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Aravnah looked out and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. Aravnah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground.

Then Aravnah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" David said, "To buy your threshing-floor, in order to build an altar to Adonai , so that the plague will be lifted from the people."

His servants said to him, "Let us try to find a young virgin for my lord the king. She can wait on the king and be a companion for him, and she can lie next to you, so that my lord the king will get some heat."

(His father had never in his life confronted him by asking, "Why are you behaving this way?" Moreover, he was a very handsome man; he was born next after Avshalom.)

One day Adoniyah killed sheep, oxen and fattened calves at the Stone of Zochelet, by ‘Ein-Rogel. He summoned all his brothers the king's sons, and all the men of Y'hudah the king's servants;

but he did not summon Natan the prophet, B'nayah, the elite guard or Shlomo his brother.

Bat-Sheva went in to the king in his room. (The king was very old; Avishag the Shunamit was in attendance on the king.)

If you don't, then, when my lord the king sleeps with his ancestors, I and my son Shlomo will be considered criminals."

They told the king, "Natan the prophet is here." After coming into the king's presence, he prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground.

For he has gone down today and killed oxen, fattened calves and sheep in great numbers; and he has summoned all the king's sons, the commanders of the army and Evyatar the cohen; right now they are eating and drinking in his presence and proclaiming, ‘Long live King Adoniyah!'

Just as Adonai has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Shlomo and make his throne even greater than the throne of my lord King David!"

Adoniyah and all his guests heard it while they were finishing their meal; but it was Yo'av who, when he heard the blast on the shofar, asked, "That noise — what's the meaning of this uproar in the city?"

More than that, the king's servants came and blessed our lord King David with these words: ‘May God make the name of Shlomo better than your name and his throne greater than your throne,' after which the king bowed down on the bed.

At this all Adoniyah's guests grew frightened; they got up, everyone going his own way.

Shlomo was told, "Here, Adoniyah is terrified of King Shlomo; he has grabbed hold of the horns of the altar and is saying, ‘First let King Shlomo swear to me that he will not have his servant executed.'"

Shlomo said, "If he will demonstrate that he is a worthy man, not a hair of his will fall to the earth. But if he is found making trouble, he will die."

The time came near for David to die; so he commissioned Shlomo his son as follows:

Observe the charge of Adonai your God to go in his ways and keep his regulations, mitzvot, rulings and instructions in accordance with what is written in the Torah of Moshe; so that you will succeed in all you do and wherever you go.

"Moreover, you are aware of what Yo'av the son of Tz'ruyah did to me, that is, what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Isra'el, Avner the son of Ner and ‘Amasa the son of Yeter — he killed them, shedding the blood of war in peacetime, putting the blood of war on the belt around his waist and the shoes on his feet.

Therefore, act according to your wisdom; don't let his gray head go down to the grave in peace.