Study Desk

Araunah said to David, "My lord the king may take whatever he wants and offer it. Here are the oxen for a burnt offering and the threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.

The king answered Araunah, "No, I insist on buying it from you for a price, for I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 20 ounces of silver.

So his servants said to him: "Let us search for a young virgin for my lord the king. She is to attend the king and be his caregiver. She is to lie by your side so that my lord the king will get warm."

They searched for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel; they found Abishag the Shunammite and brought her to the king.

For today he went down and lavishly sacrificed oxen, fattened cattle, and sheep. He invited all the sons of the king, the commanders of the army, and Abiathar the priest. And look! They're eating and drinking in his presence, and they're saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!'

King David responded by saying, "Call in Bathsheba for me." So she came into the king's presence and stood before him.

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

He was still speaking when Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest, suddenly arrived. Adonijah said, "Come in, for you are an excellent man, and you must be bringing good news."

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."

As the time approached for David to die, he instructed his son Solomon,

"As for me, I am going the way of all of the earth. Be strong and be courageous like a man,

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."

"You know the kingship was mine," he said. "All Israel expected me to be king, but then the kingship was turned over to my brother, for the Lord gave it to him.

"Very well," Bathsheba replied. "I will speak to the king for you."

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.

Then she said, "I have just one small request of you. Don't turn me down." "Go ahead and ask, mother," the king replied, "for I won't turn you down."

King Solomon answered his mother, "Why are you requesting Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Since he is my elder brother, you might as well ask the kingship for him, for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab son of Zeruiah."

So Benaiah went to the tabernacle and said to Joab, "This is what the king says: ‘Come out!'" But Joab said, "No, for I will die here." So Benaiah took a message back to the king, "This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me."

Their blood will come back on Joab's head and on the head of his descendants forever, but for David, his descendants, his dynasty, and his throne, there will be peace from the Lord forever."

Then the king summoned Shimei and said to him, "Build a house for yourself in Jerusalem and live there, but don't leave there and go anywhere else.