1 Kings 2:19-27

Adonijah Executed

19 So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king arose to meet her, bowed before her, and sat on his throne; then he ¹had a throne set for the king's mother, and ²she sat on his right.

20 Then she said, "I am making one small request of you; ³do not refuse me." And the king said to her, "Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you."

21 So she said, "⁴Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as a wife."

22 King Solomon answered and said to his mother, "And why are you asking Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ⁵Ask for him also the kingdom -⁶for he is my older brother -even for him, for ⁷Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah!"

23 Then King Solomon swore by the LORD, saying, "May God do so to me and more also, if Adonijah has ⁸not 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 and ⁹who has made me a house as He promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death today."

25 So King Solomon ¹⁰sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him so that he died.

26 Then to Abiathar the priest the king said, "¹¹Go to Anathoth to your own field, ¹²for you deserve to die; but I will not put you to death at this time, because ¹³you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before my father David, and because ¹⁴you were afflicted in everything with which my father was afflicted."

27 So Solomon dismissed Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, in order to fulfill ¹⁵the word of the LORD, which He had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

1 Kings 2:19-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST KING 2

This chapter gives an account of the charge David gave to his son Solomon, a little before his death, to walk in the ways of the Lord, 1Ki 2:1-4; and of some instructions delivered to him concerning some particular persons he should either show favour to, or execute justice on, 1Ki 2:5-9; and the next account in it is concerning his death and burial, and the years of his reign, 1Ki 2:10,11; after which it relates an address of Bathsheba to Solomon in favour of Adonijah, which was refused, and the issue of it was his death, 1Ki 2:12-25; and the deposition of Abiathar from the priesthood, 1Ki 2:26,27; and the putting of Joab to death for his treason and murders, 1Ki 2:28-34; in whose post Benaiah was put, as Zadok was in the place of Abiathar, 1Ki 2:35; and lastly the confinement of Shimei in Jerusalem, who had cursed David, 1Ki 2:36-38; who upon transgressing the orders given him was put to death, 1Ki 2:39-46.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Kings 15:13
• 2. Psalms 45:9
• 3. 1 Kings 2:16
• 4. 1 Kings 1:3, 4
• 5. 2 Samuel 12:8
• 6. 1 Kings 1:6; 1 Kings 2:15; 1 Chronicles 3:2, 5
• 7. 1 Kings 1:7
• 8. Ruth 1:17
• 9. 2 Samuel 7:11, 13; 1 Chronicles 22:10
• 10. 2 Samuel 8:18
• 11. Joshua 21:18; Jeremiah 1:1
• 12. 1 Samuel 26:16
• 13. 1 Samuel 23:6; 2 Samuel 15:24-29
• 14. 1 Samuel 22:20-23; 1 Samuel 23:8, 9
• 15. 1 Samuel 2:27-36

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "turn away my face"
• [b]. Lit "turn away your face"
• [c]. Lit "soul"
• [d]. Lit "are a man of death"
• [e]. Heb "YHWH," usually rendered LORD