Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 193
1K
| 2:23-38
SAMUEL–KINGS
181
know that he is my older brother, and that he has Abiathar the priest and
Joab son of Zerui ah on his side.”
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. 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!” So King Solomon ordered Benaiah
son of Jehoiada to execute him, and Adonijah was put to death.
Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your home in An
athoth. 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.” 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.
Joab had not joined Absalom’s earlier rebellion, but he had joined Ado
nijah’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. When
this was reported to King Solomon, he sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada to
execute him.
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.
“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. 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. 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.”
So Benaiah son of Jehoiada returned to the sacred tent and killed Joab,
and he was buried at his home in the wilderness. 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.
The king then sent for Shimei and told him, “Build a house here in Je
rusalem and live there. But don’t step outside the city to go anywhere else.
On the day you so much as cross the Kidron Valley, you will surely die; and
your blood will be on your own head.”
Shimei replied, “Your sentence is fair; I will do whatever my lord the
king commands.” So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.