1 Kings 2:13–25

ADONIJAH’S FOOLISH REQUEST

¹³Now Adonijah son of Haggith^q came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She asked, “Do you come peacefully?”

“Peacefully,” he replied,^{r 14}and then asked, “May I talk with you?”^B

“Go ahead,” she answered.

¹⁵“You know the kingship was mine,”^s he said. “All Israel expected me to be king, but then the kingship was turned over to my brother,^t for the Lord gave it to him.^{u 16}So now I have just one request of you; don’t turn me down.”^C

She said to him, “Go on.”

¹⁷He replied, “Please speak to King Solomon since he won’t turn you down. Let him give me Abishag the Shunammite^v as a wife.”

¹⁸“Very well,” Bathsheba replied. “I will speak to the king for you.”

¹⁹So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah. The king stood up to greet her, bowed to her, sat down on his throne, and had a throne placed for the king’s mother.^w So she sat down at his right hand.^x

²⁰Then she said, “I have just one small request of you. Don’t turn me down.”

“Go ahead and ask, mother,” the king replied, “for I won’t turn you down.”

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

²²King Solomon answered his mother, “Why are you requesting Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Since he is my elder brother,^y you might as well ask the kingship for him,^z for the priest Abiathar, and for Joab son of Zeruiah.”^{Aaa 23}Then King Solomon took an oath by the Lord: “May God punish me and do so severely^ab if Adonijah has not made this request at the cost of his life. ²⁴And now, as the Lord lives—the one who established me, seated me on the throne of my father David, and made me a dynasty as he promised^ac—I swear Adonijah will be put to death today!” ²⁵Then King Solomon dispatched Benaiah son of Jehoiada,^ad who struck down Adonijah, and he died.