Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, August 23rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

1 Kings 2:25

This verse is not available in the BSB!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Abishag;   Adonijah;   Fratricide;   Government;   Homicide;   Intercession;   Punishment;   Shunammite;   Thompson Chain Reference - Family;   Fratricide;   Home;   Trouble;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Altars;   Kings;   Punishments;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Joab;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Abishag;   Adonijah;   Bathsheba;   Solomon;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Preaching;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Abishag;   Benaiah;   Cherethim;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Abishag;   Abner;   Benaiah;   King;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Abishag;   Adonijah;   Benaiah;   Court Systems;   Crimes and Punishments;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Abishag;   Adonijah;   Bathsheba;   Reuben;   Solomon;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Adonijah ;   Benaiah ;   Executioner;   Shimei ;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Adonijah;   Talent;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Adoni'jah;   Bath'-Sheba,;   Executioner;   Punishments;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Hebrew Monarchy, the;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Benaiah;   Heir;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Abishag;   Adonijah;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Bilhah;  

Contextual Overview

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, who 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."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

he fell: 1 Kings 2:31, 1 Kings 2:34, 1 Kings 2:46, Judges 8:20, Judges 8:21, 1 Samuel 15:33, 2 Samuel 1:15, 2 Samuel 4:12

Reciprocal: Judges 15:12 - fall 2 Samuel 19:11 - sent 2 Samuel 23:5 - Although 1 Kings 2:29 - Go 1 Chronicles 3:2 - Adonijah 1 Chronicles 29:24 - all the sons Proverbs 17:11 - General Ecclesiastes 8:4 - the word Hebrews 12:7 - for what

Cross-References

Genesis 2:10
Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four headwaters:
Genesis 2:11
The name of the first river is Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
Genesis 3:7
And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.
Exodus 32:25
Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them run wild and become a laughingstock to their enemies.
Psalms 25:3
Surely none who wait for You will be put to shame; but those who are faithless without cause will be disgraced.
Psalms 31:17
O LORD, let me not be ashamed, for I have called on You. Let the wicked be put to shame; let them lie silent in Sheol.
Isaiah 44:9
All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or know anything, so they are put to shame.
Isaiah 47:3
Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.
Isaiah 54:4
Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame; do not be humiliated, for you will not be disgraced. For you will forget the shame of your youth, and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
Jeremiah 6:15
Were they ashamed of the abomination they committed? No, they were not at all ashamed. They did not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse," says the LORD.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada,.... Orders to execute him, and proper persons to do it; perhaps some of the Cherethites and Pelethites under him, to assist at least in it:

and he fell upon him, that he died; Benaiah rushed in upon him with his men, and thrust his sword into him, and killed him; executions used to be done in those times and countries by great personages, as the instances of Gideon, Doeg, and others, show, and not by common executioners.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 2:25. Solomon sent - Benaiah - and he fell upon him that he died. — Benaiah seems to have been the public state executioner, and yet he was generalissimo of all the forces. See him employed in a similar work, 1 Kings 2:34; 1 Kings 2:46. I suppose him to have been such another general as Suwarrow, butcher-general of the Turks and Poles to the late Empress Catharine of Russia: like mistress, like man. But they have long since been called to an impartial tribunal.

That this was an act of cruelty towards Adonijah, needs no proof. He is suspected, condemned, and slain, without a hearing. Calmet vindicates all this by various assumptions, and lays down a doctrine that is calculated for the meridian of Fez or Morocco; hear him: Un prince, dans ses jugemens, ne peut pas toujours suivre les regles de la plus parfaite morale; la politique, et le bien de l'etat, obligent souvent a des choses opposees aux conseils de l'evangile; "A prince in his judgments cannot always follow the rules of the most perfect morality; policy and the good of the state often require things to be done which are contrary to the counsels of the Gospel." What a diabolic maxim is this! And is this indeed the way that French kings ruled and ministers decreed judgment? Then we need not wonder at a revolution in that state, nor of the scourge that desolated the land. O England! magnify God for your constitution, your constitutional king, and the laws according to which he reigns.


 
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