David's Final Words to Solomon
3 Kingdoms 2, verse 1. Now the days of David drew near to death, and he charged Solomon his son, saying, 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 2. “I am going the way of all the earth, but you must be strong and become a man. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 3. Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments and statutes, and the writings of His judgments in the Law of Moses, so you may understand what you shall do regarding whatever I command of you; 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 4. that the Lord may confirm His word which He spoke, saying, ‘If your sons guard their way and go before Me in truth, with their whole heart and their whole soul, I say to you, a man from them shall not fail to sit on the throne of Israel.’ 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 5. “Furthermore, you know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed. He shed the blood of war in peacetime, and put innocent blood on the belt around his waist and on the sandal on his foot. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 6. Therefore do according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 7. But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table; for they drew near to me when I fled from your brother Absalom. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 8. Behold, you have with you Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim, who laid a grievous curse on me in the day I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and by the Lord I swore to him, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 9. But you shall by no means hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man, and you realize what you must do to him, even to bring his gray hair to the grave with blood.”
The Death of King David
3 Kingdoms 2, verse 10. So David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 11. David reigned over Israel forty years. He reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 12. Thus Solomon sat on the throne of David, his father, and the kingdom was exceedingly well established.
Solomon Orders Adonijah's Death
3 Kingdoms 2, verse 13. Now Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon and bowed down before her. She said, “Have you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 14. I have something to say to you.” She said, “Speak.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 15. Then Adonijah said, “You know the kingdom was mine, and all Israel turned their face to me as king. But then the kingdom was taken back, and it was given to my brother; for it was from the Lord to be given to Solomon. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 16. Now I ask one petition of you. Do not turn away your face.” Bathsheba said to him, “Speak.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 17. Then he said to her, “Speak to King Solomon, for he will not turn his face from you; and let him give me Abishag the Shunammite for a wife.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 18. So Bathsheba said, “Very well, I will speak for you to the king.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 19. So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her and kissed her tenderly. He then sat down on his throne, and a throne was placed for the king's mother; and she was seated at his right hand. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 20. Then she said to him, “I desire one small petition of you. Do not turn away your face.” The king said to her, “Ask it, mother, for I will not refuse you.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 21. So she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as a wife.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 22. King Solomon answered and said to his mother, “Why did you request Abishag for Adonijah? Do you ask for him the kingdom as well? For he is my older brother above me in age, and his companions are Abiathar the priest and Joab the son of Jeruiah, the chief captain of the army.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 23. Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, “May God do so to me and more also, if Adonijah has not said this against his own life. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 24. Now therefore, as the Lord lives who prepared me, set me on the throne of David my father, and established a house for me, as the Lord promised, this day Adonijah will be put to death.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 25. So King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he struck him; and Adonijah died that day.
Abiathar Banished, Joab Killed
3 Kingdoms 2, verse 26. Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, “Go to Anathoth, to your field, for you are deserving of death today; but I will not put you to death, because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father, and because you were afflicted every time my father was afflicted.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 27. So Solomon removed Abiathar from being priest to the Lord, to fulfill the word of the Lord He spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 28. Then the news came to Joab the son of Zeruiah, for Joab leaned toward Adonijah and not toward Solomon. So Joab fled to the tabernacle of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 29. They told King Solomon, “Joab fled to the tabernacle of the Lord. He is there, holding the horns of the altar.” Solomon sent word to Joab, saying, “Why did you flee to the altar?” Joab said, “Because I was afraid to face you, and I fled to the Lord.” Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, kill and bury him.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 30. So Benaiah went to Joab in the tabernacle of the Lord and said to him, “The king says to come out.” But he said, “No, I am not coming out. I am going to die here.” So Benaiah brought back word to the king, saying, “This is what Joab said, this is what he answered me.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 31. Then the king said to him, “Go, and do as he said. Strike him down and bury him, and remove from me and from my father's house today the blood Joab shed for no reason. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 32. The Lord will turn the blood of his unrighteousness back on his own head, because he struck down two men, Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah, who were more righteous and better than he; and yet he killed them with the sword. My father David did not know of their blood being shed. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 33. That is why their blood was returned upon the head of Joab and upon the head of his descendants forever. But upon David and his descendants, upon his house and his throne, let there be peace forever from the Lord.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 34. So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, struck and killed him; and he buried him in his own house in the wilderness. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 35. The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in Joab's place over the army, and the kingdom was established in Jerusalem. Then the king made Zadok the first priest in the place of Abiathar.
The Wisdom of Solomon
3 Kingdoms 2, verse 36. The Lord gave discernment to Solomon, exceedingly great wisdom, and a heart as broad as the sand alongside the sea. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 37. Solomon's discernment was multiplied exceedingly, beyond the discernment of all the sons of the ancient ones and all the wise men of Egypt. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 38. Then he took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the City of David until he should complete his house, and before all the house of the Lord, and the wall surrounding Jerusalem. In seven years he made and completed them.
Building the Citadel
3 Kingdoms 2, verse 39. Solomon had seventy thousand chosen men and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountain. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 40. Thus Solomon made the sea, the undergirding, the great basins, the pillars, the fountain of the open court, and the sea of bronze. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 41. He also built the citadel and its battlements, and divided the City of David in two. Consequently, the daughter of Pharaoh went up from the City of David into the house he built for her. Then he built the citadel. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 42. Solomon went up three times a year to offer whole burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he built for the Lord, and to burn incense before the Lord; and he completed the house. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 43. Now these were the governors put in charge over the works of Solomon—three thousand six hundred overseers of the people doing the work. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 44. He also built Ashur and Megiddo, and Gezer and Beth-Horon the greater, and Baalath. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 45. However, it was after he built the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem that he built those cities. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 46. While still living, David commanded Solomon, saying, “Behold, take with you Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite from Hebron, 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 47. who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day I was going to the encampments. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 48. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, ‘He shall not be put to death with the sword.’ 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 49. Now therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man and know what to do to him. But bring his gray hair with blood down to the grave.”
Shimei Is Killed
3 Kingdoms 2, verse 50. Then the king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and do not leave for any reason. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 51. For on the day you go out and cross the Brook Kidron, know for certain you shall surely die; and your blood shall be on your own head.” So the king forced him to take an oath that day. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 52. Then Shimei said to the king, “What you have said is good, O my lord and king. Thus your servant will do.” So Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem three years. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 53. Now at the end of three years, two of Shimei's slaves ran away to Achish the son of Maachah, king of Gath. They told Shimei, saying, “Behold, your slaves are in Gath.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 54. Shimei then arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Achish at Gath to seek his slaves. So Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 55. But Solomon was told Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and brought back his servants. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 56. Then the king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the Lord and warn you, saying, ‘Know for certain on the day you leave Jerusalem and go to the right or the left, you shall surely die’? 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 57. Why then did you not keep the oath of the Lord and the commandment I gave you?” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 58. The king also said to Shimei, “You know and your heart acknowledges all the wickedness you did to my father David, and now the Lord has returned your wickedness on your own head. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 59. But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever.” 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 60. So King Solomon commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down; and he died. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 61. Thus King Solomon was exceedingly prudent and wise, and Judah and all Israel were as many as the sand of the sea in number, eating and drinking and rejoicing.
The Reign of King Solomon
3 Kingdoms 2, verse 62. Now Solomon was ruler in all the kingdoms; and they brought him gifts, and served Solomon all the days of his life. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 63. Then Solomon went to open the domain of Lebanon, 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 64. and he built Thermae in the desert. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 65. Moreover, Solomon's daily provision was thirty measures of the finest wheat flour and sixty measures of ground meal, ten chosen calves and twenty pastured oxen and a hundred sheep, and, besides this, deer and gazelles and choice fed hens, 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 66. because there was a governor all along the opposite shore of the river from Raphia unto Gaza, in all the kingdoms on the opposite shore of the river. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 67. Thus he had peace from all his territories around him, and Judah and Israel dwelt confidently, each man under his own vine and his own fig tree, eating and drinking from Dan to Beersheba all the days of Solomon. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 68. Now Solomon's officials were Azariah, the son of Zadok, the priest, and Orniah, the son of Nathan, who was ruler of the standing guard, and Edram was over his house, and Zoba the scribe, and Baasha, the son of Achithalam, writing memoirs, and Abi, the son of Joab, the chief captain, and Achira, the son of Edrahi, over the labor force, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the temple-court and over the brickworks, and Zechariah, the son of Nathan, the counselor. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 69. Solomon had forty thousand breeding horses for chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 70. So there was a ruler in every kingdom from the river to the land of the foreigners and the boundaries of Egypt. 3 Kingdoms 2, verse 71. Thus Solomon the son of David ruled over Israel and Judah in Jerusalem.