HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 672
1 KIN G S 3
21 “Then let your brother Adonijah marry Abishag, the girl from Shunem,” she replied.
22 “How can you possibly ask me to give Abishag to Adonijah?” King Solomon demanded.
“You might as well ask me to give him the kingdom! You know that he is my older brother, and
that he has Abiathar the priest and Joab son of
Zeruiah on his side.”
23 Then King Solomon made a vow before the
Lord: “May God strike me and even kill me if
Adonijah has not sealed his fate with this request. 24 The Lord has confirmed me and placed
me on the throne of my father, David; he has
established my dynasty as he promised. So as
surely as the Lord lives, Adonijah will die this
very day!” 25 So King Solomon ordered Benaiah
son of Jehoiada to execute him, and Adonijah
was put to death.
26 Then the king said to Abiathar the priest,
“Go back to your home in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not kill you now, because
you carried the Ark of the Sovereign Lord for
David my father and you shared all his hardships.” 27 So Solomon deposed Abiathar from
his position as priest of the Lord, thereby fulfilling the prophecy the Lord had given at Shiloh
concerning the descendants of Eli.
28 Joab had not joined Absalom’s earlier rebellion, but he had joined Adonijah’s rebellion. So
when Joab heard about Adonijah’s death, he
ran to the sacred tent of the Lord and grabbed
on to the horns of the altar. 29 When this was reported to King Solomon, he sent Benaiah son of
Jehoiada to execute him.
30 Benaiah went to the sacred tent of the
Lord and said to Joab, “The king orders you to
come out!”
But Joab answered, “No, I will die here.”
So Benaiah returned to the king and told him
what Joab had said.
31 “Do as he said,” the king replied. “Kill him
there beside the altar and bury him. This will remove the guilt of Joab’s senseless murders from
me and from my father’s family. 32 The Lord
will repay him* for the murders of two men
who were more righteous and better than he.
For my father knew nothing about the deaths of
Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and of Amasa son of Jether, commander of
the army of Judah. 33 May their blood be on Joab
and his descendants forever, and may the Lord
grant peace forever to David, his descendants,
his dynasty, and his throne.”
34 So Benaiah son of Jehoiada returned to the
sacred tent and killed Joab, and he was buried
at his home in the wilderness. 35 Then the king
appointed Benaiah to command the army in
place of Joab, and he installed Zadok the priest
to take the place of Abiathar.
36 The king then sent for Shimei and told him,
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“Build a house here in Jerusalem and live there.
But don’t step outside the city to go anywhere
else. 37 On the day you so much as cross the Kidron Valley, you will surely die; and your blood
will be on your own head.”
38 Shimei replied, “Your sentence is fair; I will
do whatever my lord the king commands.” So
Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.
39 But three years later two of Shimei’s slaves
ran away to King Achish son of Maacah of Gath.
When Shimei learned where they were, 40 he
saddled his donkey and went to Gath to search
for them. When he found them, he brought
them back to Jerusalem.
41 Solomon heard that Shimei had left Jerusalem and had gone to Gath and returned. 42 So the
king sent for Shimei and demanded, “Didn’t I
make you swear by the Lord and warn you not
to go anywhere else or you would surely die?
And you replied, ‘The sentence is fair; I will do
as you say.’ 43 Then why haven’t you kept your
oath to the Lord and obeyed my command?”
44 The king also said to Shimei, “You certainly
remember all the wicked things you did to my
father, David. May the Lord now bring that evil
on your own head. 45 But may I, King Solomon,
receive the Lord’s blessings, and may one of
David’s descendants always sit on this throne in
the presence of the Lord.” 46 Then, at the king’s
command, Benaiah son of Jehoiada took Shimei
outside and killed him.
So the kingdom was now firmly in Solomon’s
grip.
Solomon Asks for Wisdom
Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh,
the king of Egypt, and married one of his
daughters. He brought her to live in the City of
David until he could finish building his palace
and the Temple of the Lord and the wall around
the city. 2 At that time the people of Israel sacrificed their offerings at local places of worship,
for a temple honoring the name of the Lord had
not yet been built.
3 Solomon loved the Lord and followed all
the decrees of his father, David, except that
Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense at the local places of worship. 4 The most
important of these places of worship was at Gibeon, so the king went there and sacrificed 1,000
burnt offerings. 5 That night the Lord appeared
to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do
you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”
6 Solomon replied, “You showed great and
faithful love to your servant my father, David,
because he was honest and true and faithful to
you. And you have continued to show this great
and faithful love to him today by giving him a
son to sit on his throne.
7 “Now, O Lord my God, you have made me
3
2:32 Hebrew will return his blood on his own head.