1 Kings 2:13–25

Adonijah’s Persistence

¹³Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, and she said, “Are you coming in peace?”^d He said, “Peace.” ¹⁴Then he said, “May I have a word with you?”^e Then she said, “Go on.” ¹⁵He said, “You know that the kingship was mine and that all Israel had set their face toward me as king, but the kingship turned around and became my brother’s, for it was from Yahweh for him to have it. ¹⁶Now one request I am asking from you, and you must not refuse me.”^f Then she said to him, “Go on.” ¹⁷He said, “Please speak to King Solomon, for he will not refuse you, so that he will give to me Abishag the Shunnamite as wife.” ¹⁸Then Bathsheba said, “Very well, I will speak to the king concerning you.”

Solomon’s Responses to Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei

¹⁹Bathsheba came to King Solomon to speak to him concerning Adonijah, and the king got up to meet her, bowed down to her, and then sat on his throne. Then he set up a throne for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right. ²⁰She said, “I have one small request I am asking from you. Do not refuse me.”^g The king said to her, “Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you.”^{h 21}Then she said, “Let Abishag the Shunnamite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.” ²²King Solomon answered and said to his mother, “Why are you asking Abishag the Shunnamite for Adonijah? Ask for him also the kingdom, for he is my brother, older than I; and ask for him also Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.” ²³Then King Solomon swore by Yahweh, saying, “Thus may God do to me and thus may he add, if Adonijah hasn’t spoken this thing at the expense of his life. ²⁴So then, as Yahweh lives,ⁱ who has established me and seated me on the throne of my father David and who has established for me a dynasty as he promised, then surely Adonijah will be put to death today.” ²⁵King Solomon sent through the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, so he struck him, and he died.