22
King Solomon answered his mother, "And why do you ask
1Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also,
2for he is my older brother, and on his side
3are Abiathar the priest and Joab the son of Zeruiah."
23
Then King Solomon swore by the LORD, saying,
4"God do so to me and more also if this word does not cost Adonijah his life!
24
Now therefore
5as the LORD lives, who has established me and placed me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house,
6as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death today."
25
So King Solomon sent
7Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he struck him down, and he died.
26
And to Abiathar the priest the king said, "Go to
8Anathoth, to your estate, for you deserve death. But I will not at this time put you to death,
9because you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father,
10and because you shared in all my father's affliction."
27
11So Solomon expelled Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, thus fulfilling
12the word of the LORD that he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
28
When the news came to Joab--for Joab
13had supported Adonijah although
14he had not supported Absalom--Joab fled to the tent of the LORD and caught hold of the
15horns of the altar.
29
And when it was told King Solomon, "Joab has fled to the tent of the LORD, and behold, he is beside the altar," Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, "Go, strike him down."
30
So Benaiah came to the tent of the LORD and said to him, "The king commands, 'Come out.'" But he said, "No, I will die here." Then Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, "Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me."
31
The king replied to him,
16"Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him,
17and thus take away from me and from my father's house the guilt for the blood that Joab shed without cause.
32
The LORD will
18bring back his bloody deeds on his own head, because, without the knowledge of my father David, he attacked and killed with the sword two men
19more righteous and better than himself,
20Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and
21Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.