Study Desk

King David then said, “Call in the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada for me.” So they came into the king’s presence.

“Amen,” Benaiah son of Jehoiada replied to the king. “May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, so affirm it.

Just as the Lord was with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”

Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, so he got up and went to take hold of the horns of the altar.

So King Solomon sent for him, and they took him down from the altar. He came and paid homage to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, “Go to your home.”

and keep your obligation to the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to keep his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees. This is written in the law of Moses, so that you will have success in everything you do and wherever you turn,

and so that the Lord will fulfill his promise that he made to me: ‘If your sons guard their way to walk faithfully before me with all their heart and all their soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

So don’t let him go unpunished, for you are a wise man. You know how to deal with him to bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.”

So now I have just one request of you; don’t turn me down.”

So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah. The king stood up to greet her, bowed to her, sat down on his throne, and had a throne placed for the king’s mother. So she sat down at his right hand.

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

Then King Solomon took an oath by the Lord: “May God punish me and do so severely if Adonijah has not made this request at the cost of his life.

So Solomon banished Abiathar from being the Lord’s priest, and it fulfilled the Lord’s prophecy he had spoken at Shiloh against Eli’s family.

So Benaiah went to the tabernacle and said to Joab, “This is what the king says: ‘Come out!’”

So Shimei saddled his donkey and set out to Achish at Gath to search for his slaves. He went and brought them back from Gath.

So the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Didn’t I make you swear by the Lord and warn you, saying, ‘On the day you leave and go anywhere else, know for sure that you will certainly die’? And you said to me, ‘The sentence is fair; I will obey.’

So why have you not kept the Lord’s oath and the command that I gave you?”

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

So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life or riches for yourself, or the death of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice,