1 Kings 1
1
David’s Last Days
1Now King David was old and advanced in age.#2Sm 5:4; 1Kg 2:10–11; 1Ch 23:1 Although they covered him with bedclothes, he could not get warm.#Ec 4:11 2So his servants said to him, “Let us#1:2 Lit them search for a young virgin for my lord the king.#Est 2:2 She is to attend the king and be his caregiver. She is to lie by your side so that my lord the king will get warm.” 3They searched for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel; they found Abishag#1Kg 1:15; 2:17 the Shunammite#1:3 Shunem was a town in the hill country of Issachar at the foot of Mt. Moreh; Jos 19:17–18.#Jos 19:18; 1Sm 28:4 and brought her to the king. 4The girl was of unsurpassed beauty,#Est 2:7 and she became the king’s caregiver. She attended to him, but he was not intimate with#1:4 Lit he did not know her.
Adonijah’s Bid for Power
5Adonijah son of Haggith#2Sm 3:4 kept exalting himself, saying, “I will be king!” He prepared chariots, cavalry, and fifty men to run ahead of him.#1:5 Heralds announcing his procession#2Sm 15:1 6But his father had never once infuriated#1Sm 3:13 him by asking, “Why did you do that?” #2Sm 13:21 In addition, he was quite handsome#2Sm 14:25 and was born after Absalom.#2Sm 3:3–4 7He conspired#1:7 Lit His words were with Joab son of Zeruiah#1Ch 11:6 and with the priest Abiathar.#1Sm 22:20–23; 2Sm 20:25 They supported#1Kg 2:22 Adonijah, 8but the priest Zadok,#2Sm 20:25; 1Ch 16:39–40 Benaiah son of Jehoiada,#2Sm 8:18 the prophet Nathan,#2Sm 7:2; 2:1–25 Shimei,#1Kg 4:18 Rei, and David’s royal guard#1:8 Lit David’s warriors#2Sm 23:8–39 did not side with Adonijah.
9Adonijah sacrificed sheep, goats, cattle, and fattened cattle near the stone of Zoheleth, which is next to En-rogel.#Jos 15:7; 18:16; 2Sm 17:17 He invited all his royal brothers and all the men of Judah, the servants of the king,#2Sm 15:11–12 10but he did not invite the prophet Nathan, Benaiah, the royal guard, or his brother Solomon.#1Kg 1:8,26
Nathan’s and Bathsheba’s Appeals
11Then Nathan#2Sm 12:1,25; 1Kg 1:8,10 said to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother,#2Sm 12:24 “Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become king#2Sm 15:10; 1Kg 1:25; 2:15 and our lord David does not know it?#2Sm 3:26; 1Kg 1:18; 2:32 12Now please come and let me advise you.#Pr 15:22 Save your life and the life of your son Solomon.#1Kg 15:29; 2Kg 10:11 13Go, approach King David and say to him, ‘My lord the king, did you not swear to your servant: Your son Solomon is to become king after me, and he is the one who is to sit on my throne?#1Kg 1:17,30; 1Ch 22:9–13 So why has Adonijah become king?’ 14At that moment, while you are still there speaking with the king, I’ll come in after you and confirm your words.”#1Kg 1:22–27
15So Bathsheba went to the king in his bedroom. Since the king was very old, Abishag the Shunammite was attending to him.#1Kg 1:1–4 16Bathsheba knelt low and paid homage to the king, and he asked, “What do you want?”
17She replied, “My lord, you swore to your servant by the Lord your God, ‘Your son Solomon is to become king after me, and he is the one who is to sit on my throne.’ 18Now look, Adonijah has become king. And,#1:18 Some Hb mss, LXX, Vg, Syr; other Hb mss read And now my lord the king, you didn’t know it. 19He has lavishly sacrificed oxen, fattened cattle, and sheep. He invited all the king’s sons, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the commander of the army, but he did not invite your servant Solomon. 20Now, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. 21Otherwise, when my lord the king rests with his ancestors,#Dt 31:16; 2Sm 7:12; 1Kg 2:10 I and my son Solomon will be regarded as criminals.”#1Kg 1:12
22At that moment, while she was still speaking with the king, the prophet Nathan arrived,#1Kg 1:14 23and it was announced to the king, “The prophet Nathan is here.” He came into the king’s presence and paid homage to him with his face to the ground.
24“My lord the king,” Nathan said, “did you say, ‘Adonijah is to become king after me, and he is the one who is to sit on my throne’? 25For today he went down and lavishly sacrificed oxen, fattened cattle, and sheep. He invited all the sons of the king, the commanders of the army, and the priest Abiathar. And look! They’re eating and drinking in his presence, and they’re saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ 26But he did not invite me — me, your servant — or the priest Zadok or Benaiah son of Jehoiada or your servant Solomon. 27I’m certain my lord the king would not have let this happen without letting your servant#1:27 Some Hb mss, LXX; alt Hb tradition reads servants know who will sit on my lord the king’s throne after him.”
Solomon Confirmed King
28King David responded by saying, “Call in Bathsheba for me.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before him. 29The king swore an oath and said, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from every difficulty,#2Sm 4:9 30just as I swore to you by the Lord God of Israel: Your son Solomon is to become king after me, and he is the one who is to sit on my throne in my place,#1Kg 1:13 that is exactly what I will do this very day.”#1Kg 1:33–35
31Bathsheba knelt low with her face to the ground, paying homage to the king,#1Kg 1:16 and said, “May my lord King David live forever!” #Neh 2:3; Dn 2:4; 3:9
32King David then said, “Call in the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada for me.”#1Kg 1:8,10,26 So they came into the king’s presence. 33The king said to them, “Take my servants#2Sm 20:6 with you, have my son Solomon ride on my own mule,#2Sm 18:9; Est 6:8; Zch 9:9; Jn 12:14–15 and take him down to Gihon.#2Ch 32:30; 33:14 34There, the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan are to anoint him as king over Israel.#1Sm 10:1; 16:3,13 You are to blow the ram’s horn#2Sm 15:10 and say, ‘Long live King Solomon! ’ #1Sm 10:24; 1Kg 1:25 35You are to come up after him, and he is to come in and sit on my throne. He is the one who is to become king in my place; he is the one I have commanded to be ruler#1Sm 13:14 over Israel and Judah.”#2Sm 2:4; 5:3
36“Amen,” Benaiah son of Jehoiada replied to the king. “May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, so affirm it.#Jr 28:6 37Just as the Lord was with my lord the king,#1Sm 20:13 so may he#1:37 Alt Hb tradition reads so he will be with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”#1Kg 1:47
38Then the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites#2Sm 8:18 went down, had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and took him to Gihon. 39The priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon.#1Ch 29:22 Then they blew the ram’s horn,#2Kg 11:14 and all the people proclaimed, “Long live King Solomon!” #1Sm 10:24 40All the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy#Ezr 6:16 that the earth split open from the sound.#1:40 LXX reads the land resounded with their noise
Adonijah Hears of Solomon’s Coronation
41Adonijah and all the invited guests who were with him#1Kg 1:5,7–10 heard the noise as they finished eating. Joab heard the sound of the ram’s horn and said, “Why is the town in such an uproar?” #2Kg 11:12–13 42He was still speaking when Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest,#2Sm 15:27,36 suddenly arrived. Adonijah said, “Come in, for you are an important man, and you must be bringing good news.”#2Sm 18:26–27
43“Unfortunately not,” Jonathan answered him. “Our lord King David has made Solomon king. 44And with Solomon, the king has sent the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and they have had him ride on the king’s mule. 45The priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan have anointed him king in Gihon.#1Kg 1:33–35 They have gone up from there rejoicing. The town has been in an uproar; that’s the noise you heard. 46Solomon has even taken his seat on the royal throne.#1Ch 29:23
47“The king’s servants have also gone to congratulate our lord King David, saying, ‘May your God make the name of Solomon more well known than your name, and may he make his throne greater than your throne.’#1Kg 1:37 Then the king bowed in worship on his bed.#Gn 47:31 48And the king went on to say this: ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel! Today he has provided one to sit on my throne,#2Sm 7:12; 1Kg 3:6 and I am a witness.’”#1:48 Lit and my eyes are seeing
49Then all of Adonijah’s guests got up trembling and went their separate ways. 50Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, so he got up and went to take hold of the horns of the altar.#Ex 21:12–14; 1Kg 2:28
51It was reported to Solomon, “Look, Adonijah fears King Solomon, and he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon first#1:51 Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr, Vg read today swear to me that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’”
52Then Solomon said, “If he is a man of character, not a single hair of his will fall to the ground,#1Sm 14:45; 2Sm 14:11; Ac 27:34 but if evil is found in him, he dies.”#1Kg 2:23–25 53So King Solomon sent for him, and they took him down from the altar. He came and paid homage to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, “Go to your home.”
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
1 Kings 1
1
David’s Old Age. 1#1:1–2:12a] The first major unit of the Solomon story concludes the so-called Succession Narrative (2 Sm 9–20; 1 Kgs 1–2). This unit tells how Solomon, a younger son, came to succeed David on the throne of Israel through the intervention of the prophet Nathan. Compare the last unit of the Solomon story, 11:26–43, where the prophet Ahijah begins the process whereby Jeroboam becomes king of the northern tribes after Solomon’s death. The story of Solomon’s accession is itself concentrically arranged: David’s decline, Adonijah’s rise, Solomon’s supporters, David’s decision, Solomon’s inauguration, Adonijah’s fall, David’s death. Chronicles has no developed parallel to this story (see 1 Chr 23:1). When King David was old and advanced in years, though they covered him with blankets he could not get warm. 2His servants therefore said to him, “Let a young virgin be sought to attend my lord the king,#The fulsome use of royal titles and the elaborate etiquette in the Succession Narrative suggest the raw ambition of the contending parties and the oppressive atmosphere of the court. and to nurse him. If she sleeps with you, my lord the king will be warm.” 3So they sought for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunamite. So they brought her to the king. 4The girl was very beautiful indeed, and she nursed the king and took care of him. But the king did not have relations with her.
Adonijah’s Ambition. 5Adonijah, son of Haggith, boasted, “I shall be king!” and he provided himself with chariots, horses, and a retinue of fifty to go before him.#2 Sm 15:1. 6Yet his father would never antagonize him by asking, “Why are you doing this?” Adonijah was also very handsome, and next in age to Absalom by the same mother. 7He consulted with Joab, son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest, and they became Adonijah’s supporters. 8However, Zadok the priest, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei and Rei, and David’s warriors did not support Adonijah.
9Adonijah slaughtered sheep, oxen, and fatlings at the stone Zoheleth near En-rogel#En-rogel: the modern Job’s Well just southeast of Jerusalem. It marked the ancient boundary between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah (Jos 15:7; 18:16). and invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah; 10but he did not invite Nathan the prophet, or Benaiah, or the warriors, or Solomon his brother.
Solomon Proclaimed King. 11Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother: “Have you not heard that Adonijah, son of Haggith, has become king, and our lord David does not know? 12Come now, let me advise you so that you may save your life and the life of your son Solomon. 13Go, visit King David, and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord king, swear to your handmaid: Your son Solomon shall be king after me; it is he who shall sit upon my throne? Why, then, has Adonijah become king?’ 14And while you are still there speaking to the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.”
15So Bathsheba visited the king in his room. The king was very old, and Abishag the Shunamite was caring for the king.#Entering the king’s chambers, Bathsheba confronts two realities: he is very old; and she herself, the woman for whom David once committed adultery and murder, has been replaced at the king’s side and in his bed. 16Bathsheba bowed in homage to the king. The king said to her, “What do you wish?”#Throughout 1 Kgs 1 the key question is “Who shall be king (malak)?” David’s feeble, two-syllable question to Bathsheba is an ironic echo of that key word: “What do you wish?” renders the Heb. mahlak? 17She answered him: “My lord, you swore to your servant by the Lord, your God, ‘Solomon your son will be king after me; it is he who shall sit upon my throne.’ 18But now Adonijah has become king, and you, my lord king, do not know it.#Bathsheba uses a clever wordplay to conceal the rivalry between Solomon and Adonijah and imply that the real rivalry is between David and Adonijah. She repeatedly addresses David as “my lord king” (’adoni hammelek), but claims that “Adonijah has become king” (’adoniya malak). Know: the term means both “be aware of” and “recognize, acknowledge, ratify.” 19He has sacrificed bulls, fatlings, and sheep in great numbers; he has invited all the king’s sons, Abiathar the priest, and Joab, the commander of the army, but not your servant Solomon. 20#There was no precedent for determining succession to the throne of Israel. Adonijah and his supporters assumed that primogeniture would assure the succession as it did in the monarchies of the surrounding nations. But Bathsheba persuades David that he is free to name anyone he chooses. Now, my lord king, all Israel is looking to you to declare to them who is to sit upon the throne of my lord the king after him. 21If this is not done, when my lord the king rests with his ancestors, I and my son Solomon will be considered criminals.”
22While she was still speaking to the king, Nathan the prophet came in. 23They told the king, “Nathan the prophet is here.” He entered the king’s presence and did him homage, bowing to the floor. 24Then Nathan said: “My lord king, did you say, ‘Adonijah shall be king after me and shall sit upon my throne’? 25For today he went down and sacrificed bulls, fatlings, and sheep in great numbers; he invited all the king’s sons, the commanders of the army, and Abiathar the priest, and even now they are eating and drinking in his company and saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ 26But me, your servant, he did not invite; nor Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, nor your servant Solomon. 27If this was done by order of my lord the king, you did not tell me, your servant, who is to sit upon the throne of my lord the king after him.”
28King David answered, “Call Bathsheba here.” When she entered the king’s presence and stood before him, 29the king swore, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress, 30this very day I will fulfill the oath I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Your son Solomon shall be king after me and shall sit upon my throne in my place.’” 31Bowing to the floor in homage to the king, Bathsheba said, “May my lord, King David, live forever!”
32Then King David said, “Call Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, son of Jehoiada.” When they had entered the king’s presence, 33he said to them: “Take with you the royal officials. Mount my son Solomon upon my own mule and escort him down to Gihon. 34There Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet shall anoint him king over Israel, and you shall blow the ram’s horn and cry, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ 35When you come back up with him, he is to go in and sit upon my throne. It is he that shall be king in my place: him I designate ruler of Israel and of Judah.” 36Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, answered the king: “So be it! May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, so decree! 37As the Lord has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne even greater than that of my lord, King David!”
38So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and Pelethites#Cherethites and Pelethites: mercenaries in David’s bodyguard. They became part of his retinue after he defeated the Philistines and established himself in Jerusalem; cf. 2 Sm 8:18; 15:18; 20:23. went down, and mounting Solomon on King David’s mule, escorted him to Gihon. 39Then Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. They blew the ram’s horn and all the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” 40Then all the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing so much the earth split with their shouting.
Adonijah Submits to Solomon. 41Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it, just as they ended their banquet. When Joab heard the sound of the ram’s horn, he asked, “Why this uproar in the city?” 42As he was speaking, Jonathan, son of Abiathar the priest, arrived. Adonijah said, “Come, you are a man of worth and must bring good news.” 43Jonathan answered Adonijah, “Hardly!#Hardly: Jonathan’s first word, ’abal, whose meaning (such as “indeed,” “on the contrary”) must be discerned from the context, may be ironic. This irony is deepened by an untranslatable wordplay in Hebrew: a very similar word means “to mourn,” which is an appropriate comment about the death of Adonijah’s hopes for the throne. Our lord, King David, has made Solomon king. 44The king sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and Pelethites, and they mounted him upon the king’s own mule. 45Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed him king at Gihon, and they went up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. That is the noise you hear. 46Moreover, Solomon has taken his seat on the royal throne, 47and moreover the king’s servants have come to pay their respects to our lord, King David, saying, ‘May your God make Solomon’s name more famous than your name, his throne greater than your throne!’ And the king in his bed did homage. 48This is what the king said: ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has this day provided one to sit upon my throne, so that I see it with my own eyes.’” 49All the guests of Adonijah got up trembling, and went each their way, 50but Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, got up and went to grasp the horns of the altar.#Horns of the altar: the protuberances on each of the four corners of the altar (Ex 27:2; 29:12). By grasping the horns of the altar Adonijah is claiming asylum (Ex 21:13–14; 1 Kgs 2:28).
51It was reported to Solomon: “Adonijah, in fear of King Solomon, is clinging to the horns of the altar and saying, ‘Let King Solomon first swear that he will not kill me, his servant, with the sword.’” 52Solomon answered, “If he proves worthy, not a hair of his shall fall to the ground. But if evil is found in him, he shall die.” 53King Solomon sent to have him brought down from the altar, and he came and paid homage to King Solomon. Solomon then said to him, “Go to your house.”
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