17“I know King Solomon will do anything you ask him,” Adonijah continued. “Please ask him to give me Abishag the Shunammite to be my wife.”
18“Very well,” she answered. “I will speak to the king for you.”
19So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. When Solomon saw her, he stood up to meet her, then bowed down, and sat on the throne. He told some servants to bring another throne for his mother. Then she sat down at his right side.
20Bathsheba said, “I have one small thing to ask you. Please do not refuse me.”
“Ask, mother,” the king answered. “I will not refuse you.”
21So she said, “Allow Abishag the Shunammite to marry your brother Adonijah.”
22King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you ask me to give him Abishag? Why don’t you also ask for him to become the king since he is my older brother? Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah would support him!”
23Then King Solomon swore by the name of the Lord, saying, “May God punish me terribly if this doesn’t cost Adonijah his life! 24By the Lord who has given me the throne that belonged to my father David and who has kept his promise and given the kingdom to me and my people, Adonijah will die today!” 25Then King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went and killed Adonijah.
26King Solomon said to Abiathar the priest, “I should kill you too, but I will allow you to go back to your fields in Anathoth. I will not kill you at this time, because you helped carry the Ark of the Lord God while marching with my father David. And I know you shared in all the hard times with him.” 27Then Solomon removed Abiathar from being the Lord’s priest. This happened as the Lord had said it would, when he was speaking in Shiloh about the priest Eli and his descendants.
28When Joab heard about what had happened, he was afraid. He had supported Adonijah but not Absalom. So Joab ran to the Tent of the Lord and took hold of the corners of the altar. 29Someone told King Solomon that Joab had run to the Tent of the Lord and was beside the altar. Then Solomon ordered Benaiah to go and kill him.
30Benaiah went into the Tent of the Lord and said to Joab, “The king says, ‘Come out!’ ”
But Joab answered, “No, I will die here.”
So Benaiah went back to the king and told him what Joab had said. 31Then the king ordered Benaiah, “Do as he says! Kill him there and bury him. Then my family and I will be free of the guilt of Joab, who has killed innocent people. 32Without my father knowing it, he killed two men who were much better than he was—Abner son of Ner, the commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, the commander of Judah’s army. So the Lord will pay him back for those deaths. 33Joab and his family will be forever guilty for their deaths, but there will be peace from the Lord for David, his descendants, his family, and his throne forever.”
34So Benaiah son of Jehoiada killed Joab, and he was buried near his home in the desert. 35The king then made Benaiah son of Jehoiada commander of the army in Joab’s place. He also made Zadok the new high priest in Abiathar’s place.
36Next the king sent for Shimei. Solomon said to him, “Build a house for yourself in Jerusalem and live there. Don’t leave the city. 37The very day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley, someone will kill you, and it will be your own fault.”
38So Shimei answered the king, “I agree with what you say. I will do what you say, my master and king.” So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.
39But three years later two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish king of Gath, who was the son of Maacah. Shimei heard that his slaves were in Gath, 40so he put his saddle on his donkey and went to Achish at Gath to find them. Then he brought them back from Gath.
41Someone told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned. 42So Solomon sent for Shimei and said, “I made you promise in the name of the Lord not to leave Jerusalem. I warned you if you went out anywhere you would die, and you agreed to what I said. 43Why did you break your promise to the Lord and disobey my command?” 44The king also said, “You know the many wrong things you did to my father David, so now the Lord will punish you for those wrongs. 45But the Lord will bless me and make the rule of David safe before the Lord forever.”
46Then the king ordered Benaiah to kill Shimei, and he did. Now Solomon was in full control of his kingdom.
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Melaḵim Aleph (1 Kings) 2
2
1And the days of Dawiḏ drew near to die, and he commanded Shelomoh his son, saying,
2“I am going the way of all the earth. And you shall be strong, and be a man.
3“And guard the Charge of יהוה your Elohim: to walk in His ways, to guard His laws, His commands, His right-rulings, and His witnesses, as it is written in the Torah of Mosheh, so that you do wisely all that you do and wherever you turn;
4so that יהוה does establish His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons guard their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their being,’ saying, ‘there is not to cease a man of yours on the throne of Yisra’ĕl.’
5“And also, you know what Yo’aḇ son of Tseruyah did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Yisra’ĕl, to Aḇnĕr son of Nĕr and Amasa son of Yether, that he killed them, and shed the blood of battle in peace, and put the blood of battle on his belt that was around his waist, and on his sandals that were on his feet.
6“So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his grey hair go down to She’ol in peace.
7“But show loving-commitment to the sons of Barzillai the Gil‛aḏite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, for so they came to me when I fled from Aḇshalom your brother.
8“And see, with you is Shim‛i son of Gĕra, the Binyamite from Baḥurim, who cursed me with a grievous cursing in the day when I went to Maḥanayim. But he came down to meet me at the Yardĕn, and I swore to him by יהוה, saying, ‘I shall not put you to death with the sword.’
9“And now, do not leave him unpunished, for you are a wise man and know what you should do to him, and shall bring his grey hair down to She’ol with blood.”
10And Dawiḏ slept with his fathers, and was buried in the City of Dawiḏ.
11And the days that Dawiḏ reigned over Yisra’ĕl was forty years. He reigned seven years in Ḥeḇron, and in Yerushalayim he reigned thirty-three years.
12And Shelomoh sat on the throne of his father Dawiḏ. And his reign was firmly established.
13And Aḏoniyahu son of Ḥaggith came to Bathsheḇa the mother of Shelomoh, and she said, “Do you come in peace?” And he said, “Peace.”
14And he said, “I have a word for you,” and she said, “Speak.”
15And he said, “You know that the reign was mine, and all Yisra’ĕl had set their faces toward me, that I should reign. But the reign has been turned around, and has become my brother’s, for it was his from יהוה.
16“And now, I am making one request of you, do not refuse me.” And she said to him, “Say it.”
17And he said, “Please speak to Sovereign Shelomoh – for he would not refuse you – to give me Aḇishaḡ the Shunammite as wife.”
18And Bathsheḇa said, “Good, let me speak for you to the sovereign.”
19And Bathsheḇa came to Sovereign Shelomoh, to speak to him for Aḏoniyahu. And the sovereign rose up to meet her and bowed down to her, and sat down on his throne and had a throne set for the sovereign’s mother. So she sat at his right hand.
20And she said, “I am making one small request of you, do not refuse me.” And the sovereign said to her, “Ask it, my mother, for I do not refuse you.”
21Then she said, “Let Aḇishaḡ the Shunammite be given to Aḏoniyahu your brother as wife.”
22And Sovereign Shelomoh answered and said to his mother, “Now why do you ask Aḇishaḡ the Shunammite for Aḏoniyahu? Ask for him the reign also – for he is my older brother – for him, and for Eḇyathar the priest, and for Yo’aḇ son of Tseruyah.”
23And Sovereign Shelomoh swore by יהוה, saying, “Elohim does so to me, and more also, if Aḏoniyahu has not spoken this word against his own life!
24“And now, as יהוה lives, who established me and set me on the throne of Dawiḏ my father, and who has made me a house, as He promised, Aḏoniyahu shall be put to death today!”
25And Sovereign Shelomoh sent by the hand of Benayahu son of Yehoyaḏa, and he fell upon him, and he died.
26Then the sovereign said to Eḇyathar the priest, “Go to Anathoth, to your own fields, for you deserve death. But I do not put you to death at this time, because you did bear the ark of the Master יהוה before my father Dawiḏ, and because you were afflicted in all my father was afflicted in.”
27So Shelomoh dismissed Eḇyathar from being priest to יהוה, to fill the word of יהוה which He spoke concerning the house of Ěli at Shiloh.
28And news came to Yo’aḇ, for Yo’aḇ had turned aside after Aḏoniyah, though he did not turn aside after Aḇshalom. And Yo’aḇ fled to the Tent of יהוה, and took hold of the horns of the slaughter-place.
29And the report came to Sovereign Shelomoh that Yo’aḇ had fled to the Tent of יהוה, and see, he is by the slaughter-place. Then Shelomoh sent Benayahu son of Yehoyaḏa, saying, “Go, fall on him.”
30So Benayahu came to the Tent of יהוה and said to him, “Thus said the sovereign, ‘Come out!’ ” And he said, “No, for here I die.” And Benayahu brought back word to the sovereign, saying, “Thus said Yo’aḇ, and thus he answered me.”
31And the sovereign said to him, “Do as he has said, and fall upon him. And you shall bury him, so that you take away from me and from the house of my father the blood which Yo’aḇ shed without cause.
32“Thus יהוה shall return his blood on his head, because he had fallen on two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, while my father Dawiḏ did not know it: Aḇnĕr son of Nĕr, commander of the army of Yisra’ĕl, and Amasa son of Yether, commander of the army of Yehuḏah.
33“So shall their blood return upon the head of Yo’aḇ and upon the head of his seed forever. But upon Dawiḏ and his seed, upon his house and his throne, there is to be peace forever from יהוה.”
34Then Benayahu son of Yehoyaḏa went up and fell upon him and put him to death. And he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.
35And the sovereign put Benayahu son of Yehoyaḏa in his place over the army, and the sovereign put Tsaḏoq the priest in the place of Eḇyathar.
36And the sovereign sent and called for Shim‛i, and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Yerushalayim and dwell there, and do not go out from there anywhere.
37“And it shall be, on the day you go out and pass over the wadi Qiḏron, know for certain that you shall die – your blood is on your own head.”
38And Shim‛i said to the sovereign, “The word is good. As my master the sovereign has said, so your servant does.” So Shim‛i dwelt in Yerushalayim many days.
39And it came to be at the end of three years, that two slaves of Shim‛i fled to Aḵish son of Ma‛aḵah, sovereign of Gath. And they informed Shim‛i, saying, “See, your slaves are in Gath!”
40And Shim‛i rose up, and saddled his donkey, and went to Aḵish at Gath to look for his slaves. And Shim‛i went and brought his slaves from Gath.
41And Shelomoh was told that Shim‛i had gone from Yerushalayim to Gath and had come back.
42So the sovereign sent and called for Shim‛i, and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by יהוה, and warn you, saying, ‘Know for certain that on the day you leave to go anywhere, you shall certainly die’? And you said to me, ‘The word I have heard is good.’
43“And why have you not guarded the oath of יהוה and the command that I gave you?”
44The sovereign also said to Shim‛i, “You shall know all the evil that your heart has known, that you did to my father Dawiḏ. And יהוה shall return your evil on your own head.
45“But Sovereign Shelomoh is blessed, and the throne of Dawiḏ is established before יהוה forever.”
46So the sovereign commanded Benayahu son of Yehoyaḏa, and he went out and fell on him, and he died. And the reign was established in the hand of Shelomoh.
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