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1 Kings 2

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David’s Final Charge to Solomon 1–11

1
Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, ​
2
I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; ​
3
And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself: ​
4
That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel. ​
5
Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet. ​
6
Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace.
7
But shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at thy table: for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother. ​
8
And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the LORD, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword.
9
Now therefore hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou 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 that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. ​

Solomon Enthroned; Adonijah's Fatal Request 12–25

12
Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly. ​
13
And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, Comest thou peaceably? And he said, Peaceably.
14
He said moreover, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And she said, Say on.
15
And he said, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: howbeit the kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother's: for it was his from the LORD.
16
And now I ask one petition of thee, deny me not. And she said unto him, Say on.
17
And he said, Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king, (for he will not say thee nay,) that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife. ​
18
And Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for thee unto the king.
19
Bathsheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand.
20
Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee; I pray thee, say me not nay. And the king said unto her, Ask on, my mother: for I will not say thee nay.
21
And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife.
22
And king Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah. ​
23
Then king Solomon sware by the LORD, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah have not spoken this word against his own life.
24
Now therefore, as the LORD liveth, which hath established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who hath made me an house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day.
25
And king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him that he died.

The Purge of Joab and Abiathar 26–35

26
And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee to Anathoth, unto thine own fields; for thou art worthy of death: but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou barest the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted.
27
So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD; that he might fulfil the word of the LORD, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. ​
28
Then tidings came to Joab: for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. ​
29
And it was told king Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD; and, behold, he is 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 unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.
31
And the king said unto him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father. ​
32
And the LORD shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.
33
Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from the LORD.
34
So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him, and slew 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 host: and Zadok the priest did the king put in the room of Abiathar. ​

The Execution of Shimei 36–46

36
And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Build thee an house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not forth thence any whither. ​
37
For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thine own head.
38
And Shimei said unto the king, The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.
39
And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish son of Maachah king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, Behold, thy servants be in Gath.
40
And Shimei arose, and saddled his ass, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his servants: and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath.
41
And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come again.
42
And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make thee to swear by the LORD, and protested unto thee, saying, Know for a certain, on the day thou goest out, and walkest abroad any whither, that thou shalt surely die? and thou saidst unto me, The word that I have heard is good.
43
Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I have charged thee with?
44
The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father: therefore the LORD shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head; ​
45
And king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD for ever.
46
So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; which went out, and fell upon him, that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for 1 Kings 2

Verse 1

he charged Solomon — Tsavah, the verb of Moses’ last charge to his successor: ‘he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge’ (Deut 31:23). ‘Drew nigh’ is qarab, the word of ‘thy days approach that thou must die’ (Deut 31:14). His charge to Solomon follows the pattern of Moses’ to Joshua.

Verse 2

shew thyself a man — ‘Be strong’ is chazaq, the word the LORD used to Joshua, ‘Be strong and of a good courage’ (Josh 1:6). ‘I go the way of all the earth’ is Joshua’s own farewell phrase: ‘this day I am going the way of all the earth’ (Josh 23:14). ‘Man’ is ish.

Verse 3

keep the charge of the LORD — ‘Charge’ is mishmereth, what is to be guarded. The list of statutes, commandments, judgments and testimonies gathers the Law’s words, and ‘as it is written in the law of Moses’ recalls the king’s own copy: ‘he shall write him a copy of this law in a book’ (Deut 17:18). ‘Prosper’ is sakal, to act wisely, as in Deut 29:9.

Verse 4

that the LORD may continue his word — David recalls the promise of 2 Sam 7, here with its condition: the sons must ‘walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul’ (compare Deut 6:5). Ps 132:12 says the same, ‘If thy children will keep my covenant… their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore’. Solomon repeats it in 8:25.

Verse 5

what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me — Joab killed ‘the two captains of the hosts of Israel’, Abner (2 Sam 3:27) and Amasa (20:10), ‘the blood of war in peace’. David had said then, ‘I and my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD for ever from the blood of Abner’ (3:28), and left the matter with the LORD: ‘the LORD shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness’ (3:39).

Verse 7

the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite — Barzillai fed David at Mahanaim when he fled Absalom (2 Sam 17:27–29). When the king said, ‘Come thou over with me, and I will feed thee with me in Jerusalem’ (19:33), he asked that Chimham go instead (19:37–38). To ‘eat at thy table’ is the place David gave Mephibosheth, ‘thou shalt eat bread at my table continually’ (9:7). ‘Kindness’ is chesed.

Verse 9

hold him not guiltless — Naqah, the verb of the third commandment, ‘the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain’ (Ex 20:7). David had sworn to Shimei ‘by the LORD, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword’ (v.8), and now leaves the matter with the ‘wise man’ on the throne. ‘The grave’ is sheol.

Verse 11

forty years — The count follows 2 Sam 5:4–5: David ‘was thirty years old when he began to reign’, ruling seven years and six months over Judah in Hebron and ‘thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah’ in Jerusalem. He is buried ‘in the city of David’ (v.10).

Verse 12

his kingdom was established greatly — Kun, the verb of the LORD’s promise to David, ‘I will establish his kingdom’ (2 Sam 7:12), and of v.46, ‘the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon’. 1 Chr 29:23 says that Solomon ‘sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father’.

Verse 17

Abishag the Shunammite — The young woman who ‘cherished the king, and ministered to him’ in his old age, though ‘the king knew her not’ (1:4). Adonijah asks through Bathsheba (v.13), saying Solomon ‘will not say thee nay’. The wives of a king passed to his successor (2 Sam 12:8), and going in to a king’s concubine was taken as a claim to the kingdom, as in 2 Sam 3:7–8.

Verse 22

ask for him the kingdom also — Solomon reads the request as a bid for the throne and names those who stood with Adonijah: ‘Abiathar the priest, and… Joab the son of Zeruiah’. They are the two who ‘helped’ him in 1:7, when Adonijah had said, ‘I will be king’ (1:5). ‘Elder brother’ (gadol, great) states his claim by age.

Verse 27

Solomon thrust out Abiathar — Garash, to drive out. Abiathar was one of the sons of Ahimelech who escaped and fled after David (1 Sam 22:20). The word fulfilled is the one spoken to Eli at Shiloh: ‘there shall not be an old man in thine house’ (1 Sam 2:31), and ‘I will raise me up a faithful priest’ (1 Sam 2:35).

Verse 28

the horns of the altar — The horns stood on the corners of the altar (Ex 27:2), and Adonijah had held them too (1:50). Joab ‘had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom’. The altar gave no protection to a man who came ‘presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile’: ‘thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die’ (Ex 21:14).

Verse 31

the innocent blood — Chinnam, ‘without cause’, the same word as ‘for nothing’ in 2 Sam 24:24. The Law required the land be rid of such blood: ‘So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you’ (Deut 21:9), because ‘blood it defileth the land’ (Num 35:33). David had said of Abner’s blood that he was guiltless (2 Sam 3:28).

Verse 35

Zadok the priest — Zadok was ‘of the sons of Eleazar’, while Abiathar’s father Ahimelech was ‘of the sons of Ithamar’ (1 Chr 24:3). With the change, the word to Eli was kept: ‘I will raise me up a faithful priest… and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever’ (1 Sam 2:35). Benaiah, named in 1 Kings 4:4 as over the host, holds the post that was Joab’s.

Verse 36

Build thee an house in Jerusalem — Shimei came from Bahurim in Benjamin (v.8). Solomon fixes his place at Jerusalem and the boundary at the brook Kidron (v.37), with the terms stated: ‘thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thine own head’. Shimei accepted: ‘The word that I have heard is good’ (v.42).

Verse 44

return thy wickedness upon thine own head — Shub, to turn back. The same words stand in David’s sentence on Nabal, ‘the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head’ (1 Sam 25:39), and in Ps 7:16, ‘His mischief shall return upon his own head’. Shimei’s curse of David is in 2 Sam 16:5–13, and v.43 states the broken oath.

Verse 46

the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon — Kun, the verb of v.12. It follows Solomon’s word in v.45, ‘the throne of David shall be established before the LORD for ever’, which restates the promise to David. Benaiah, who killed Adonijah (v.25), Joab (v.34) and Shimei, is now over the host (v.35).