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So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king stood to meet her, bowed to her, and sat on his throne; then he ^(C1)had a throne set up for the king's mother, and ^(C2)she sat on his right.

Then she said, "I am making one small request of you; ^(C1)do not ^(F1)refuse me." And the king said to her, "Ask, my mother, for I will not ^(F2)refuse you."

So she said, "^(C1)Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as a wife."

But King Solomon answered and said to his mother, "And why are you requesting Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ^(C1)Request for him the kingdom as well—^(C2)since he is my older brother—for him, for ^(C3)Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah!"

Then King Solomon swore by the LORD, saying, "May God do so to me and more so, if Adonijah has ^(C1)not spoken this word against his own ^(F1)life!

"Now then, as the LORD lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of David my father, and ^(C1)has made me a house just as He ^(F1)promised, Adonijah certainly shall be put to death today!"

Then King Solomon ^(C1)sent the order by Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he ^(F1)struck him so that he died.

Then to Abiathar the priest the king said, "^(C1)Go to Anathoth to your own field, ^(C2)for you ^(F1)deserve to die; but I will not put you to death at this ^(F2)time, because ^(C3)you carried the ark of the Lord ^(F3)GOD before my father David, and because ^(C4)you were afflicted in everything with which my father was afflicted."

So Solomon dismissed Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, to fulfill ^(C1)the word of the LORD, which He had spoken regarding the house of Eli in Shiloh.

Now the news came to Joab ^(C1)because Joab had followed Adonijah, ^(C2)though he had not followed Absalom. So Joab fled to the tent of the LORD and ^(C3)took hold of the horns of the altar.

And it was reported to King Solomon that Joab had fled to the tent of the LORD, and ^(F1)was beside the altar. Then Solomon ^(C1)sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, "^(C2)Go, ^(F2)execute him."

So Benaiah came to the tent of the LORD and said to him, "This is what the king has said: 'Come out.'" But he said, "No, for I will die here." So Benaiah brought back word to the king, saying, "This is what Joab spoke, and so he answered me."

And the king said to him, "^(C1)Do just as he has spoken, and ^(F1)execute him and bury him, ^(C2)so that you may remove from me and from my father's house the blood which Joab shed without ^(F2)justification.

"^(C1)The LORD will return his blood on his own head, ^(C2)because he ^(F1)struck two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, while my father David did not know about it: ^(C3)Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and ^(C4)Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.

"^(C1)So their blood shall return on the head of Joab and on the head of his ^(F1)descendants forever; but for David and his ^(F1)descendants, and his house and his throne, may there be peace from the LORD forever."

Then ^(C1)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and ^(F1)struck him and put him to death, and he was buried at his own house ^(C2)in the wilderness.

And ^(C1)the king appointed Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the army in his place, and the king appointed ^(C2)Zadok the priest ^(C3)in place of Abiathar.

Now the king sent men and summoned ^(C1)Shimei, and said to him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, and do not leave there for any other place.

"For on the day you leave and ^(C1)cross the ^(F1)brook Kidron, you will know for certain that you will assuredly die; ^(C2)your blood will be ^(F2)on your own head."

Shimei then said to the king, "The word is good. Just as my lord the king has spoken, so your servant shall do." So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for many days.

But it came about at the end of three years, that two of Shimei's servants ran away ^(C1)to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. And others told Shimei, saying, "Behold, your servants are in Gath."

Then Shimei got up and saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish, to search for his servants. And Shimei went and brought his servants from Gath.

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

So the king sent men and summoned Shimei, and said to him, "Did I not make you swear by the LORD, and solemnly warn you, saying, 'Know for certain that on the day you depart and go anywhere, you shall assuredly die'? And you said to me, 'The word I have heard is good.'

"Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD, and the command which I ^(F1)imposed on you?"

The king also said to Shimei, "^(C1)You yourself know all the evil that ^(F1)you acknowledge in your heart, which you did to my father David; therefore ^(C2)the LORD will return your evil on your own head.

"But King Solomon will be blessed, and ^(C1)the throne of David will be established before the LORD forever."

^(C1)So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and ^(F1)struck him so that he died. ^(C2)And the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon.

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Now ^(C1)Solomon ^(F1)formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter ^(C2)and brought her to the city of David ^(C3)until he had finished building his own house and the house of the LORD, and ^(C4)the wall around Jerusalem.

^(C1)The people were still sacrificing on the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the LORD until those days.

Now ^(C1)Solomon loved the LORD, ^(C2)walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he was sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

And ^(C1)the king went to ^(C2)Gibeon to sacrifice there, ^(C3)because that was the great high place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

^(C1)In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon ^(C2)in a dream at night; and God said, "^(C3)Ask what you wish Me to give you."

Then Solomon said, "^(C1)You have shown great faithfulness to Your servant David my father, ^(C2)according as he walked before You in ^(F1)truth, righteousness, and uprightness of heart toward You; and ^(C3)You have ^(F2)reserved for him this great faithfulness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

"And now, LORD my God, ^(C1)You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet ^(C2)I am like a little boy; ^(C3)I do not know how to ^(F1)go out or come in.

"And ^(C1)Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, ^(C2)a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted.

"So ^(C1)give Your servant ^(F1)an understanding heart to judge Your people, ^(C2)to discern between good and evil. For who is capable of judging this ^(F2)great people of Yours?"

Now ^(F1)it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

And God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing, and have ^(C1)not asked for yourself ^(F1)a long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice,

behold, ^(C1)I have done according to your words. Behold, ^(C2)I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you.

"^(C1)I have also given you what you have not asked, both ^(C2)riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.

"And ^(C1)if you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will ^(C2)prolong your days."

Then ^(C1)Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and ^(C2)held a feast for all his servants.

Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

The one woman said, "Pardon me, my lord: ^(F1)this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child ^(F2)while she was in the house.

"And it happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.

"Then this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him.

"So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast.

"When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead! But when I examined him closely in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne!"

Then the other woman said, "No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son." But ^(F1)the first woman said, "No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son." So they spoke before the king.

Then the king said, "^(F1)The one says, 'This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one'; and ^(F1)the other says, 'No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.'"

And the king said, "Get me a sword." So they brought a sword before the king.

And the king said, "Cut the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other."

But the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for ^(F1)(C1)she was deeply stirred over her son, and she said, "Pardon me, my lord! Give her the living child, and by no means kill him!" But the other woman was saying, "He shall be neither mine nor yours; cut him!"

Then the king replied, "Give ^(F1)the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother."

When all Israel heard about the judgment which the king had ^(F1)handed down, they feared the king, because ^(C1)they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to ^(F2)administer justice.

Now King Solomon was king over all Israel.

These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was ^(C1)the priest;

Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were scribes; ^(C1)Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the secretary;

and ^(C1)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and ^(C2)Abiathar were priests;

and Azariah the son of Nathan was over ^(C1)the deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king's confidant;

and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the forced labor.

Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household; each deputy had to provide food for a month in the year.

And these were their names: Ben-hur, in the ^(C1)hill country of Ephraim;

Ben-deker in Makaz and ^(C1)Shaalbim, and ^(C2)Beth-shemesh, and Elonbeth-hanan;

Ben-hesed in Arubboth (^(C1)Socoh was his and all the land of ^(C2)Hepher);

Ben-abinadab in all ^(F1)the ^(C1)hills of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife);

Baana the son of Ahilud in ^(C1)Taanach and Megiddo, and all ^(C2)Beth-shean which is beside ^(C3)Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to ^(C4)Abel-meholah as far as the other side of ^(C5)Jokmeam;

Ben-geber in ^(C1)Ramoth-gilead (^(C2)the villages of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead were his: ^(C3)the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars were his);

Ahinadab the son of Iddo in ^(C1)Mahanaim;

^(C1)Ahimaaz in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon);

Baana the son of ^(C1)Hushai in Asher and ^(F1)Bealoth;

Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah in Issachar;

^(C1)Shimei the son of Ela in Benjamin;

Geber the son of Uri in the land of Gilead, ^(C1)the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only deputy who was in the land.