1 Reis 2

¹ And the days drew near for David to die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying:

² I am going the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and be a man.

³ And keep the charge of Jehovah your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn;

⁴ that Jehovah may establish His word which He has spoken concerning me, saying, If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, He said, there shall not fail to be a man on the throne of Israel.

⁵ Moreover you know also 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. And he shed the blood of war in peacetime, and put the blood of war on the belt around his waist, and on the sandals on his feet.

⁶ Therefore do according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace.

⁷ But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those eating at your table, for they came to me when I fled before Absalom your brother.

⁸ And behold, with you is Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who cursed me with grievous cursing in the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by Jehovah, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword.

⁹ Now therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man and know what you ought to do to him; but bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood.

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

¹¹ The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; seven years he reigned in Hebron, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years.

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

¹³ And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, Do you come in peace? And he said, In peace.

¹⁴ Moreover he said, I have something to say to you. And she said, Speak.

¹⁵ And he said, You know that the kingdom was mine, and all Israel had set their faces toward me, to reign. However, the kingdom has been turned around, and has become my brother’s; for it was his from Jehovah.

¹⁶ Now I ask one petition of you; do not turn away my face. And she said to him, Speak.

¹⁷ And he said, Please speak to King Solomon, for he will not turn away your face; that he would give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.

¹⁸ And Bathsheba said, Very well, I will speak for you unto the king.

¹⁹ Bathsheba therefore came to King Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her and bowed down to her, and sat down on his throne and had a throne set for the king’s mother; and she sat at his right hand.

²⁰ And she said, I am asking one small petition of you; do not turn away my face. And the king said to her, Ask it, my mother, for I will not turn away your face.

²¹ So she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.

²² And King Solomon answered and said to his mother, Now why are you asking for Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is my older brother; for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.

²³ And King Solomon swore by Jehovah, saying, May God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own soul!

²⁴ Now therefore, as Jehovah lives, who has confirmed me and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has established a house for me, as He has promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day!

²⁵ So King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him and he died.

²⁶ And to Abiathar the priest the king said, Go to Anathoth, to your own fields, for you are a man deserving of death; but I will not put you to death this day, because you have carried the ark of the Lord Jehovah before my father David, and because you were afflicted in every thing in which my father was afflicted.

²⁷ Thus Solomon removed Abiathar from being priest unto Jehovah, to fulfill the word of Jehovah which He had spoken concerning the house of Eli at Shiloh.

²⁸ And the news came to Joab, for Joab had turned aside after Adonijah, though he had not turned aside after Absalom. So Joab fled to the tent of Jehovah, and took hold of the horns of the altar.

²⁹ And it was reported to King Solomon, Joab has fled to the tent of Jehovah, and behold, he is by the altar. So Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him.

³⁰ So Benaiah went to the tent of Jehovah, and said to him, Thus says the king, Come out! And he said, No, but I will die here. And Benaiah brought back word to the king, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.

³¹ And the king said to him, Do as he has said, and fall upon him and bury him, that you may turn aside from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood which Joab has shed.

³² Thus Jehovah shall return his blood upon his own head, who has fallen upon two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, without the knowledge of my father David: Abner the son of Ner, the commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, the commander of the army of Judah.

³³ Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab and upon the head of his seed forever. But upon David and his seed, upon his house and his throne, there shall be peace forever from Jehovah.

³⁴ So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and fell upon him and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

³⁵ And the king appointed Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army, and the king appointed Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.

³⁶ And the king sent and summoned Shimei, and said to him, Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and do not go out from there anywhere.

³⁷ For it shall be, on the day that you go out and have crossed over the Brook Kidron, consider to understand that you shall be executed to death; your blood shall be on your own head.

³⁸ And Shimei said to the king, The word is good. As my lord the king has spoken, thus your servant will do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.

³⁹ And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two slaves of Shimei fled to Achish the son of Maachah, king of Gath. And they reported to Shimei, saying, Behold, your slaves are at Gath!

⁴⁰ So Shimei rose up, saddled his donkey, and went to Achish at Gath to seek his slaves. And Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath.

⁴¹ And it was reported to Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had returned.

⁴² So the king sent and summoned Shimei, and said to him, Did I not make you swear by Jehovah, and warn you, saying, Consider to understand that on the day you go out and have gone anywhere, you shall be executed to death? And you said to me, The word I have heard is good.

⁴³ Why then have you not kept the oath of Jehovah and the commandment that I have charged you with?

⁴⁴ The king said moreover to Shimei, You know, as your heart acknowledges, all the evil that you did to my father David; therefore Jehovah shall return your evil upon your own head.

⁴⁵ But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before Jehovah forever.

⁴⁶ So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out and fell upon him, and he died. Thus the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.