1 Kings 1-3

1 Kings 1

¹Now King David was old and well along in years, and though they covered him with blankets, he could not keep warm.

²So his servants said to him, “Let us search for a young virgin for our lord the king, to attend to him and care for him and lie by his side to keep him warm.”

³Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl, and they found Abishag the Shunammite and brought her to the king.

⁴The girl was unsurpassed in beauty; she cared for the king and served him, but he had no relations with her.

⁵At that time Adonijah, David’s son by Haggith, began to exalt himself, saying, “I will be king!” And he acquired chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run ahead of him.

⁶(His father had never once reprimanded him by saying, “Why do you act this way?” Adonijah was also very handsome, born next after Absalom.)

⁷So Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, who supported him.

⁸But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David’s mighty men would not join Adonijah.

⁹And Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fattened calves near the stone of Zoheleth, which is next to En-rogel. He invited all his royal brothers and all the men of Judah who were servants of the king.

¹⁰But he did not invite Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, the mighty men, or his brother Solomon.

¹¹Then Nathan said to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, “Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become king, and our lord David does not know it?

¹²Now please, come and let me advise you. Save your own life and the life of your son Solomon.

¹³Go at once to King David and say, ‘My lord the king, did you not swear to your maidservant, “Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne”? Why then has Adonijah become king?’

¹⁴Then, while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.”

¹⁵So Bathsheba went to see the king in his bedroom. Since the king was very old, Abishag the Shunammite was serving him.

¹⁶And Bathsheba bowed down in homage to the king, who asked, “What is your desire?”

¹⁷“My lord,” she replied, “you yourself swore to your maidservant by the LORD your God: ‘Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne.’

¹⁸But now, behold, Adonijah has become king, and you, my lord the king, do not know it.

¹⁹And he has sacrificed an abundance of oxen, fattened calves, and sheep, and has invited all the other sons of the king, as well as Abiathar the priest and Joab the commander of the army. But he has not invited your servant Solomon.

²⁰And as for you, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are upon you to tell them who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.

²¹Otherwise, when my lord the king rests with his fathers, I and my son Solomon will be counted as criminals.”

²²And just then, while Bathsheba was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet arrived.

²³So the king was told, “Nathan the prophet is here.” And Nathan went in and bowed facedown before the king.

²⁴“My lord the king,” said Nathan, “did you say, ‘Adonijah will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne’?

²⁵For today he has gone down and sacrificed an abundance of oxen, fattened calves, and sheep, and has invited all the sons of the king, the commanders of the army, and Abiathar the priest. And behold, they are eating and drinking before him, saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’

²⁶But me your servant he has not invited, nor Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah son of Jehoiada, nor your servant Solomon.

²⁷Has my lord the king let this happen without informing your servant who should sit on the throne after my lord the king?”

²⁸Then King David said, “Call in Bathsheba for me.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before him.

²⁹And the king swore an oath, saying, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,

³⁰I will carry out this very day exactly what I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel: Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place.”

³¹Bathsheba bowed facedown in homage to the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”

³²Then King David said, “Call in for me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” So they came before the king.

³³“Take my servants with you,” said the king. “Set my son Solomon on my own mule and take him down to Gihon.

³⁴There Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet are to anoint him king over Israel. You are to blow the ram’s horn and declare, ‘Long live King Solomon!’

³⁵Then you shall go up with him, and he is to come and sit on my throne and reign in my place. For I have appointed him ruler over Israel and Judah.”

³⁶“Amen,” replied Benaiah son of Jehoiada. “May the LORD, the God of my lord the king, so declare it.

³⁷Just as the LORD was with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon and make his throne even greater than that of my lord King David.”

³⁸Then Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, along with the Cherethites and Pelethites, went down and set Solomon on King David’s mule, and they escorted him to Gihon.

³⁹Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the ram’s horn, and all the people proclaimed, “Long live King Solomon!”

⁴⁰All the people followed him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the earth was split by the sound.

⁴¹Now Adonijah and all his guests were finishing their feast when they heard the sound of the ram’s horn. “Why is the city in such a loud uproar?” asked Joab.

⁴²As he was speaking, suddenly Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest arrived. “Come in,” said Adonijah, “for you are a man of valor. You must be bringing good news.”

⁴³“Not at all,” Jonathan replied. “Our lord King David has made Solomon king.

⁴⁴And with Solomon, the king has sent Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, along with the Cherethites and Pelethites, and they have set him on the king’s mule.

⁴⁵Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gihon, and they have gone up from there with rejoicing that rings out in the city. That is the noise you hear.

⁴⁶Moreover, Solomon has taken his seat on the royal throne.

⁴⁷The king’s servants have also gone to congratulate our lord King David, saying, ‘May your God make the name of Solomon more famous than your own name, and may He make his throne greater than your throne.’ And the king has bowed in worship on his bed,

⁴⁸saying, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel! Today He has provided one to sit on my throne, and my eyes have seen it.’”

⁴⁹At this, all the guests of Adonijah arose in terror and scattered.

⁵⁰But Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, got up and went to take hold of the horns of the altar.

⁵¹It was reported to Solomon: “Behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon, and he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon first swear to me not to put his servant to the sword.’”

⁵²And Solomon replied, “If he is a man of character, not a single hair of his will fall to the ground. But if evil is found in him, he will die.”

⁵³So King Solomon summoned Adonijah down from the altar, and he came and bowed down before King Solomon, who said to him, “Go to your home.”

1 Kings 2

¹As the time drew near for David to die, he charged his son Solomon,

²“I am about to go the way of all the earth. So be strong and prove yourself a man.

³And keep the charge of the LORD your God to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes, commandments, ordinances, and decrees, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you turn,

⁴and so that the LORD may fulfill His promise to me: ‘If your descendants take heed to walk faithfully before Me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

⁵Moreover, you know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, the two commanders of the armies of Israel. He killed them in peacetime to avenge the blood of war. He stained with the blood of war the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet.

⁶So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.

⁷But show loving devotion to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, because they stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom.

⁸Keep an eye on Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim who is with you. He called down bitter curses against me on the day I went to Mahanaim, but when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD: ‘I will never put you to the sword.’

⁹Now therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man. You know what you ought to do to him to bring his gray head down to Sheol in blood.”

¹⁰Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.

¹¹The length of David’s reign over Israel was forty years—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

¹²So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was firmly established.

¹³Now Adonijah son of Haggith went to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, and she asked, “Do you come in peace?” “Yes, in peace,” he replied.

¹⁴Then he said, “I have something to tell you.” “Say it,” she answered.

¹⁵“You know that the kingship was mine,” he said. “All Israel expected that I should reign, but the kingship has turned to my brother, for it has come to him from the LORD.

¹⁶So now I have just one request of you; do not deny me.” “State your request,” she told him.

¹⁷Adonijah replied, “Please speak to King Solomon, since he will not turn you down. Let him give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.”

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

¹⁹So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king stood up to greet her, bowed to her, and sat down on his throne. Then the king had a throne brought for his mother, who sat down at his right hand.

²⁰“I have just one small request of you,” she said. “Do not deny me.” “Make your request, my mother,” the king replied, “for I will not deny you.”

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

²²King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Since he is my older brother, you might as well request the kingdom for him and for Abiathar the priest and for Joab son of Zeruiah!”

²³Then King Solomon swore by the LORD: “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if Adonijah has not made this request at the expense of his life.

²⁴And now, as surely as the LORD lives—the One who established me, who set me on the throne of my father David, and who founded for me a dynasty as He promised—surely Adonijah shall be put to death today!”

²⁵So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he struck down Adonijah and he died.

²⁶Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your fields in Anathoth. Even though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death at this time, since you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before my father David, and you suffered through all that my father suffered.”

²⁷So Solomon banished Abiathar from the priesthood of the LORD and thus fulfilled the word that the LORD had spoken at Shiloh against the house of Eli.

²⁸When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah but not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar.

²⁹It was reported to King Solomon: “Joab has fled to the tent of the LORD and is now beside the altar.” So Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, strike him down!”

³⁰And Benaiah entered the tent of the LORD and said to Joab, “The king says, ‘Come out!’” But Joab replied, “No, I will die here.” So Benaiah relayed the message to the king, saying, “This is how Joab answered me.”

³¹And the king replied, “Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so remove from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood that Joab shed.

³²The LORD will bring his bloodshed back upon his own head, for without the knowledge of my father David he struck down two men more righteous and better than he when he put to the sword Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.

³³Their blood will come back upon the heads of Joab and his descendants forever; but for David, his descendants, his house, and his throne, there shall be peace from the LORD forever.”

³⁴So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up, struck down Joab, and killed him. He was buried at his own home in the wilderness.

³⁵And the king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada in Joab’s place over the army, and he appointed Zadok the priest in Abiathar’s place.

³⁶Then the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Build a house for yourself in Jerusalem and live there, but do not go anywhere else.

³⁷On the day you go out and cross the Kidron Valley, know for sure that you will die; your blood will be on your own head.”

³⁸“The sentence is fair,” Shimei replied. “Your servant will do as my lord the king has spoken.” And Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.

³⁹After three years, however, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. And Shimei was told, “Look, your slaves are in Gath.”

⁴⁰So Shimei saddled his donkey and set out to Achish at Gath in search of his slaves, and he brought them back from Gath.

⁴¹When Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned,

⁴²the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the LORD and warn you, ‘On the day you leave and go elsewhere, know for sure that you will die’? And you told me, ‘The sentence is fair; I will comply.’

⁴³So why have you not kept your oath to the LORD and the command that I gave you?”

⁴⁴The king also said, “You know in your heart all the evil that you did to my father David. Therefore the LORD will bring your evil back upon your head.

⁴⁵But King Solomon will be blessed and David’s throne will remain secure before the LORD forever.”

⁴⁶Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down, and he died. Thus the kingdom was firmly established in the hand of Solomon.

1 Kings 3

¹Later, Solomon formed an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying his daughter. Solomon brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his palace and the house of the LORD, as well as the wall around Jerusalem.

²The people, however, were still sacrificing on the high places because a house for the Name of the LORD had not yet been built.

³And Solomon loved the LORD and walked in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

⁴Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for it was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar there.

⁵One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”

⁶Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

⁷And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in my father David’s place. But I am only a little child, not knowing how to go out or come in.

⁸Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number.

⁹Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

¹⁰Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had made this request.

¹¹So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this instead of requesting long life or wealth for yourself or death for your enemies—but you have asked for discernment to administer justice—

¹²behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been another like you, nor will there ever be.

¹³Moreover, I will give you what you did not request—both riches and honor—so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal.

¹⁴So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, I will prolong your days.”

¹⁵Then Solomon awoke, and indeed it had been a dream. So he returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants.

¹⁶At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

¹⁷One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house.

¹⁸On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also had a baby. We were alone, with no one in the house but the two of us.

¹⁹During the night this woman’s son died because she rolled over on him.

²⁰So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him in her bosom and put her dead son at my bosom.

²¹The next morning, when I got up to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. But when I examined him, I realized that he was not the son I had borne.”

²²“No,” said the other woman, “the living one is my son and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman insisted, “No, the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.” So they argued before the king.

²³Then the king replied, “This woman says, ‘My son is alive and yours is dead,’ but that woman says, ‘No, your son is dead and mine is alive.’”

²⁴The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought him a sword,

²⁵and the king declared, “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

²⁶Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”

²⁷Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. By no means should you kill him; she is his mother.”

²⁸When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.